Team USA Curling 2010

Olympic Wrap Up

2010-03-10T09:08:00.002-06:00

It is hard to believe that the Olympics are over! Most of us family and friends headed home a week ago Sunday, 2/28. Our men’s curling team came home on 3/1 so that they could participate in the Closing Ceremonies. After a year of preparation and planning, the two weeks of the Olympics flew by.

While the competitive results were not what we had hoped for, we are proud of our guys and how they represented the U.S. Not many athletes have the opportunity to represent their country in the Olympic Games. We are grateful and proud that our family members had such an opportunity.

As you can imagine, there has been a roller coaster of emotions throughout the two weeks at the Games and even upon our return home. The high of being at the Olympics, the low of watching our guys lose in such close games, the joy of seeing them win, the excitement to share with family and friends…it was all there. Upon returning home, we are grateful for the support of the curling community and fans, and encouraged by the growth in popularity of the game we love.

We have all been enriched by this experience. We’ve gained new friends, grown to appreciate even more our families and friends, and have a deeper understanding of what the Olympics are all about. Meeting athletes and families from different sports and countries was an unexpected gift. To share in their Olympic experience was incredible!

Thank you to the city of Vancouver, the Olympic Committee, the thousands of volunteers, and the people on the trains, buses, and street corners who were so hospitable and welcoming. We were overwhelmed by your kindness and support of the Games, the athletes, and families.

A special thank you to Proctor and Gamble for sponsoring the Family Home and the Thanks Mom Program. None of us could have anticipated what a special gift the P & G Home was and what an important part it would play in our time in Vancouver. It was truly amazing. Please support P & G product lines as they supported our U.S. Olympic athletes. Next time you shop, look for these brands: Tide, Safeguard, Pampers, Ariel, Always, Tampax, Whisper, Pantene, Mach3, Bounty, Dawn, Gain, Pringles, Charmin, Downy, Cascade, lams, Crest, Oral-B, Actonel, Duracell, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Wella, Gillette, Braun, and Fusion or the P & G distribution label.

And finally, thank you all for your support this year and throughout our time at the Olympics, it truly was the experience of a lifetime! Glad you came along with us!

Carrie Benton

Tourists for the Day - Submitted by Carrie

2010-02-25T00:56:00.001-06:00

Many of the families and friends spent today touring the city of Vancouver and Whistler. It was nice to have an entire day to explore at our leisure.

Those who spent the day in Vancouver shopped, had lunch, and shopped some more. Those who visited Whistler took the long bus ride up the mountain and enjoyed great scenery. Whistler is quite expensive, so not as much shopping there as in the city!

At the end of the day, several members of our curling “family” ended up at the USA House which is a venue exclusively for Olympians past and present. Each Olympian is allowed 4 guest passes per day. Again, similar to the P & G house, the hospitality there was incredible with full bar and food service all day. Among the sponsors of the USA House are AT&T, Hilton, Coca Cola, Nike, and McDonalds. The entire team ended up meeting at the USA House after the busy day and were able to meet several Olympians.

Some members of the Curling Team were able to attend the USA vs. Switzerland hockey game. Very fun time! Other members chose to take in the curling tiebreaker game between Great Britain and Sweden in which Sweden defeated the defending World Champions to knock them out of the medal round.

Another busy day in Vancouver…just taking it all in!

Go USA!

The Day After - Submitted by Carrie

2010-02-23T20:53:00.002-06:00

Our Olympic Curling competition ended yesterday with two more losses. The guys are down, but grateful for this incredible experience. With the competition over for them, we will now be able to spend some time with them. Time with family and friends has been very limited for the athletes. We’ve seen the guys twice in over a week.

Each of the families has been spending time exploring the city. Of course we’ve all visited the Olympic Torch. The other places we’ve visited include Stanley Park, Granville Island, and the Vancouver Aquarium. Of course we’ve shopped for official Olympic souvenirs at any given opportunity as well with the USA Store and Hudson Bay Company store receiving nice chunks of our tourist cash!

While we are no longer in competition, it is fun to watch all of the different athletes competing in various sports. We’ve met so many people from all over the world. Today at lunch we met the parents of two of the Swedish women curlers. We also ran into a contingent of athletes from Poland at the Aquarium. The Vancouver Aquarium, by the way, is a fabulous place to visit!

Of course we’ve met many notable U.S. athletes as well. It is neat to share in the excitement of their families as they prepare for their events. It really brings the personal side of competition to life when you meet the wives, husbands, sons, daughters, and parents of these athletes. Everyone is so filled with pride for the accomplishment of a family member being on the U.S. Olympic Team. No matter the results of the competition, all of these athletes are winners!

Go USA!

A Busy Sunday - Submitted by Carrie

2010-02-22T01:30:00.002-06:00

While we had just one curling game today, our day was full of surprises and fun times. We had a tight game against Great Britain this afternoon. Our lineup was changed a bit again today as we had John Benton resting and Chris Plys taking the Lead position. We’re excited that things have worked out so that Chris has been able to play in a few games. What a great team effort. Unfortunately for our guys, the game didn’t turn out as we had hoped. We needed a steal in the tenth end to tie, but the skip from Great Britain made a perfect draw to win the game.

We have all been enjoying the Olympic experience. One activity that is quite popular is pin trading. There are many people who have pins to trade or give away. VISA for example has pins at every store. If you make a purchase using your VISA card, you receive a pin. There are official Vancouver pins representing every sport that are sold at each venue, or on the giant pin wall at the Hudson Bay Company store. Many sports also have their own pins. We have our Team USA 2010 Curling pins that people have been after. They will trade almost any of their pins to get one. We have a hot commodity! We’re almost out of pins as we also hand them out to the young U.S. fans that attend the curling games.

We’ve been fortunate to be able to spend quite a bit of time in the Proctor and Gamble Family Home. We’ve met current and former Olympians who have been gracious about having photos taken and signing autographs. Tonight the P & G Home was energized by the U.S.A. Hockey win over Canada. Several of the players came in after the game to visit with family and were greeted by applause from all of us in the house. Very cool! Again, support Proctor and Gamble products; what they are doing for our Olympic athletes and families is truly special.

Go USA!

Two In A Row - Submitted by Carrie

2010-02-21T00:36:00.003-06:00

Another big win for Team USA today! We played well today with another different line up configuration. Everyone is contributing in a true team effort and we’re so proud of all of them!

All of the next group of family and friends have arrived. We had a great time at the curling game this morning. The newcomers in the group enjoyed the atmosphere of the curling venue. From the opening video that displays scenes from the Olympics, to the supportive chants of U.S. fans all over the venue, to the bagpipes piping the teams out to their respective sheets of ice, the experience brings home the fact that we are at the Olympics! Curling in a packed venue of 6,000 screaming fans is not something we experience in the U.S.

