U.S. curler enjoys hot sax

There are lots of great stories coming out of the U.S. Olympic Trials as they play out this week in Fargo, N.D. Here's one about Martin Sather who plays second for Heath McCormick, the 2012 U.S. champions and one of the favourites to win the trials. 

What you may not know, is that Sather is a top saxaphone player who plays with a band in a high-end bar in Manhattan. This story in USA Today profiles the second

Martin Sather finishes a solo on I've Got the World on a String and steps back from center stage. Between songs, band leader Brian Newman introduces him. "He's not only a great saxophone player, but he's an Olympic curler," Newman pauses, then adds, "No joke." The rest of the show, full of jazzy standards, goes on at the Rose Bar.With that introduction, is Sather's cover blown? His dual life -- curler by day, jazz musician by night– now revealed? "I don't think anyone paid attention so it was fine," Sather said after Tuesday night's show ended. "I don't think they processed that information at all."

Of course the bar where Sather plays isn't likely to attract many curlers -- it definitely isn't the Patch. But there are a few similarities between what he does with his Alto and his broom.

The two worlds rarely collide. Teammate Dean Gemmel describes Sather as "generally pretty quiet" and knows little about Sather's music career.As dissimilar as his two passions seem, Sather finds a common thread. Both require repetition, constant practice and focus."When you're making a shot it's kind of like playing a solo," he says. "You can't be thinking about anything. You have to trust your instinct and the process that you practice, so in that way it's really parallel." 

The story is definitely worth a read.

U.S. men start trials but not guaranteed a spot in the Games

Can you imagine the Olympics without the Red, White and Blue men in the field? 

Well, start thinking about it because, in case you weren't aware, the American men aren't among the nations who will head to Sochi to battle in the men's curling event. 

This article from NBC Sports explains the situation currently facing the American men, who start their Olympic Trials today in Fargo, N.D.

Ten nations make up the Olympic curling field. The host nation, Russia, is automatically in. The top seven nations combining results from the last two World Championships also qualified.
The U.S. was eighth in those standings and therefore placed in the Olympic Qualification Event with seven other nations. The top two from the Olympic Qualification Event will earn the final spots at the Sochi Olympics.
The U.S. is favored to take one of those two spots given it’s the highest-ranked nation in the Olympic Qualification Event field (eighth) and has qualified into every Olympic curling tournament since the sport returned to the Games in 1998.

I can hear the folks at the WCF offices already planning some sort of intervention to make sure the Americans get in, maybe fast-tracking U.S. citizenship for the loser of the Canadian Olympic Trials or something. An Olympics without the U.S. would be a huge blow for the grass roots exposure of the sport. 

Morris, Sonnenberg move on, Fenson still making pizzas

John Morris is back in the Olympic Trials and apparently he was stunned, stunned I tell you, to learn that his old skip is there too. Yes, the Morris team’s victory over Brad Jacobs in a game that will be remembered for some positively awful shotmaking, sent the Kelowna/Calgary team on to the trials in Winnipeg, where Morris will face off against Kevin Martin as he told the London Free Press.

“Is he in that bonspiel?” Morris joked. “I’m sure we’ll have a great match against Kev. We’ll both be gunning for each other and that was a tough break at the end of last year, but it had to happen. I’m sure we’re going to have a barnburner.” 

Also advancing to the big shootout was Renne Sonnenberg, who may be the only person to state that she’s excited about going to Winnipeg in December. But she did qualify that statement in this CP story.

"Being able to go to Winnipeg is great,but just to finally put together a great game and totally enjoy the moment and be relaxed in a really high-pressure situation is what I'm most proud oft oday," said Sonnenberg, who will be making her Trials debut after representing Alberta at two Scotties Tournaments of Hearts. "I love curling in Winnipeg (she won her only Grand Slam event there in 2011), and on arena ice, in front of a huge crowd against those phenomenal teams — it's what every curler dreams of."

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Meanwhile, in other curling news, Rob Schlender is back as a hired gun, according to this article in the Calgary Sun. He’s taken over skipping duties from Aaron Sluchinski in a retooling of that squad. You remember Sluchinski? He was the guy who upset Kevin Koe at the Alberta playdowns last year.

