Check out Patrick McDonald’s new competitive wheelchair curling blog about his first week of US team trials. (Link in the upper right corner of the SFBACC home page.) His entry includes a link to www.wheelchaircurling.com which has links to video and news coverage of the event.
Congrats, Patrick, on your success so far and good luck in the next round!
The Schenectady curling club in NY (near Albany and about 2.5 hours from Hartford, CT) is hosting a 5 & Under bonspiel for both men and women January 9-11. Here’s the flyer 5-under-ny-2009 . 5 & Unders are bonspiel for curlers with 5 or fewer years of experience, so you can go, have a good time and not get crushed by Olympians. It’s a great place to go to skip for the first time, etc. TC, Margery and I went to one in Grand Forks that was terrific, so please feel free to ask us about the event. (Though ours was 1 day and this is 2-3 depending on how well you do.) Any questions, email vp@bayareacurling.com
This is a letter from Lyle to the members of the SFBACC about the upcoming Club Nationals playdown:
To all SFBACC Members,
This email is a reminder that the club wants to qualify a men’s and women’s team for the MOPAC Regional Play down for the US Club National Championships March 7 through 14th in Utica NY. The MOPAC play down will be held in Seattle, WA January 24 and 25th. The deadline for the two SFBACC teams to register teams is January 8, 2008. In order to have time for a club playoff should one be required to qualify our SFBACC teams we must set our on club deadline. It was decided at our recent club board meeting to set November 27, 2008 as our club deadline.
Therefore any teams that want to play in a club playoff to determine our SFBACC representative for the Club Men’s and Women’s MOPAC Championship please email Lyle Sieg at lyle@bayareacurling.com before November 27, 2008. If you want to express interest as a single player please state so in your email, we will take full teams or individuals and try to assist in putting teams together. If you are registering as a single please do so early by November 24, 2008 so we can start to form teams before November 27, 2008. We will determine how to conduct qualifying games in December, once we know how many teams we have entered. As of November, 17, 2008 we have one Men’s team expressing interest. Please note the cost for entry for the SFBACC team is $270, there is no team cost to enter the local club playoff however you may have to pay for some ice rental fees dependent on arranged playoff dates, times and locations. We will generally try to fit the playoff into our Tuesday night league sessions to minimize costs.
Lyle Sieg
SFBACC
Thank you, Loreen, for taking over SFBACC merchandise sales. You can now find prices and order information online. (Size availability must be confirmed through Loreen.)
The SFBACC is starting a new feature: Curling Stories. We want to show the personal (and fun!) side of curling, so we’re asking folks to blog about their curling experiences here and on the road. If you would like to send us an entry or a link to your own curling blog, please email vp@bayareacurling.com.
Here’s Patrick T’s story about his recent trip to the Granite Curling Club’s Autumn bonspiel in Seattle. (Thanks, Pat!):
So, Matthew and I joined two of our friends, Bryan and Harry, from Vancouver to play together in the Autumn-spiel this past weekend in Seattle. We actually met them from going to their bonspiel at the Vancouver Curling Club a couple years ago and we’ve kept in touch ever since. Anyway, this was going to be the first time we ever played together.
We lost our first game unfortunately, but I think we were really just getting used to the ice. For those that haven’t played on real curling ice its VERY different than our arena ice. Ice weirdness is minimized and rocks actually curl like they’re supposed to. Anyway, dropping the first game to go into the B event isn’t so bad because the competition us usually less fierce IMO.
In our second game we played a team of delightful women from Portland. Not only was it a really close game, but they were so fun to play against. Lots of good spirits all around, but we managed to squeeze out a win in the end.
Our third game was probably one of the strangest games I’ve ever played. Our second game was played at 10:15 AM Saturday morning and our third was at 10:30 that same night, meaning we had a LOT of time to kill between games. And several of those hours before the third game was spent in the bar (and I took a well-needed nap as witnessed in the pic below http://bayareacurling.com/sfbaccblog/?p=183). Well, our skip became very drunk by the time we took the ice, and took a couple of awkward yet graceful falls delivering his stones during the first two ends. Not to be outdone, the opposing team was taking shots of Fireball (ALL Cali bonspielers know what Fireball is) between ends and encouraged us to “hurry up and win!” so we could get back to the bar. It wasn’t quite that quick but we did end up winning somehow, and of course we all ended up back in the bar.