The city is really buzzing now as people stream in for weekend events. While every place we go is congested and lines are long, it is fun to meet people from all over the world. The city has done a fantastic job of hosting the Olympics by utilizing volunteers from all over the world including the U.S. There are over 3000 police personnel from all over Canada keeping us safe.

Vernon Davis, San Francisco 49ers All Pro tight end arrived on Friday! He met with the men’s and women’s teams having been previously named the U.S. Curling Team Honorary Captain. Both the men’s and women’s teams have won two games in a row since his arrival. Mr. Davis was very personable and tolerant of all the fans who wanted his autograph and picture. What a great guy!

Big game tomorrow! Go USA!

A Big Win! - Submitted by Carrie

2010-02-20T01:40:00.001-06:00

Our guys played a strong game today to come up with a nail biting win! Tied up again in the tenth end, but this time it ended there with Team USA in the win column! We’re proud of all the guys on our team, and win or lose feel they are representing our country well.

It was a busy day in our household as the first week’s guests are leaving and the new guests are arriving tonight and tomorrow! A whole new batch of people to explore the beautiful city of Vancouver and experience the Olympics.

I met some great folks from NBC today at the curling game. As many of you know, I tend to pace a lot during curling games. On one of my trips around the arena I sat down for a bottled water and began to chat with some gentlemen who are here working for NBC. They were very nice guys who were excited to be seeing curling for the first time. They gave me two tickets to the ice dancing competition tonight! Friend Kim and niece Cailin went to the ice skating venue and were thrilled with their awesome seats. Thanks NBC!

We have two members of our group will be going up to Whistler tomorrow to watch the Bobsleigh competition. Athletes and families often times have access to tickets for events if available. They don’t know what tickets are available or how many until the day before, so it can get complicated with schedules. It worked out that Kim and Lori can go to Whistler after our 9:00 a.m. game. The rest of our group will likely explore the city, check out the Olympic sites, and visit the P & G Home for the first time.

Keep those positive thoughts coming out this way. We appreciate your support very much.

Go USA!

Things Olympic - Submitted by Carrie

2010-02-19T00:25:00.001-06:00

Hard to write tonight. Another tough extra end loss today. It seems that the "curling gods" are not on our side so far. We are proud of our guys and how they are handling this difficult and unexpected situation. They are truly inspirational to all of us here watching them as they are not quitting. They are looking forward to the next game with an expectation of winning it. Go USA!

We had an opportunity to explore the city a bit more today. Spent some time at the P & G Home, did some shopping, and went to see the Olympic Flame! It was incredible to see the flame and the Olympic rings at night. Really brings home the feeling of the Olympic Games. Wins and losses are part of it, but it is so much bigger than that. To represent your country in international competition like this is truly an honor.

During our shopping trip we stopped by a small jewelry shop where we met the artist who designed the Olympic Medals for the Vancouver Games. I purchased a jewelry piece she designed with similar design elements to the medals. It was interesting to hear her describe the creative perspective behind the design concept of the medals.

In addition to the small shops, we also visited the Hudson Bay Company store in downtown Vancouver. It took 30 minutes to get into the store. Once inside it was a jungle of people, merchandise, and more lines! Again though, people were friendly and helpful and the experience was actually quite fun.

It continues to amaze us just how much we are enjoying meeting new people from around Canada and the world! There is a camaraderie among the fans that is really neat. While there is competition, we are all supportive of each other and excited to meet one another.

Go USA!

Go Team USA! Submitted by Carrie

2010-02-18T00:58:00.003-06:00

We began today relaxing and exploring our neighborhood. We were glad to find a shopping mall within walking distance (just a few blocks!). We don’t have a rental car as everyone is discouraged from renting cars because you can’t drive to/park at any of the venues.

One of the primary stores carrying official Olympic merchandise is the Hudson Bay Company. Their downtown store has had lines two blocks long to get in! We found a “Bay” store in the mall by our house and were able to purchase a few fun souvenirs. We still intend to stand in line at the “big store” but on another day.

We headed off to the venue at noon for our 2:00 p.m. draw. Another capacity crowd was in attendance despite the fact that Canada didn’t play in this draw. The crowds have been amazing and we’ve met many new friends. What an incredible experience!

We have been handing out our team pins to people we meet from the U.S.A. and to folks who have befriended us during our games. In addition to the U.S.A. fans, we’ve given pins to two priests from Great Britain who are curling fans, lots of Canadians who have been so kind to us, and some fun fans from China who sat by us the other night. Everyone seems pleased and excited to get one of our pins! It brings a whole different kind of energy to game day!

The game didn’t start off too well today as the guys struggled a bit, but we sure made a comeback by scoring an important deuce and then further capitalizing on opportunities to take the lead in the late ends. We held the lead going into the tenth end, but a win was not meant to be again today as we lost in another extra end game.

Our guys are doing well and maintaining their confidence. It was great to be able to spend time with them after the game. The entire team came to the Proctor & Gamble Home for dinner with all of us family and friends. It was nice to relax with them and visit with them for the first time since our arrival. I’ll say yet again that it is hard to believe what Proctor & Gamble is doing for the athletes and families.

We met hockey legend John Mayasich at the Proctor & Gamble Home! What an honor! We are hoping some of his Olympic magic rubs off on us – Silver in 1956 and Gold in 1960 for the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team!

Keep the good thoughts and messages coming. We all appreciate your support very much! On to victory tomorrow morning! Go Team USA!

First Day of Olympic Competition - Update by Carrie

2010-02-17T02:28:00.001-06:00

While the wins didn’t come today, the first day of competition was very exciting! We were ready to cheer our team on in their first two games of the Olympics.

The morning began early…suggested arrival to venue was two hours before the game which meant 7:00 am. We fudged a little and got there at 7:30. It was good to get there early as by 8:00 it was taking 45 minutes to get through the security check points and into the venue. If you got there after 8:00 you missed the first few ends. We actually enjoyed getting there early and meeting up with more family and friends. Highlight among the family was Patrick Plys (Chris’ Dad) with his face and head painted Red, White, and Blue! The rest of us sported face stickers, U.S.A. flags and plenty of patriotic bling!

Our first game was against Germany. Andy Kapp and crew have been around International competition for a while. We’ve heard they are favored for a bronze in this competition. Andy had an awesome game at skip and took advantage of every opportunity by making some great shots. It’s always fun to watch good shot making in curling, even if it isn’t by your own team.

After the game we made our way down to the Proctor and Gamble USA Home where we enjoyed another nice lunch and met up with the rest of our curling family and friends. We hung out in the internet café and connected with the folks back home via facebook and email. Again, what an awesome facility that Proctor and Gamble sponsors for us. So nice to have somewhere to relax between games.

