DC Spotlight PROFILE DC ON ICE Saskatchewan chiropractor and surprise Brier winner explains how he balances two exciting careers Y BY STEFAN DUBOWSKI ou may know Pat Sim-mons as the top-flight curler who helped Team Canada win the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier, the annual Canadian men’s champi-onship. But he’s not only an elite athlete. He’s also a successful chiropractor. Simmons is partner in Crescent Park Chiropractic Centre in Moose Jaw, Sask. He provides chiropractic care part time in nearby Gravelbourg, too. Simmons’ profile as a curler reached a new level this year when his team made a bold decision at a strange time: right in the middle of the Brier, they suddenly promoted Simmons from third to the skip position. “We had just been beaten by Sas-katchewan and it wasn’t looking good,” he recalls of the high-stress situation. Team Canada had to do something fast or they’d be eliminated. The decision was controversial. “No one in their right mind would change their positions, especially at the back end, during the biggest event of the year,” Simmons says. Nonetheless, it was the right move. With Simmons throwing rocks and providing direc-tion, the team won the tournament. “We’ll probably never see something like that again. But we recognized it had to be done.” How did Pat Simmons come to this point as skip of two successful – yet clearly distinct –careers? His work on the ice and in the clinic both relate to his personal history. He had parents who loved curling; and he was in a ve-hicle accident that sparked his interest in the profession. Simmons grew up on a farm outside of Moose Jaw. His parents, both curlers, introduced him to the game when he was just nine years old. Later on, when Simmons was in high school, they be-came more involved in the sport. “For a farmer, winter is obviously a slow time,” Simmons says. “So for a number of winters, my parents moved into town and managed the Hillcrest Curling Club.” The winters his parents managed the club gave Simmons plenty of practice. During summers, he helped out on the farm. That’s when he had the accident: driving a four-wheeled motorcycle up a steep hill, he flipped the vehicle over and sprained his lower back. Chiropractic care helped him re-cover. Once he did, he continued to hone his curling game. And soon, he was competing at a high level. Through-out the 1990s, he played in a number of provincial championships for junior teams, winning a few. Meanwhile, the teenage Simmons started to think that a career as a chi-ropractor might be right for him. “I was always interested in science and later, health. I knew I wouldn’t be a medical doctor, not liking needles and blood. That narrowed it down. And I had good experiences with BORN TO CURL chiropractors when I was young. It was a combination of things that led me in that direction.” After graduating high school, Sim-mons studied for three years at the University of Regina – a pre-chiroprac-tic program. He also continued to curl, boosting his game. In 1994 and 1995, his rink, Team Cursons, won the pro-vincial juniors, garnering spots in the Canadian Junior Men’s Curling Cham-pionship in those years. Also in ’95, Simmons was accepted into Canadian Memorial Chiropractic Col-lege (CMCC). That’s when chiroprac-tic study took precedence. He still curled, but only one night a week – no big competitions. “For the first couple of years of col-lege, there was no way I could have done more. The academic schedule was too heavy.” He came to realize early in his pro-gram that the best way for him to gain experience was to run a clinic he owned. Ownership would also enable him to practice in hometown Moose Jaw, where he wanted to settle down. “By my second or third year of col-lege, I was already having talks with the clinic that I partner in now.” Simmons graduated from CMCC in 1999 and immediately got to work at the Crescent Park clinic alongside partner Jeff Reihl. “My partner went on a week’s holiday the first day I started, so it was right into the fire,” Simmons notes. But if that difficult week scarred him, he doesn’t www.canadianchiropractor.ca BROOM DOWN STEFAN DUBOWSKI is a freelance writer based in Ottawa. You can reach him at [email protected]. 20 Canadian Chiropractor July/August 2015
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