A team from the Wauwatosa Curling Club has won a spot in the men’s USA Curling Club National Championships for the first time.
Sliding, sweeping and throwing stones with pinpoint accuracy, Team Carlson, representing the club, earned the title of Team Wisconsin and will take part in the championships at the Fargo Moorhead Curling Club in Fargo, North Dakota, from April 2-6.
The team won the Wisconsin regional tournament, known as a playdown, in December at the Kettle Moraine Curling Club in Hartland and with it the opportunity to compete on a national stage. Team Carlson just missed out on a trip to the national championships last year after finishing in the runner-up spot.
Members of the squad include skip, or team captain, Ryan Carlson, who in his role determines strategy, and vice-skip Joe Matel. Other members who share various roles on the team are Oscar Koebel, Andy Mentel and Aaron Morrill. All of them curl multiple nights each week at the Wauwatosa Curling Club, whose facility in Hart Park is set to undergo a $2 million renovation beginning next month.
“It was always a goal of mine, to get some level of a national competition. This is certainly one that we’ve all been working for,” says Carlson.
Morrill is confident of the team’s chances in Fargo and said he and his teammates fully believe they can compete for the title in the 12-team battle. “Wisconsin usually represents pretty strong,” Morrill said. “We usually play some very tough competition at our playdowns. We are definitely going there to try and at least make the semifinals and see what happens.”
Carlson, Matel, Koebel and Mentel have been curling together for about five years, with Morrill a more recent addition to the team.
“It’s a whole team effort, even though there are only four out on the ice at a time,” says Carlson, who is an attorney with his own practice. “Everybody played in multiple games, and we worked hard practicing and playing lots of leagues while, of course, enjoying the company of each other and all our fellow members of the club.”
Team Carlson members curl at the club anywhere from two to four times per week.
“Before my wife and I had kids, I think I had a 28-day streak of curling and played 32 games over that stretch,” Carlson says.
Debuting in 2005, the U.S. Club National Championships are a regional-based, geographic championship aimed at determining the top men’s and women’s teams from within USA Curling’s regions and states. Each state or region sends one men’s and one women’s team to compete at the national level.
The Wauwatosa club had two teams in the final four in last year’s playdown. “This year, the final was between two Wauwatosa Curling Club teams. We were guaranteed to send a team, no matter what,” says Wauwatosa Curling Club board member Dave Traut.
Team Carlson captured the Wisconsin title with a victory over Team Freund, led by Neil Freund.
The Wauwatosa Curling Club started in 1921 in a shed that was part of Stickney Field Club on Stickney Avenue, just south of where Wauwatosa City Hall now stands. In 1925. the shed was moved to what is now Hart Park and play continued there until 1941. The Club, which now has about 300 members, then began operating at the Muellner Building in Hart Park, where it has remained.
Curlers compete in regular league matches as well as bonspiels, or tournaments. Many take part in the sport mainly for the social aspects. “There are a handful of us at the club who are trying to be more competitive, maybe not to that USA Curling elite level, but to see how we measure up against other curlers in Wisconsin and other states and aren’t just hanging around just to have drinks after every game.”
Team Carlson members spoke excitedly about how the strategy involved in curling drew them to the sport, likening it to chess on ice. Koebel got started in curling after watching the U.S. Olympic curling team perform in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
“My wife curled here in college when she was at Marquette,” he explained. “When I met here several years later, she got me into watching curling in the Olympics. The U.S. team didn’t do very well in Vancouver, and I said to her ‘I can do that.’”
After watching the U.S. curling team struggle again in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, he joined the Wauwatosa Curling Club.
“I had never done it, but I loved the strategy behind it. It wasn’t just calling the shot, you had to make the shot,” he said. “Once you get out there, you realize it’s not that easy. It takes time and practice and a lot of repetition to get the necessary muscle memory and every time you go out there it’s a little bit different. You’ve got to make adjustments.”
Team Carlson’s trip to the national championships has boosted the reputation of the Wauwatosa Curling Club, Traut said.
“It gives us a little bit more recognition. Many have no idea that we exist outside of those who follow the sport of curling,” Traut said. “I think it’ll be great for these guys as well. We are known for having that spirit of curling. That fun, outgoing camaraderie, while also being competitive. Now, these guys can go represent our club against clubs from across the country.”
Wisconsin is a hotbed for curling, with nearly 30 clubs, the most in the country, although Minnesota technically boasts the highest number of curlers. The Milwaukee Curling Club, located in Cedarburg, is the country’s oldest.
“We do see that ebb and flow [in interest] every four years, but we do some things at our club to try to keep that interest going all four years in an Olympic cycle,” said Traut, who first signed up for the sport after watching the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. He began competing on a regular basis two years later.
The club hosts “Try Curling” events, where participants can get a taste of the sport for a small fee, as it works to raise the profile of the sport and the club.
A major upgrade of the Wauwatosa Curling Club – to the tune of $2 million – will take place at the conclusion of this season, which typically runs until the end of March but will come to a halt a couple weeks early this year. This means that Team Carlson will shift their practices to the Kettle Moraine Curling Club prior to the Club National Championships.
The icehouse floor will be replaced, the roof repaired, and warming rooms upgraded. The building that houses the club, along with the Wauwatosa Senior Center, has stood since the 1940s.
“We’re on borrowed time with the existing floor,” Traut said. “In fact, the expected life of the floor and all the piping underneath has passed. To work with the city and do this here rather than find our own club is a better move financially and will allow us to keep curling and hopefully not miss any time.”
Team Carlson members have key roles in the club and the renovation project, including Koebel, who is overseeing the remodeling efforts on behalf of the club; Mentel, who servers on the club’s board of directors; and Matel, who is one of the facility’s main “ice guys.”
With the major renovations on the horizon, the club has agreed to a new 30-year lease with the city for the space.
“We’re invested, and the city is invested with us,” Koebel said. “They know we bring something to the community, and they are all for it. It’s a good relationship.”
In the meantime, Team Carlson members will keep honing their skills in preparation of the upcoming National Championships with the hope of making a name for themselves while drawing attention to their club and the sport.
“We’re just bunch of guys,” Koebel said “We all work, have families, curl a couple days a week and come from this club in Wauwatosa that not too many people really know about, but here we are.”