We headed out early to the 7:00 p.m. draw against Norway as we heard that there was to be an official opening ceremony of sorts at the curling venue. We were able to see most of the ceremony which included both the men’s and women’s teams from all of the countries competing here in Vancouver.

The game against Norway was well-played by both teams. A very fun game to watch. While we would have liked to come away with the win, it was nice to see our guys play well and have fun with the game they all enjoy so much. The arena was incredible with chants going through the crowd for all teams at various points throughout the night. And people say curling isn’t exciting! Wish everyone could have seen the games we saw tonight and felt the excitement in the arena. Amazing!

Go U.S.A.!

Family & Friends Arrive in Vancouver

2010-02-15T21:00:00.003-06:00

After months of preparing, family and friends of the U.S. Olympic Men’s Curling Team are arriving in Vancouver just in time for the first draw of the competition on Tuesday, 2/16. I am Carrie Benton, wife of John Benton who plays Lead on Team U.S.A. I will be posting a daily blog, and from time to time will have other family members and friends submit to the blog as well. We’ll try to give you an idea of what we as family members and friends are experiencing here at the Olympics.

I arrived in Vancouver on Sunday with our two family friends Kim Leppanen and Lori Klingelhoets. Our trip started off with a packed airport and slow lines at Minneapolis St. Paul Airport, but employees were helpful and full of excitement when we told them of our reason for travel! Our plane included many folks traveling to the Olympics.

We arrived to find the Vancouver airport decked out in Olympic fare, so the excitement started to build. We were finally in Vancouver! Media were everywhere and crowds had gathered. We were pretty sure they weren’t there to greet us…we just happened to arrive moments before the Canadian Men’s Olympic Hockey Team!

The welcome we’ve received has been wonderful. Everyone at the airport was very helpful. There were volunteers every few feet it seemed! They helped us navigate our way through customs and the airport and out to the Canada Line train that took us to our rented home. We, like many Olympic families, have rented a home in Vancouver. Our home is lovely!

We explored Vancouver a bit today. We found the Proctor and Gamble Team USA Family Home which is a venue where U.S. athletes and their family and friends can meet up to have lunch or dinner, watch the Olympics in viewing lounges, enjoy a massage, use the internet café, hang out or even do your laundry! We met Theresa Miller, mother of the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team goaltender Ryan Miller and were able to applaud Bryon Wilson, who won the bronze medal in Freestyle Skiing-Men’s Moguls, when he arrived at the P & G House. It’s going to be great to meet other Olympic athletes, families, and friends! What an awesome gesture of support by Proctor and Gamble. Be sure to use their products!

We found the U.S. Olympic Store which sells all of the U.S. Olympic clothing you’ve been seeing on television. We saw the Official Olympic Store, but the line to get into the store was a city block long! We’ll head to that store early some morning before the lines get too bad. We want to see the large Quatchi mascot they have in that store!

We ended our day by checking out the curling venue. There were passes available for family members to watch the closed practice session. It was neat to see the venue before we actually begin play. There were other family and media in attendance, and Princess Anne even stopped by!

We’ve navigated our way around the city fairly well using the Canada Line Train system along with a lot of walking. We’re resting up tonight anticipating our early morning tomorrow. Spectators are encouraged to get to their sport’s venue up to two hours before game time as all venues have security check points to go through. With a 9:00 a.m. game scheduled, we’re in for an early morning.

Getting Down to Business

2009-12-29T08:38:00.003-06:00

Hello all! It's been a busy competitive season and that's kept me from getting new posts out here for a while. I plan on trying to keep this more up to date now that we're just 45 days away from Vancouver!!! It's time to get down to business!

Actually, we made that assertion about a month ago and really started to put things together for our Olympic push!

After struggling through most of our early WCT season, we started to make some progress starting at the first Grand Slam in Ontario. This was a tough event and we played a number of teams that we were likely to see in Vancouver. Our record was 2-4, but we were just a couple of shots away from being 4-2. After that event we met as a team with our coaching staff and came up with a clear plan of what needed to improve in the time remaining before the Games.

From there we played in WCT events in Brooks-Alberta, Duluth-MN, and Brantford-Ontario. In each successive event we seemed to get closer and closer to playing at a top level. In fact, we started to beat some teams that many might say that we had no shot against. But we again failed to qualify for the final 8 in any of them. Missing out by just one game in most cases! Doing our best to stay positive, we moved on with the ultimate prize still in mind.

Finally a breakthrough! It was at one of our favorite events in the U.S. .... the Curl Mesabi Classic in Eveleth-MN. After a disappointing loss in our first game, we rallied and rattled off 6 wins in a row to win the Event! Our last three games were our best of the season and we feel like we're really starting to click again!

Coming off of our most successful outing of the year we headed to Green Bay for our last camp before "The Big Show". This camp involved a ton of media appearances and a trip to an elementary school to speak to some kids! What an experience! We also met with coaching staff to start finalizing plans and schedules for Vancouver. Pete Fenson's team also made the trip and agreed to scrimmage us for three games. We again had a rough start in the first game, but came back to win the next two...giving us bragging rights for the weekend! Thanks to Pete and his team for making the trip! It was a great camp and sets us up well for the last two events of our season.......both are Grand Slam WCT events in Canada, which is the level of competition we need to be seeing heading into the Games.

First up is "The National" in Guelph, ON and second is the "The BDO Open" in Winnipeg, MB. Both look to be great events and we're looking forward to surprising a few people as we head into our final stages of preparation.

I should also mention the crazy fun of being involved with many, many, media events and appearances over the last few months! At some point all of us have had newspaper or TV interviews with local and national media. Some of us have also been involved in appearances on National TV shows. It's hard to imagine it being much more fun than this, but we are all sure that in 45 days it will be!

More to come from the road....until then.....good curling!!!

GB Training Camps End on a High Note

2009-08-12T13:38:00.003-05:00

Time to Blog again!

Last weekend was our last summer camp in Green Bay.

From our first camp in May until now, we've made steady improvements. Lots of ice time and physical training sessions have made a huge difference!

We spent our last weekend tying up a few details and trying to celebrate our accomplishments with a trip to the Green Bay Packers "Family Night" game at Lambeau Field. However, Mother Nature had other plans. We were in our seats (6th row on the 50 yard line!) for about 20 minutes before the lightning storm sent us all scurrying into the concourse! As it turned out, they ended up canceling the event. We did get to watch the fireworks from the hotel though! Not all was lost!

We also got a chance to work with a professional photographer, which was very nice. We should end up with plenty of stock photos to use for the rest of the Olympic run!