Only a couple months after the biggest win of his career — a shocking defeat of Kevin Koe at the Alberta championships — the Airdrie skip decided his team needed to shake things up if it was going to take the nextstep and consistently compete with the province’s top teams.Enter Robert Schlender, a 41-year-old skip with more than 20years of World Curling Tour experience to his name.“He’s had lots of success in the past with what I consider weak teams,” said the 26-year-old Sluchinski. “I thought if we added some strength in the front we’d be pretty deadly.”

The article lists Schlender’s biggest curling moments as wins in the 2006 Shoot-Out and the ’93 Drayton Valley Classic. Hmmmm. . .

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And the U.S. Pizza Making Olympic Curling Championships get under way this week with lots of eyes on the Delivery Man, Pete Fenson. The bronze medalist from 2006 Games poses as a mild-manner pizzeria owner when he’s not tossing rocks for the Red, White and Blue. There’s a nice story on this nice guy in the Minnesota StarTribune:

He looked as cool as he had the night before,when even a 500-degree pizza oven couldn’t make him sweat. Outside the rink,the Bemidji native is caretaker to a slice of hometown history, kneading dough and taking orders at 55-year-old Dave’s Pizza. This week, he will take a break to pursue another, when his team competes at the trials in Fargo, N.D., for a berth in the 2014 Olympics.

And Fenson is a local hero in his hometown. Just ask his employees.

“I like to tell people, ‘My boss is a bronze medal Olympian,’ ’’ said assistant manager Eric Sundem, who has worked atDave’s Pizza for 8½ years. “How many people can say that?’’ 

Exactly Eric. The story is a good read and a good look at how curling in the U.S. still struggles to get a toe-hold outside certain areas such as Bemidji.

The Pre-Roar Day 3 Clippings

First up, here’s the rundown from Canadian Press of what’s going on in Kitchener at the Ontario tankard pre-Roar, where John Morris and Kelly Scott have clinched spots in the Page Playoffs.

“Goal number one was to get through to that qualifying round,” added Scott about clinching a playoff spot. “You want to be in that A versusB game, but that sometimes doesn’t pan out. We couldn’t have scripted a better start to this whole event for ourselves.”

For those going through withdrawals, television coverage starts Saturday on TSN at 9 am ET.

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Eve Muirhead is a talented skip with lots of credentials and her eyes on the Winter Games in Sochi. 

But, as with every curler who has ever thrown a rock over the frozen pebble, she knows what curling can do to you and how you feel after a game. And she stated that in an interview with the London Evening Standard:

“. . . at the end, your brain feels frazzled.”

I have always thought the same thing but usually "the end" means closing time at the Patch.

 The interview isn’t long but it’s well done and includes references to Muirhead’s golfing and bagpiping talents, which, in my book, makes her just about the perfect woman.

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Speaking of women, there have been some reactions to the first Men of Curling calendar that’s been released this year. Christine Rivet of the K-W Record talked to a few of the gals competing at the pre-Roar and asked them what they thought. Some were OK, others were, meh!

"I'm not too surprised but I'm kind of amazed they all agreed to do it," Cheryl Bernard said.  

"I can't wait to see what the guys decided to do with their photos."  

Kelly Scott, whose team earned a trip to Saturday's marquee game, the pool A vs. pool B winner game, likes the idea. But for her, thec alendar falls into the category of Too Much Information.  

"We are married. We've got kids. We curl next to these guys all the time. Not interested," said the West Kelowna, B.C. skip.

 Of course next year, I understand there will be the Men of the Press Bench calendar, although I'm not sure how well that one would sell. 

You can order your calendar here.

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 And finally, Gord Holder of the Ottawa Citizen has a neatstory on a Scottish curler now wearing Sasky colours. Kelly Wood came to the women’s world championship in Swift Current in 2010 and met a guy and, well, the rest is history. In fact, she's now married to the mayor! 

She moved to Speedy Rapids and while she can’t play in anything that leads to a world championship, she can compete in the Mixed, which is why she’s got the Green and White on this week in Ottawa.

