Edward Werenich is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 curler

Curling

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

. Nicknamed "The Wrench," Werenich has been known to be a colourful and outspoken character. Outside of curling, Werenich worked as a firefighter

Firefighter

Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...

.

Werenich was born and raised in the town of Benito, Manitoba

Benito, Manitoba

Benito is a village in the Canadian province of Manitoba surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Swan River. The village is situated in the Swan River Valley, 37 kilometres southwest of Swan River, 475 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg 2 kilometres east of the Saskatchewan border...

 but moved to Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 after finishing high school. He began curling at age ten.

In 1972, Werenich joined Paul Savage

Paul Savage (curler)

A. Paul Savage is a Canadian curler, world champion and Olympic medalist. He received a silver medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. He played on the Canadian winning team at the 1983 World championships. He lives in Markham, Ontario.-References:...

's team as his second. The following year they would play in their first Brier

Tim Hortons Brier

The Tim Hortons Brier, or simply the Brier, is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by the Canadian Curling Association . The current event name refers to its main sponsor, the Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut shop chain.The Brier has been held since 1927, traditionally during...

. They would return again in 1974 and then in 1977 with Werenich as Savage's third. Without a championship, Werenich skipped his own team to the Brier in 1981, but still could not win.

In 1983 Savage joined Werenich as his third and they would go on to win the Brier title that year over Ed Lukowich

Ed Lukowich

Edward "Ed" Lukowich is a former champion curler. Lukowich is a two-time Brier champion. In 1986 his team won the World Curling Championship....

 of Alberta. At the World Curling Championships

World Curling Championships

The World Curling Championships are annual curling events which showcase the world's best curlers, organized by the World Curling Federation. There are men's, women's and mixed championships. The men's championship started in 1959, while the women's in 1979...

 of that year, Werenich defeated Keith Wendorf's team from Germany in the final. Werenich returned to the Brier in 1984 and again in 1988 before winning for the last time in 1990 this time without Savage- defeating Jim Sullivan

Jim Sullivan (curler)

James David "Jim" Sullivan was a Canadian curler from Saint John, New Brunswick. He was a renowned curler, being Skip of the Jim Sullivan Rink which captured the 1987 New Brunswick and Canadian Junior Men’s Curling Championships, and the 1988 World Junior Men’s Curling Championships...

's New Brunswick team.

During the 1987 Canadian Winter Olympic Trials, Werenich was "humiliated" by the Canadian Curling Association

Canadian Curling Association

The Canadian Curling Association is a Canadian organization responsible for encouraging and facilitating growth and development of the sport of curling. The CCA is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country.-History:The CCA was created in...

 threatening to disqualify him if he didn't "shed a few pounds." http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/sports/article.jsp?content=20040209_74937_74937

At the World Championships, Werenich defeated Scotland- skipped by David Smith

David Smith (curler)

David Smith is a Scottish curler.In his very first international competition, the 1982 European Curling Championships, Smith won a gold medal playing second for Mike Hay. Hay and Smith were still juniors at the time and they won three straight bronze medals at the World Junior Curling Championships...

. Werenich returned to the Brier in 1995 and then in 1997 before announcing his first retirement from curling in 2000.

Sources

• Curleast biography
• Historica biography
• "Rockin' With the Wrench", Jonathon Gatehouse, Macleans.ca, February 9, 2004. URL last accessed March 6, 2010.