As many of you already know, we also launched a new team website: www.teamusacurling2010.com
We're very happy with the site and are looking forward to adding information and functionality there as the season goes on. Included in this will likely be a team store where fans can help support the team and our families by purchasing team pins, apparel and novelty items. Check back there frequently for updates.

Our next step is to finalize our training with a trip to Lucerne, Switzerland where we'll get more ice time and scrimmage against some top European competition. I am personally looking forward to the trip because it will be my first venture overseas!

Things will start getting very interesting in September. The Start of the new WCT season will be upon us and we'll be spending 19 days on the road for competition. First off to the Shorty Jenkins Classic in Ontario, then Oslo, Norway for the Oslo Cup, then back to Lucerne where we'll train for a few days and then head to Basel, Switzerland for another event! Whew!

Well, that's about all for now. As things get moving with our schedule, I'll try to keep the blogs coming.

Thanks to everyone! Only 184 days to Opening Ceremonies!!!

Worlds recap and next steps.

2009-05-06T12:00:00.001-05:00

Hello once again. I haven’t blogged for a while. The team took some much needed time off after our amazing season ended at the World Championships in Moncton.

We ended up with a 5th place finish at Worlds. After the round robin had concluded our record was 7-4, which was good enough to put us in a 4 way tie for third place. We then faced Norway in a tie-breaker while Switzerland and Germany faced off in the other match to fill out the final four. (Scotland and Canada had already advanced to the number one and number two seeds in the playoffs.)

Unfortunately we just didn’t play very well in the tie-breaker. As it was for most of the week, the ice was quite tricky to read and we didn’t adjust to it very well. On top of that, Norway brought their A-Game to the ice that day and took advantage of every mistake we made. Needless to say, the match ended early and our dream season had come to an end.
As disappointing as it was to be done, we were able to come away from the experience with a number of positives. First and foremost, we didn’t ever play our best game that week and were still in position to make the final four. We feel that bodes well for us and what might be possible in the future. Secondly, we exceeded the expectations of many who felt that we’d finish at the bottom of the standings. I think we opened a few eyes. Lastly, we came away with a good list of things we can improve on....we really learned quite a bit.

So the next step will be to take that list and apply it in our training camps, which start at the end of May. We’ll be spending 2 to 3 long weekends a month at camp and have a great team of coaches to work with. I am really looking forward to the concentrated effort and year round access to the ice that we’ll have this year. Not to mention getting in great physical shape.

In addition to the camps, we’re busy setting up appearances and working on sponsorship efforts. These efforts will help to offset some lost income that the team members will stand to incur over the next year. There is also an effort to help family and friends raise funds to defray expenses for the trip to Vancouver. As it turns out, the Olympics can be a spendy proposition!

We’re also working at finalizing our competition schedule for next Fall and Winter. As I have mentioned previously, it is likely that we’ll be competing in a number of events overseas and in Canada. These events will provide us with the level of competition that we will need to prepare for our time in Vancouver.

So I think I can speak for the whole team when I say that we’re very anxious to get to work! Nobody wants to be on that podium more that we do!

From Coast to Coast, Eh?

2009-03-31T12:00:00.000-05:00

I have to tell you all that if you've never been to Victoria island in BC, make plans to get there soon! What a beautiful place. Rolling hills and small mountains covered in green and lush forests. Unfortunately, nobody remembered their cameras so I have only this one cell phone pic that is not very good but it is the view out the back of our hotel.

Oh yeah. We did do some curling out there as well!

The event lived up to expectations. So many very good teams! It was a real blast to be playing against guys that we've been watching for so many years! We played pretty well for the most part, but did run across a few things that need cleaning up. Our round robin record was 3-1, which was good enough to get us into the quarter finals! Qualifying in an event at this level is a great thing leading up to the Worlds! We ended up losing the quarter final game to Wayne Middaugh who went on to win the event. We're very pleased with the results and are looking forward to our chances at Worlds next week.

So we leave for Moncton, NB tomorrow afternoon.

On Thursday we'll get some private ice time at a local club. Then on Friday we'll have a team meeting, team practice at the arena and the opening banquet. Opening ceremonies and our first game will be Saturday. You should be able to find out about Webcast coverage and scoring at the usual places:

http://www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks/

http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=11662&SPSID=95615

as well as:

http://www.seasonofchampions.ca/2009worlds/

http://www.curltv.com

Wish us luck and enjoy!

The New Road to Vancouver!

2009-03-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Team Shuster blog.

It seems like this might be a better way to keep you all informed. I'll send the link to this blog any time I post an update and you can always come back here to find links to our events and other information.

Now to get you up to speed.

Our first camp in Green Bay went very well. This camp was designed as a World Team Prep and Olympic introduction. Our team and Debbie McCormick's team (the women's Team USA) spent time in meetings with our new "Team Around The Team" or TATT. This Team includes:

Mark Swandby - USCA Men's Team Leader (logistics and planning)
Scott Higgins - USCA Coaching Development Director
Ed Lukowich - USCA Athletic Development Director (strategy and tactics)
John Coumbe-Lilley - USCA Sports Psychologist (psychology and communication)
Roger Schmidt - USCA Technical Coach (delivery and team systems)
John Crawley - USOC National Team Technical Support Coordinator

This highly qualified team of coaches spoke about our upcoming year and the challenges that we will face. The general tone of the discussion was that the TATT is meant to be a resource and partner for both teams as we go through the year.

One of the inspirational themes of the weekend was "Fight for the Podium!". We watched a great video of the behind-the-scenes story of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team, which was quite a bit different than the Hollywood version. There were some very interesting parallels from that story that we could draw from today.

We had two on-ice sessions running some drills and working on team systems. We also had some video tape work done on our deliveries. Time well spent.

The highlight of the weekend was our dinner Saturday night at Bret Favre's Steakhouse where both teams and the TATT were joined by Mark Murphy, current President of the Green Bay Packers. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and Mr. Murphy shared some of the Packer's vision for "winning organizations" as well as some stories of his playing career with the Washington Redskins under Joe Gibbs.

All-in-all a very good start to our quest for Gold! Trust me, we ARE NOT just satisfied to be going.

The most important component of the weekend was, without a doubt, our first look at a revised training schedule for the next year. The goal of the schedule is to make sure that we are the best prepared curling team in Vancouver! Essentially, once we return from the World Championships in Moncton, we'll have a short time off and then we'll be on a two weekends-on and one weekend-off schedule right through August! Most of that time will be spent in Green Bay. However, there looks to be a couple of trips to other training centers on the Schedule as well......San Diego and Colorado Springs are both possibilities.