“For me, I’m excited to play now that I’m in Saskatchewan,” Wood says. “That’s whatI have done my whole life. I’m a full-time curler. My life has been curling.It’s nice, now that I have moved to Canada, there’s an opportunity for me to have a glimpse of that (kind of) competition, related to what I’m used to.“I guess it’s now green and white colours for me, rather than blue and white. It’s my new home now, so it’s exciting for me.”

The Pre-Roar, Day 2 Clippings

There’s not much in the way of national media at the pre-Roar this week in Kitchener, but as he did while covering the sport last year, Sean Fitz-Gerald is providing some entertaining writing about the sport.

Yesterday, he posted a good story on Jean-Michel Menard and the paltry number of Quebec curlers these days. Quebec, despite lots of people, has never exactly been a curling hotbed. 

“It’s not a very well known sport in the province,and it’s very difficult to get sponsors,” he said. “And since there’s not a whole lot of curlers, then there’s not a whole lot of big events. So if you want to play the big events, you’ve got to travel a lot.”And travelling costs money.“It’s a vicious circle,” he said.

Menard, of course, is the only Francophone skip to ever win the Brier, which, you would think, would allow him to dine out in his home province, maybe be the Guy Lafleur of curling. Maybe if he had a Canadiens’ logo on his sweater things would be better. But even the feeder system isn’t that good. Marco “The Hack” Ferraro spelled out the situation.

According to Marco Ferraro, general manager of CurlingQuebec, there are as many as 75,000 casual curlers in the province, but onlyabout 15,000 who could be classified as regulars. Quebec is the second-mostpopulous province in Canada, with more than eight million residents.“Per capita, with eight million people, we’re not there,obviously,” Ferraro said.

In this morning’s National Post, Fitz-Gerald has a look at Brad Gushue and has a good revelation from the gold medal skip on how he took a hit when his 2006 team broke up. Apparently those fans out in N+L don't like it when outsiders infiltrate the ranks, especially those pesky Prince Edward Islanders. 

"They wanted to scale back and I can understand that now," Gushue said. "I didn't understand it very well, when you're 25 and still want to be the best. There was some tension at that time and I made a decision with Jamie to get rid of him at that time, because I didn't feel the commitment was there. And s---hit the fan." 

One reason why is that plenty of names rotated through the open spots, but they have not ended up being curlers from Newfoundland. Third Brett Gallant (Charlottetown), second Adam Casey (Seven Mile Bay, P.E.I.) and lead Geoff Walker (Beaverlodge, Alta.) live on the island, but are from elsewhere.

"Most of the curling fans were curling fans from the Olympics and they knew we were a fully Newfoundland team, with the exception of Russ," Gushue said. "And then you bring in someone else and it's kind of like, 'You're taking our team away.'"  

In the K-W Record, Christine Rivet puts together a nice story on a local curling coach Gary Crossley and his work this week with Jake Higg’s squad. Actually, calling it work isn’t right, as the coach points out in what might be one of the all-time great quotes about our sport:

"This isn't work. This is curling,"said Crossley, 57, who had three decades of coaching experience in track and field before swapping grass for ice about five years ago.

And finally, while lots of attention is being focused on the Canadian trials, Team GB has already finalized its squads. Shocker – the rinks skipped by Eve Muirhead and David Murdoch have been named. Here are some details along with some crazy overhead shots that no doubt left the icemaker screaming at the warm bodies all over the ice.

The women’s curling team of Eve Muirhead, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton and Anna Sloan were the first athletes to be named on the British team for Sochi 2014 on August 28 2013.The confirmation of David Murdoch, Tom Brewster, Scott Andrews, Michael Goodfellow and Greg Drummond as the men’s team for the Olympics – the second wave of athletes selected – followed just over a month later.

The Pre-Roar, Day 1

So after one day of play, here’s what we learned about the Capital One Road to the Roar.

First off, the ice.

Specifically, Sheet E.

It’s where curling rocks go to die. Or curl. Or not curl.

And so far, it’s giving the players at the Roar of the Rings some headaches. Or possibly migranes.