Our final game in the B-semi-finals was pretty much a blow-out in the wrong direction. We were outmatched by a really good local team and so our bonspiel came to an end. Anyway, it was a crazy and fun weekend, we met a lot of great people, and returned to SF completely exhausted. I really need to take the day off after a spiel to catch up on my sleep!
pat
Patrick McDonald, a WCC curler, will be competing in the US National Team trials starting this Friday. We’re in the process of setting up a blog for Patrick to write about his experiences in competitive wheelchair curling, so stay tuned for that. And of course - Good luck, Patrick!
Here’s a press release from the USCA about the event:
November 10, 2008 Wheelchair curling team tryouts begin Friday in New York (STEVENS POINT, Wis.) - Ten athletes are competing for spots on Team USA for the 2009 World Wheelchair Championship as well as to be nominated to the 2010 U.S. Paralympic Team. The five-person wheelchair curling team will be selected after individual competitions with the first of three events beginning Friday at the Utica Curling Club in Whitesboro, N.Y. Drills will be administered in order to evaluate game skills and strategy as well as game participation. The tryouts continue at the Fourth Annual Cathy Kerr Memorial Bonspiel on Nov. 29 in Ottawa and conclude at the Second Annual U.S. Open International Bonspiel, Dec. 5-7, in Utica. Wheelchair curling is in its infancy in the United States. Only 15 athletes competed for the right to represent the U.S. at the 2008 World Wheelchair Curling Championship. A curling team consists of five players, and must include both genders in the wheelchair discipline. Because of the small number of athletes at present, and to maximize the chance for success in Vancouver, the U.S. Curling Association will select its 2010 U.S. Paralympic Team nominees from individual wheelchair curlers. Here is a look at the field of competing athletes: * John Powell, 60, Balch Spring, Texas* James Pierce, 45, North Syracuse, N.Y. Pierce competed at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games as well as three world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze; 2007 and 2005)* Julia Dorsett, 40, West Chester, Penn.* Robert Prenoveau, 43, Chittenango, N.Y. Has been the alternate at two world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze, and 2005)* Jacqueline Kapinowski, 45, Point Pleasant, N.J. In her first year of curling, Kapinowski made Team USA and won bronze at the 2008 World Wheelchair Championship.* Tammy Delano, 35, Rome, N.Y.* Augusto Perez, 36, East Syracuse, N.Y. USA Curling’s 2008 Male Athlete of the Year, Perez competed at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games as well as the two world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze, and 2007)* Roy Heathcoat, 43, Franklin, Wis.* James Joseph, 46, New Hartford, N.Y. Joseph competed at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games as well as three world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze; 2007 and 2005)* Patrick McDonald, 42, Orangevale, Calif. USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust Technologies and Nike. (30) For more information: Terry Kolesar, USA Curling, terry.kolesar@usacurl.org , 715-344-1199, Ext. 202, or 608-338-9900 (cell).
From Jerome:
The Public Hearing regarding the purchase of the Vacaville Ice Sports by the City of Vacaville scheduled for Tuesday evening has been continued to a future date. No date has been set for the next hearing. I will be notified when the hearing is to be held and will let all of you curlers know about it. So, no need to show up on Tuesday.
There are still a few spaces left in the Seattle Granite Curling Club’s Holiday bonspiel, Dec 5-7. Sign up online: http://www.curlingseattle.org/index_files/Bonspiels.htm.
There are also many other bonspiels around the US: http://www.usacurl.org/usacurl//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=125&Itemid=46
Or, try one in Canada!
As always, feel free to talk to fellow club members and the board about bonspieling and assembling teams!
Teams Halpenny and Coleman made it to the C-bracket quarterfinals. Team Tabuchi made it to the B-bracket semi-finals. Below is a photo of Team Tabuchi’s game. More photos being posted at: http://picasaweb.google.com/sfbacc/SeattleAutumnSpiel08#
Patrick in the house and Matthew sweeping
So far all SF teams have gotten at least one win. Team Coleman is playing on Sunday in the C-bracket - and I don’t know the results of the Halpenny or Tabuchi games at this time. Some more pix:
The view from the bar/dining/lounge area on the second floor.
The crowd getting ready for the 10:15 am draw
Patrick and others catching a nap between games.
Someone writing "I love beer" on his sleeping friend's face