In August our competition schedule will begin in earnest. It looks like we'll be spending some time overseas. I am not at liberty to say where just yet but I can say that Europe and the Pacific Rim are in the mix! As you might expect, we'll also be spending a fair amount of time in Canada again. However, the level of competition will be considerably higher on average than we saw this year. As of now, we're scheduled to play in all four Grand Slam of Curling events. The Grand Slam is a series of four WCT events that host the best in the world to play for some serious cash! All are usually televised in Canada. Very exciting stuff!

Some other things of note:

5th man - after much deliberation and discussion, we decided on a new 5th man to join us on this journey......Chris Plys. As you might remember, we had a few battles against Chris this year. Because Chris is from Duluth and has played with John, Ike and Smitty before and the fact that he is a great curler with a Jr. World Championship (2008) and a Jr. World Bronze (2009) to his name, he became the logical choice. We're very excited to have Chris join the team!

Olympic Coach - this is a longer story, but the short version is that Olympic Coaches need to be qualifed to make the trip. Unfortunately, Brian Simonson doesn't yet have the qualifications. so Brian will make the trip to Worlds with us, but he will be transitioning his duties over to our new coach, Phil Drobnick. Phil is a longtime friend and curler from the Iron Range and surprise, surprise, he was Chris Plys' coach! Kind of makes sense, huh? Phil will bring a wealth of World experience with him from his last few years with Chris' team.

Okay, almost done. So we're off and running as Team USA! We head out tomorrow for Victoria, British Columbia for the last WCT event of the year. The Bear Mountain Arena Curling Classic! Many of the teams that we'll see in Moncton will be at this event, so it will be a good test for us. Online scoring should be available and I have posted the link to the right.

Thank you all so much for the support. More to come.....

John Benton
Team USA

“So really, what’s next?” you ask.

2009-03-05T13:29:00.000-06:00

What an incredible week this has been. I have been overwhelmed by e-mail, phone calls and the like! More good friends and supporters than I ever knew!

Along with all of that activity has been the beginnings of planning our next year, which looks to very busy indeed. Eventually, I’ll be moving this update to a blog which will chronicle our year. The blog will be available via our team website which is already under construction. But for now, I will give you a brief sketch of the next month or so:

March 13-15 – World Team Prep Camp – Green Bay, WI
March 25-29 – Bear Mountain Cash Spiel – Victoria, BC
April 1-13 – Ford Men’s World Curling Championships – Moncton, NB
April 18-19 – World Debrief and Analyze – Duluth, MN
May 2-3 – Olympic Orientation – Colorado Springs, CO???

After that the penciled in dates make it look like we’ll be busy at least two weekends per month right up to the Olympic Games themselves next February!

Family, friends and co-workers have already set plans in motion to come watch us in Vancouver. Tickets have not yet gone on sale, but all the information you need can be found at www.vancouver2010.com. Looks like the best way to go will be to rent some housing either in Vancouver or Seattle.

You’ll probably get sick of hearing me thank you all but the response has been nothing short of incredible!

So Thank You again everyone!

More to come . . .

John Benton
Team USA

WHAT A DREAM!

2009-03-01T13:28:00.000-06:00

That phrase started out as one of Ike's (Jeff Isaacsons) rare but funny sarcastic statements about our team.

We'll it now has much more meaning than that!

YES, YES, YES!!! We did it!

Team Shuster is the 2009 US National Champion and 2010 Men's Olympic Team! WE ARE GOING TO VANCOUVER!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!

Even as I write this it still hasn't quite hit me yet. Lots of great e-mails, phone calls, and facebook messages. Lots of happy tears and a whole bunch of planning to do.

I wanted to write this right away today to let all of you know how special your support has been to me and the team. I am truly blessed with a wonderful family and great friends and coworkers who have stood by me in this dream through the tough times and the good times. I realize that I am very fortunate to be able to live my dream and understand that it is not nearly possible without the sacrifices and support of others. YOU ARE ALL PART OF THIS BIG THING. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

I also want to give special thanks to my devoted wife Carrie. She has really made life pretty easy for me and has never asked me to give up on this when there are many times that she had every reason to. Thank you for sticking it out with me honey. I love you.

So what now? LOTS! There are new goals and new dreams to fulfill. In the immediate plan is our trip to the World Championships in Moncton, NB.

I'll keep you all up to date on our progress. Thanks again for everything!

Team Shust.......

TEAM USA!!!!! :)

Rocky Mountain High?

2009-02-19T13:27:00.000-06:00

Hello all.

Well,, we’re almost there! Tomorrow we leave for Denver to begin the last leg of our journey to Vancouver!

The last two weeks have been filled with much planning and organizing for our ten day trip. Hotel rooms, rental cars, new equipment and uniforms and the addition of a coach were at the top of the list. On that note I should mention that our new coach is Brian Simonson of Chisholm, MN. Brian has been around curling for many years and is a close friend to the Shuster family and is familiar with all of the guys on our team. Brian even spent a few years playing with and against my brothers Michael and Tim so I have had a chance to get to know him as well. Brian is also part of a team that recently won the U.S. Senior Nationals. For Brian this will be third time and will be representing the U.S. at senior worlds. We’re very excited to have him join us in Colorado and bring his knowledge and objective viewpoint to the team.

My wife Carrie has been busy setting up her plans with family who are tentatively planning trips out to watch. She will also be working with the USCA as a media liaison during the week so she will be able to keep busy! (She can’t bear to watch sometimes J) A note to those of you who would like more frequent updates while were in Denver: Carrie has her own e-mail list that she sends to with day to day updates from a fan’s perspective. If you are just dying to get all of the “dirt of the day” from Denver, just send a note to Benton@augsburg.edu to have her add you to her list.

Mixed in with the planning have been many phone and e-mail conversations with my teammates. We all have spent some time on individual practice to keep in tune. But again, we’re well beyond “tweaking” time. Now it’s just time to go play!

Overall, the team seems to be in that workman like mode that we’ve been in for the last month or so. We really just want to get started.

For your convenience I have attached the detailed draw schedule so you can figure out when we play and who.

There has been a little buzz in the media about the trials in general and I would expect that to continue and probably pick up as next week starts to unfold. Here are a couple of nice pieces from this week.

(nice video piece from Duluth) http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S795185.shtml?cat=10348
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/18/us-curling-olympic-trials-in-broomfield-at-a/?partner=RSS
http://curling.teamusa.org/news/article/9867

As far as live coverage goes, you will have the usual line scoring and standings updates at: http://www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks/

In addition there will be information on that site about an “Audiocast” over the web. There will likely be one for every set of games. It usually requires Winamp, but I’m not sure this year. They should have detailed instructions available on the site.
And of course, the big announcement was that NBC will be airing 12 hours of LIVE coverage from Denver on their 24 hour sports station NBC Universal! You will also be able to pick these games up on www.UniversalSports.com.

