gsoc01

By Ben Hoppe, U.S. curling writer

If the camaraderie between U.S. teams was not already evident through the first five months of the season, it became clear on Friday of the Crown Royal Players' Championship.

Chris Plys, Colin Hufman, and Matt Hamilton tore their sleeves off their uniforms before their draw against fellow countryman Danny Casper. Casper’s lead, Aidan Oldenburg, joined the look by rolling his sleeves to create his own sleeveless look.

The moment was reminiscent of the final draw of the United States Pan Continental Championships playdown event in early August, when Shuster, Casper, and Korey Dropkin's (now Andrew Stopera's team) faced off in a three-team event. With the event already in hand for Shuster, Casper and Dropkin’s final game had no implications. Mark Fenner had been wearing a headband throughout the event, and Team Casper busted out headbands of their own to the final draw against Dropkin. Even alternate Rich Ruohonen could be seen sitting behind the sheet, donning a headband, all in the name of good fun.

Even in the most serious of events, such as the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, good-natured ribbing was on display, this time with Casper and Plys chirping back and forth throughout the best-of-three finals. The two teams unknowingly booked neighbouring rental houses and ended up playing some pranks on each other and hanging out together after the rubber match of the best-of-three final. It’s one thing for teams to be chummy at a club cashspiel in October, but to see these types of relationships between teams competing for the top spot in their country is not entirely normal.

The friendships between the USA’s High Performance Program curlers make for fun moments, but the curlers seem to view themselves as one big team as well, pushing each other to be better and improve. John Shuster noted this growth has stemmed from conversations dating back numerous years with USA Curling’s sports psychologist, Carly Anderson. In their talks, they likened the competition between teams to that of a football team, where position groups work together for team success but also compete against each other for individual success.

“The guys that are your biggest advocates, pointing things out to you, are your biggest competition,” Shuster recalled in an interview last December. “You can compete and you can help yourself get better by bettering those around you that you’re competing against.”

Madison Bear, a fellow High Performance Program member and skip of Team Strouse, echoed that sentiment with one of her favourite quotes, “We all do better when we all do better.”

Even after an emotionally draining battle at November’s Olympic Trials, Team Shuster took time in their post-game interview to encourage everyone to throw their support behind the victors as Team USA and have been vocal in offering their support to the Olympic representatives wherever it is needed. On social media, competitors across both events, like Bear, made it clear their support for their fellow national competitors was at the forefront.

Bear and the members of Team Strouse stayed up late watching Team Casper’s win over China’s Xu Xiaoming at the Olympic Qualifying Event in December, despite having an early morning draw the next day. Not only are they supporting their fellow members of the High Performance Program as friends and fellow competitors, they know the success of Team USA on the world’s biggest stage can help them down the road, too.

“We hope that means we get more support, more fans, more funding, resources,” Bear reflected. “By them doing better, we hope that it affects all of us and USA Curling as a whole.”

Even among the three Olympic teams representing the United States, the unity and teamwork has already been evident. All three teams had a training camp together ahead of the Olympic Qualifying Event. The U.S. program showcased themselves as one team in Kelowna as well. Hufman made the trek to Kelowna, B.C., for the opening weekend to support the teams, particularly his good friend Ruohonen. Throughout the event, Casper and Tabitha Peterson leaned on each other by sharing rock and ice information in Kelowna, and the camera was regularly panned to the shouting support of Team Casper during the women’s qualifier game versus Norway.

If the United States finds success in Cortina, it will not be just a victory by the teams themselves, but the culture that has been developed in the USA High Performance Program will also play a key role. While the culture will face challenges through roster fluctuations, particularly after this season, bright things could be on the horizon for USA Curling if the teamwork and positive vibes continue.

SHUSTER'S SEMIFINAL STREAK ENDS

While so much focus was put on the lack of sleeves from Team Shuster throughout their run to the playoffs, the team’s memorable Crown Royal Players’ Championship came to an end in a quarterfinal matchup against red-hot Ross Whyte.

Shuster needed a two-win day on Friday to even have a chance to make the playoffs in what was the final Slam event of Plys and Hufman's careers.

They had a strong showing against Casper in the sleeveless debut game, and then treated fans to an incredible finish against Niklas Edin on Friday night. With some of the cast who will be portraying 2018 Team Shuster watching from the Jackpotcity Lounge, Edin made a spinner-tap in the seventh end in what might be the shot of the year.

But Shuster came right back in the eighth end with the ultimate team shot, drawing for two to win the game and advance to a tiebreaker against Bruce Mouat.

Team Shuster had a back-and-forth game against Mouat in the Saturday morning draw, ultimately coming out on top of the world No. 1 team in a wildly unpredictable game, but they ran into a freight train in the quarterfinals. The Whyte rink rarely missed throughout and ended Team Shuster’s impressive streak of finishing in the semifinals or better of every event.

Casper’s Slam season came to a conclusion with a significant number of Olympic previews. They managed to notch a win against Edin, but struggled early in the event with losses to the Chinese and Swiss Olympic teams as well as a shootout loss to Mouat.

PETERSON CAPITALIZES ON EARLY COMEBACK WINS

Peterson and her team were down late in each of their first two games but mounted come-from-behind victories to steal wins against Xenia Schwaller and Isabella Wranå. They followed those games with one of their most complete performances of the season against Anna Hasselborg, but came up a point shy of a semifinal berth after losses in their final two games.

Team Peterson got down in an early deficit against South Korea’s Eun-ji Gim, but brought themselves back into the game late. This time, their late-game heroics came just short, with Gim converting an angle-run with the hammer in the eighth end to eliminate Peterson.

The Crown Royal Players' Championship was Peterson’s only Tier 1 Grand Slam event of the entire season. Overall, it was an encouraging final event before the Winter Olympics for the USA women’s team. Following the victory over Team Hasselborg, Peterson shared her appreciation for how the one-blank rule gave them some helpful situations to prepare for Cortina.

“We have a lot of rocks in play, and I think that helps us to make some more of the finesse shots and practising all that,” Peterson told Rock Channel commentator Chelsea Carey.

This was the final event for Peterson ahead of the Winter Games, which means all focus turns to Cortina. Later this month, Team Peterson and Team Casper will be heading to Switzerland ahead of the Olympics for a pre-event training camp to make their final preparations.