Jules Owchar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Curler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Lac La Biche, Alberta |
October 12, 1944 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brier appearances | 5 (1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World Championship appearances |
1 (1991) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Jules Owchar (born October 12, 1944 in Lac La Biche, Alberta) is a Canadian curler, curling coach, and golf coach from Edmonton, Alberta. Owchar is best known as the longtime coach of Kevin Martin, a former Olympic champion, world champion, and Canadian champion. Owchar is also the curling coach of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology curling teams.
Owchar was officially listed as the alternate for the Kevin Martin team, which he coached, at the 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, and 1997 Briers. As the alternate, he won various medals with the team, including two Brier titles and a silver medal at the 1991 World Men's Curling Championship.
Owchar is a Level 3 certified curling coach by the National Coaching Certification Program.
Owchar began his career at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) as a physical education instructor in 1969. Throughout his career, he has coached NAIT curling teams to 33 college championships. Along with the golf championships he has also coached his students to, he has over 40 provincial and national championships as a coach. Most recently, he coached the NAIT men's curling team to their first national college championship.
Owchar began coaching Kevin Martin when he enrolled at NAIT in 1984. Martin had enrolled at NAIT specifically to curl under Owchar. In their first few years together, Owchar coached Martin to a Canadian junior title and a silver medal at the World Junior Curling Championships. As they continued, Martin and Owchar made their first Brier appearance in 1991 representing Alberta, and won their first Brier title. Martin then lost the championship game in the world championship later that year. In the next six years, Martin and Owchar returned to the Brier four times, and finished within the top three all four times. However, Martin came up short at the world level, losing the semifinal at the world championship in 1997 and the gold medal game at the 2002 Winter Olympics, which had come down to a draw for the win. Martin also missed another opportunity to represent Canada at the Olympics in 2005.