Jeff Stoughton

Jeffrey R. "Jeff" Stoughton (born July 26, 1963) is a Canadian retired curler.

He is a three-time Brier champion and two-time World champion as skip.

Stoughton's first national championship came in 1988 when he won the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship.

He won the mixed once again in 1991.

1991 was the same year Stoughton attended his first Brier.

His team of Dave Iverson, Ken Tresoor and Garry VanDenBerghe finished 6-5.

Five years later, at the 1996 Labatt Brier, Stoughton and his team of Tresoor, VanDenBerghe, and Steve Gould went all the way, losing only two games en route to the championship, defeating Kevin Martin of Alberta in the final.

At the subsequent World Championship, Stoughton went on to lose just one game, winning the Championship against Warwick Smith of Scotland.

At the 1997 Olympic Curling Trials, Jeff and his play played well, but narrowly missed the playoffs at 5-4.

Stoughton would return to the 1999 Labatt Brier with 2 new players, Jon Mead and Doug Armstrong replacing Tresoor and Gould.

The team went 10-3 winning in the final against Guy Hemmings of Quebec.

However, at the 1999 Worlds, Stoughton's team would not be as successful as they were in 1996.

The team went 9-2, but one of their losses was in the final against Hammy McMillan of Scotland.

Stoughton and his Manitoba four-some returned to the 2000 Labatt Brier.

The team, who had an excellent round robin, would bow out in the first game of the playoffs, and finish with a 9-4 record.

At the 2001 Olympic Curling Trials, the team would for the second straight time miss the playoffs by just 1 game, going 5-4.

At the 2005 Olympic Curling Trials, Stoughton would come the closest he ever would to reaching the Olympics.

He finished the round robin in 2nd place behind the Brad Gushue rink (skipped for this event by Russ Howard throwing second stones), and defeated then John Morris in the semifinal.

In the final, Gushue made a steal of two in the 4th end which put Stoughton in a 6-2 hole, which proved to be costly.

Following this loss, Stoughton's third, Jon Mead took a four year break from curling (after the upcoming 2006 Brier).

After a long break between Briers, in large part due to the conflict between the new Grand Slam of Curling and the Canadian Curling Association, which made Grand Slam participants ineligible for the Brier playdowns for several years, Stoughton reached the 2006 Tim Hortons Brier with Mead, Van Den Berghe, and Gould by winning the 2006 Manitoba championship, beating Reid Carruthers in the final.

At the Brier however, the team finished in sixth place with a record of 6-5, missing the playoffs.

This would be the final competitive event for longtime Stoughton second Van Den Berghe who retired.

Stoughton would win the 2007 Manitoba Championship with a new lineup of Ryan Fry, Rob Fowler, and Gould, defeating Peter Nicholls in the final.

The team would go on to win a bronze medal at the 2007 Brier.

He fared better than the previous year, but fell in the semifinal to eventual world champion Glenn Howard of Ontario, eliminating Kevin Martin in the 3-4 game; Howard held a four-point lead after nine ends, and Stoughton was ready to concede the game; however, CBC, who was broadcasting the game, requested that the tenth end be played for airtime reasons; the two teams ended up throwing all the stones through the house in the tenth end.

Following the 2007-08 season, Ryan Fry left Team Stoughton to join Brad Gushue's rink.

Fry was replaced with Kevin Park for the 2008-09 season.

The move proved to be fairly successful, as Stoughton led his new team to the final of the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier in which they lost to Kevin Martin.

Stoughton's rink qualified for the 2009 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials.

The team finished third, after losing to Glenn Howard's rink in the semi-final.

Stoughton was unable to score the needed second point in the 10th end to tie the match, leading him to lose by a final score of 8-7.

In February 2010 Jeff Stoughton won his 8th Manitoba provincial championship, a record for that province.

At the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier, Stoughton finished out of the playoffs despite a 7-4 record.

In April 2010 Rob Fowler and Kevin Park quit the team and both decided to skip their own teams for 2010-2011.

Jeff brought back his past longtime third Jon Mead, while also acquiring Reid Carruthers to play at second.

With a new team of Jon Mead and Reid Carruthers, Stoughton won the 2011 Safeway Championship in Manitoba to qualify for the 2011 Tim Hortons Brier.

Stoughton retired from competitive curling in 2015.

He is one of the most successful Manitoba skips in curling history, and one of the most successful players in Canadian curling history.

He is currently the National Men's Coach and Program Manager for Curling Canada, as well as being the head coach of the Canadian Mixed Doubles National Team.