And for the 100th time, we all thank you and our sponsors for every bit of support you have given us. You really have no idea what it means! Keep it coming!

Thanks again. Wish us luck.

John Benton

In the land of Green ($$$) and Gold!

2009-02-10T13:26:00.000-06:00

Well, after a very short week we made a quick trip to Green Bay for the “Pre-Trials” games over last weekend. The games included four men’s and 4 women’s teams that have qualified for the trials. This was a “Competition / Camp” that allowed us to play 6 games over the 3 days. Each game had a different format (Skins, Moncton, Doubles, Normal). I’ll spare you the agony of explaining all of the differences. Just know that the formats were all designed to force us to play more offense and harder shots. The other twist is that each game was broken into 3 “Sets” much like tennis and each set won was worth points that translated into dollars! To make a long story short, in our 6 games there was a total of 18 sets available to win. We ended up winning 14 of the 18 sets and were named the “Pre-Trials” champion!

In addition to the competition there were USOC Trainers, Coaches and Officials present which allowed us to get some insight on the direction that the USOC wants to see curling move. It also afforded us some time with the trainers to work on advanced exercises and stretching techniques to help us stay fit over the 10 day event in Denver. We also did a series of “Functional Movement” tests that we will repeat over time. These test balance, agility, and mobility and are used in many other sports to set a baseline for fitness. For instance, in Pro-Football a minimum score on these tests is a 17 for the NFL to even consider a person for playing. Our individual high was 16 and the low was 14 so we have some work to do in these areas. All very interesting stuff that I never thought I’d be talking about in the same breath with curling! J

BIG NEWS! The long awaited announcement about Broadcast coverage from Denver! NBC will be airing 12 hours of LIVE coverage from Denver on their 24 hour sports station NBC Universal! Of course NBC Universal is only found on cable in limited markets, but do not fear….you will also be able to pick these games up on www.UniversalSports.com. The 12 hours will only be the Semi-Finals and Finals but at least it’s something! For more information look here: http://www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=601&Itemid=1

Otherwise travel plans have all been settled and we’re just about ready for our trip. Just trying to get our finances in order and we’ll be set.

I’ll check in one more time next week before we go.

Thanks as always for all of the well wishes and support!

John Benton
Team Shuster

Looks like we made it!!!

2009-02-02T13:24:00.000-06:00

“Looks like we made it!”

All I can say is wow! We’re moving on to Denver!

What a week! All of the work we put in this year finally came together. We’re “peaking” at the right time.

We really went about things one game at a time and found a good rhythm. We ended up with an 8-1 record, which is quite an accomplishment considering how tough the field was at this event. And actually our one loss came to the Disher team in a game that didn’t really have any significance due to the fact that we had both qualified by that time. We ended up playing just 6 ends in that game for fun.

Our most dramatic win came late in the week against team Fenson (John Shuster’s old team and the reigning Olympic Team). We were 6-0 at the time and knew that by winning this game we’d likely be assured of advancing. The game was very well played on both sides and we were all tied up going into the last end where we had the advantage of last stone. When we got to that last stone, team Fenson was counting one point near the center of the rings and it was behind cover so we could not remove it. So we had to put one in there closer to the center for the win. John let the rock go and Jeff and I began sweeping immediately. We swept the entire length of the ice with John and Jason screaming at the top of their lungs. The rock came into the rings and with the last few strokes of our brooms the rock stopped right next to the Fenson stone. It was close, but we weren’t absolutely sure we’d made it so the officials had to measure to see who was closest (a common occurrence in curling but very dramatic on the last shot of a game). Our stone ended up ¼ inch closer than theirs! A game of inches!

That win assured us of advancing to the Trials! Whew!

So we now begin getting ready for the final stage on the road to the Olympics in Vancouver! Yes, this is now a very real possibility! The final trials are a similar event with a 10 team round robin, only this time there is a playoff between the top 4 teams at the end of the week. It is called the “Page Playoff” system. For more information on how this works, please see this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_playoff_system

The first item on the agenda is a pre-trials training camp in Green Bay this weekend which is being hosted by the USCA and USOC. A very exclusive event for 4 Men’s and 4 Women’s teams that have qualified for Denver.

Also on the agenda are the usual plans for new uniforms, Flights, Hotel, Rental Cars, etc. for the team, family members and friends for the 10 day trip to Denver. Lots to do!

Anyone interested in attending the event can find all of the necessary information at the Denver Sports Commission’s website:
http://www.denversports.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=128&Itemid=55

And / Or the usual USCA Website:
http://www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks/

A very special thanks to our families, friends, and sponsors. This really would not be possible without all of the support we’ve gotten this year. You are all part of this team!

Of course I’ll keep you updated on all of the happenings in the next few weeks as we train, plan, and raise funds for the trip.

ON TO THE TRIALS! WOO HOO!

Bismarck or Bust!

2009-01-26T13:23:00.000-06:00

Hello all.

Time for an update. For those of you recently added to this e-mail list, please feel free to catch up by reading the thread below.

Well we’re off to Bismarck tomorrow! We’ve all been hard at work at our respective jobs trying to get ahead or caught up as the case may be.
Of course we’ve all spent plenty of practice time on the ice as well. At this point in the season practice is more about maintenance than anything else. No major fixes or tweaks at this point. However, as part of my ongoing quest to relieve the minor back pain I experience from time to time, I did move to a new pair of curling shoes (yes, we have special shoes!). This seems to have helped a great deal. I am looking forward to not feeling quite as old! J

So now it’s time to “Leave it all on the ice” as they say. As I mentioned earlier, we need to finish in the top 4 of this field to advance to Denver. One game and one stone at a time, right?

I don’t have a specific schedule to tell you who we play and when, but I do know that the first game will be at 10:00 AM Central Time on Wednesday.

As usual there will be live scoring and standings posted on the USCA website at http://www.curlingrocks.net/. Once there, click on the “Championships” link at the top of the page. There should be something regarding scoring from the “Challenge Round” on the right side of the page.

Thanks again and wish us luck!

John

Now the meat grinder.....

2009-01-12T13:22:00.000-06:00

First of all thanks to everyone for your awesome support by e-mail, text messages, phone calls and facebook posts! It’s really nice to know that so many people are watching and pulling for us.

We had a very good weekend but did come up one win short of going directly to Denver. We lost the qualifying game to the Chris Plys rink. Chris’s team is the reigning Jr. Men’s World Champion and are very good. They are from Duluth and Chris and John Shuster have played together as well so we were playing against familiar faces. In fact, that team seems to have our number this year as it was our third loss to them. Honestly, we just didn’t play very well that last game. Really too bad. So very close!