The ice at the Aud in Kitchener has been, um, well, active let’s say with Sheet E being the most active. It clearly troubled the teams that played on it however they muddle through, one of whom was John Morris who gave an above-the-line comment to CP after defeating Rob Rumfeldt 10-2 in eight ends.

“It's well-known that Sheet E is tough,"said Morris. "It's definitely playing with some more curl in interestingspots compared to the other sheets."So we're glad we got a win on that sheet,and now we can focus on whatever sheet we're on next. We can't take anythinglightly; every game you get here is going to be against some tough opponents."

In this CP story from the Hamilton Spectator, Barb Spencer echoed Morris’s comments, talking about the swingy conditions. She defeated Amber Holland 8-5 in the opening draw.

"It's tough ice to draw on because it curls so much, soyou have to be pretty consistent," Spencer said. "Amber Holland's agreat shooter. Even being up 6-2, we knew that anything can happen on this ice,and Amber can make a lot of great shots, and she did in that game. Fortunatelywe were able to come out on top this time."

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Next we learned that there’s no TV coverage of the event until the weekend, something that, judging my email inbox, surprised a ton of people.  I’m not even sure if there’s live streaming but apparently not. Anybody?

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And finally we learned that the CCA has put together some great AMA content. That would be Ask Me Anything, a takeoff of the popular Reddit feature, where you can ask questions of the curling stars AND see Al Cameron’s back yard all in one (at least in some of the preview ones). If you want to take one in live, you can tune in tonight at 8 ET for Jeff Stoughton.  Go to curling.ca to watch. And ask. 

Roaring into Kitchener

Shaking of the cobwebs and getting out the Pledge to dust off this blog just in time for the first leg of the Olympic playdown process. Today, in Kitchener, the awkwardly named Road to the Roar begins with 24 teams vying for the final spots in the Capital One Roar of the Rings. 

Not sure who came up with the Road to the Roar tagline but it's only slightly better than the Pre-trials, which is what this event seems to be called by most folks I talk to. 

So the basics: 12 men's teams for two spots, 12 women's teams for two spots. The men’s field includes reigning Brier winners Brad Jacobs from the Soo, who admitted in his home town paper that the rink is coming in perhaps a big fatigued from all the bench presses from a busy schedule.

“We've played a lot of great teams. We've won a couple events this year, (but) we've slipped as of late. And honestly, I think we can chalk it up to fatigue lately,” Jacobs said earlier this week.Jacobs has been to five World Curling Tour events so far this season. He won the first two, finished third at the next one and was forced to settle for fifth place in the most recent events.He said the past two tournaments were a wake-up call.“We qualified for the playoffs in both of the tournaments and then lost. It was definitely a hard pill to swallow,” said the Sault skip.

I still find it a bit strange that the reigning Brier champs aren't already through to the final stage (as do the reigning Brier champs). 

There are six other teams from Ontario (including the North) in the men’s side. Also sliding into the Aud this week is a much happier John Morris and his new rink from Vernon/Kelowna/Calgary, B.C./Alta. I suspect there will be no shirt ripping this week.  

On the women’s side there is a whole bunch of Alberta teams set for a run at the two available spots. A half a dozen call Alberta home including the 2010 silver medalist Cheryl Bernard.

Laura Crocker, a transplanted Ontarian now calling Edmonton home, told Norm Cowley of the Edmonton Journal that it’s been a long wait to get to the big show.

“It feels like it’s taken forever to come, but at the same time, it’s like, ‘Wo, it’s happened so fast this year already,’ ” said Laura Crocker, 22, a two-time Canadian Interuniversity Sport champion who is the No. 2 seed at the pre-trials after ranking eighth in the Canadian Team Ranking System last season.“We’re definitely really excited to get there,” she said.“We feel really prepared, so you just want to get out and play. The longer you wait, I don’t know how to explain it, we just want to play.”

Crocker also got some ink in the Guelph Mercury, where she was lauded as a former Laurier Golden Hawk and then subjected to a bunch of bad cooking metaphors.

Crocker will have to prepare a top-two finish in Kitchener to even qualify for the Olympic trials in Winnipeg from Dec. 1-8. A half-baked effort won't cut it, she admits.

Play gets u