As you can imagine this one stings a bit so it will take a few days for us to rebound. But rebound we will! After all, we are advancing to the Challenge Round in Bismarck, ND in a couple of weeks. There are 29 other teams that are not advancing at all.

As I mentioned earlier the Challenge Round will feature 10 teams that, like us, just missed advancing from their sites. The interesting thing is that the list of teams for this event feature 5 of the top 6 teams in the country right now.

The Challenge Round teams:

P. Fenson – Multiple National Champ and Olympic Bronze Medalist
Disher – National Champ and 3 Time Runner-Up
Brown – Multiple National Champ (current)
Larway – Multiple National Champ
Shuster
Corbett
Wight
Hames
Lilla
Persinger

So as you can see this will be a “meat grinder” all very tough games. This will be a 10 team round robin (9 games) so we’ll have to play extremely well to make the top 4 to advance to Denver. More work to do!

Thanks again for the continued support. As we get closer to Bismarck, I’ll send you the information you’ll need to follow the action.

John Benton

Okay, here's the scoop....

2009-01-10T13:21:00.000-06:00

The #1 teams from each pool play for the spot to Denver. The loser of that game will go to the Challenge round.

The #2 teams from each pool play for the remaining spot to the Challenge round. The loser of this game is out (*** see the note below)

So as you can see there is a tie in both pools for 1st and 2nd.

Pool A
Brown 4-1
Shuster 4-1

Pool B
Plys 4-1
Lilla 4-1

So tomorrow morning at 9:00 am we will play a tie-breaker game against Brown and Plys and Lilla will do the same.

The winners will be the #1 teams from their pool and the losers will be th #2 teams. So we need to win two games tomorrow to go to Denver. If we go 1 and 1 we go to the Challenge round and 0-2 and we're out....kinda'.

*** Note: So you rember how all year I was saying that eventhough we didn't win a spiel that we earned important WCT points? Here's where they come in. Only 8 teams from the 4 sites qualify by win loss record for the Challenge round. So there are two additional spots available to the top two WCT points teams that have not already advanced to Denver. I know it's a bit complicated but suffice to say that we have a good chance of making it to the Challenge Round if things went horribly bad tomorrow (which it won't).

So for now we're resting at the room and will get some food.

Thanks to everyone for checking in! We really appreciate it. We'll go out and win both of those games tomorrow!

Have a good night and set your alarms for 9:00 AM!!!!

Hope this makes sense!

As promised, here’s the update for “The Road to Denver, then Vancouver!

2009-01-06T13:20:00.000-06:00

Our first game in the Trials process is Thursday at 2:00 PM.

You can get the online scoring and watch our win/loss record here:

http://events.curlingzone.com/index.php?task=Event&eventid=2082&view=Scores&showdrawid=1

Remember that we need to finish in the top 3 to advance:

#1 goes directly to the Final trials in Denver
#2 and #3 go to the Challenge Round in Bismarck

Thanks again. Wish us luck.

Semi-Charmed Cash Season ends in Eveleth!

2008-12-30T13:19:00.000-06:00

Yes, you guessed it! We qualified in Eveleth and made it as far as the Semi-Finals! So close to that elusive finals appearance and win! The last weekend of the "cash" season for us was highlighted by a high quality win over team Fenson (reigning Olympic team) in the Quarter Finals. By quality win I mean that we played well from top to bottom for the whole game and really controlled it from the start. Much like Madison we controlled all but one of our games and played very well as a team. In the Semi-Finals against our friend, and eventual spiel winner Tyler George, we had a one critical miss that put us behind by three points. The ice was pretty tough to generate offense on so come behind victories were few and far between. Certainly dissapointing for us to never have made a finals appearance on the Tour this year, but we have made a ton of progress and feel like we are starting to peak at the right time. To put it into perspective, every team starts the year hoping that they have what it takes to win a National Championships or Olympic trials, but only a few enter January really believing that it can happen. I would count us in that last group!

So now the Trials process begins. This year there are a total of 49 teams entering the "playdown" process. The process can be a bit complicated to explain, but essentially it's this.

The Qualifying Round (QR) - Jan. 7 to 11
In this round 6 Teams Advance from four different sites to the Final Trials, and 10 more teams advance to the Challenge Round.

The Challenge Round (CR) Jan. 28 to Feb 1
The 10 Teams from above compete at one site for the final four spots at the Final Trials

The Final Trials Feb. 21 to 28
The 10 Teams (6 from the QR and 4 from the CR) compete at one site over 9 days. The last team standing at the end of the event will be the next Olympic Team and National Champion.

As I mentioned in an earlier update, our QR is being hosted in Centerville, WI. John has won two National events in Centerville so we feel like it has good karma for us! Our first game is 2:00 PM on Thursday, January 8th. This will be pool play like the Madison event and we will need to finish in the top 3 to guarantee advancement. When we finish 1st, we'll advance to Denver for the final trials. There should be online scoring via the USCA website. For that and more information on the Trials use this link: http://www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks/ and click on "Championships" at the top.

BTW - If any of you are as optimistic as I am you can book your early tickets for the Final Trials in Denver here: http://www.denversports.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=128&Itemid=55

I'll send another quick update before we start next week.

I speak for the entire team when I say thanks so much for your support this season!

Happy New Year!

John

“Mad Money!”

2008-12-18T13:18:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to drop you a note get you all up to date.

Our trip to Madison was quite successful! We went 5 and 1 overall and qualified for the final 8. As you might remember, the format there was pools. We went 4 and 0 in our pool but ended up having to play a “tie breaker” game at 10:40 PM on Saturday to get into that final 8. We finished that tie breaker game at 12:30 and didn’t get to bed until 2:00 AM! The next morning we had to be up at 7:00 AM to be ready for a game at 9:00 AM! Needless to say we were not on top of our game on Sunday morning. It was a close game but we never really got much going. That was the only downside to the weekend. Otherwise we played about as well as we can as a team. We were really firing on all cylinders and controlled the majority of the games. We’re really feeling good about our progress and are very happy to have earned some more cash along the way. It’s a very good sign for us and it feels like the long schedule and hard work are starting to pay off.

To sum up the season so far…..Out of the 7 events so far, we have qualified in 3 with two Quarter-Final appearances and a Semi-Final appearance. Our goal was to qualify in 4 of our 8 scheduled events so we’re just about there. We’re currently ranked 5th in the U.S. on both the Money Earnings list and the Order Of Merit (a complicated points system to track teams). Not too bad for a bunch of kids and an old guy! J

We have one last opportunity to bump up those stats and get that elusive finals appearance this weekend in Eveleth, MN (yes, again, I know..what glamour!). The SuperOne Shootout is a relatively new event on the WCT but features many of the same high caliber U.S. teams that were in St. Paul, Duluth and Madison. The format is bracketed like the others and you should be able to get results here: http://www.worldcurlingtour.com/events.php?eventid=1879&view=Round-Robin

Once we get through this event, it will be time to start preparing for the Olympic Trials process! More to come on that soon!

Until then, keep cheering for us from afar and have a wonderful Holiday Season!

John Benton

“That’s a Wrap!”

2008-12-04T13:17:00.000-06:00

Well, I know have to apologize for not getting this out sooner! I really don’t have a good excuse except to say that I’ve been quite busy the last couple of weeks with work and getting ready for the Holidays. Sorry! (Boy some of you aremore excited about this than us!)

So here is my update from our trip to Canada: Thunder Bay was just as I had remembered it. A good time and very good people. I got to catch up with a few friends and play in a great facility. We ended up 2-3 which was a disappointment to us. We actually played very well and consistently but made a few mistakes by being a bit too aggressive with our strategy and not executing those shots. I would simply call them high “risk/reward” situations and in those situations we just need to be more aware of what NOT to do. The great thing is that the team continues to learn and grow with every game. I cannot tell you how valuable it is to play with teammates with that attitude!

So now it’s time to start wrapping up the last part of the “Cash” season and begin to prepare for playdowns. More on that later. For now you should know that we have two “Cash” events left to compete in. The first is this weekend in Madison, WI. This annual event features most of the top teams in the U.S. much like St. Paul and Duluth. However, the format is a bit different. There will be “pools” of teams that each play a round robin. At the end of the round robins (within each pool) at least 2 teams with winning records will advance to the Championship round on Sunday. To do that we’ll need to have no more than 1 or 2 losses within the pool. It’s a good format because each team is guaranteed to play plenty of games, which is important at this point of the year. Scores and updates should be on-line and can be found at http://www.worldcurlingtour.com/events.php?eventid=1880.

After Madison we head to Eveleth, MN (yes, all of the glamorous places) in two weeks then we’re off for the Holidays. We’ll have individual and team practices set up over that period of time and maybe some scrimmages as well. Once we get into January the Olympic Trials Playdown process will start. I will send another update with the details on that process when we get closer, but I do want to let you know that the first round of Qualifying is January 7-11th at four different locations. We had originally hoped to play in Grand Rapids, MN (the home of Gemini Sport Marketing, our primary sponsor) but weren’t able to make that happen. But we will be playing close to home in Centerville, WI, which is just across the border from Winona, MN. So if you’re interested in seeing part of the Olympic Trials process, please feel free to make plans for that weekend to be in Wisconsin! J

Okay, that’s it. I’m heading out to “Mad Town”! Thanks again for all your well wishes.

Vancouver is just a little over a year away!

John Benton
Team Shuster

“Show me the money!”

2008-11-11T13:16:00.000-06:00

First of all, let me apologize to those of you who were trying to follow our progress over the weekend. I understand that it was difficult to find our scores and see our progress on the Duluth website. Due to a couple of teams dropping out late, the draw brackets changed significantly and they were unable to get the updates out to the WCT in time for the event. The Duluth webmaster did the best job he could under short notice. We can appreciate your frustration. In the future I’ll try to have a backup plan of keeping you all informed.

So if you hadn’t figured it out yet, we had a pretty good weekend. Once again, we qualified and earned some much needed prize money which will have a nice impact on our budget. We made it to the A qualifying game and lost to the current World Junior Champion, Chris Plys rink. If you remember we played these guys in St. Paul in the A qualifying game and lost. This is not a good trend, but Chris’s team is really playing well right now and they seem to have our number. So our loss to them dropped us to the B bracket semi-finals against the Jeff Currie rink from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Jeff’s team was just a few shots away from making the Brier (Canada’s National Championship) last year. In the curling world the Brier is pretty much the Holy Grail. So we knew we’d have a tough game. For the third time this season we caught a major break at the end of the game and pulled out a win in a game that we probably should not have won! Lady luck seems to be smiling on us. As in the previous times, we knew we had to take advantage of that break. With the win against Currie we advanced to the B Bracket qualifying game against Pete Fenson, the reigning Olympic team. It is worth mentioning that Fenson is John Shuster’s old team so there was a little added incentive for this one. I am happy to report that we played our most complete game of the year as a team. Firing on all cylinders, we controlled the entire match and came away with a win. That set us up in the Championship quarter finals but we’d have to wait to see who we would play on Sunday night. With some time on our hands, we finally got around to getting our team photos done. I have to say that those uniforms are just awesome! J Thanks again to everyone at Gemini!

As it turned out, Jeff Currie went on after losing to us and qualified out of the C Bracket. It’s not often that you play the same team twice in a Spiel, but it can happen. This game was a great match with awesome shots being made on both sides. After regulation play we were tied and played and extra end. Once again we came through with the victory! That win set us up for a semi-final matchup with my old teammates on the Craig Brown team. Craig and team are the current National Champions for the U.S. and had an amazing 32 – 8 record in Spiel appearances last year. This game turned into an offensive battle with lots of stones in play. We had some great opportunities, but just couldn’t capitalize and lost the game 8 – 4. Brown went on to win the event.

My thoughts from the weekend. We made significant progress in a number of areas over the weekend. Team trust and confidence is very high and we are working well as a unit. Now it’s time to clean up a few details and build our identity and style of play as a team. I think we’re right on track. Building on our successes and being quietly determined to improve seem to be the team’s mantras. Hopefully, that equates to even more consistency that we can carry in to the playdowns in January!

So it’s another back to back week for us as we head of to Thunder Bay, Ontario for the Courtesy Freight – NOCT – Superspiel. This event would probably rank a bit higher in strength of field than either St. Paul or Duluth but not quite as high as the events in Portage or Brandon. Another great test for us. We are really looking forward to the trip. I am hoping that they will have online scoring for you, but I cannot guarantee anything. For now you can see the field and draw at this website:
http://www.majorleaguecurling.com/?q=node/79

I’ll update as is necessary.

John Benton

Duluth Update

2008-11-08T13:15:00.000-06:00

Well, we're off to a good start again. 2-0 and playing in a qualifying game at 1:00 PM. I found out that the World Curling Tour site is having some issues so you won't see any scores there. Please use the Duluth Curling Club site found here:

http://www.duluthcurlingclub.org/CashSpiel.asp

Thanks
JB

“Oh Canada!”

2008-11-06T13:12:00.000-06:00

Whew!!! We made it through 3 back to back weekends alive! Our trip to Portage La Prairie was a successful one. Our record was 2 Wins and 3 Losses. That may not seem that great, but as mentioned previously, we were playing top-notch, world class competition and played very well in all but one of our games. Unfortunately we decided to lay an egg against the reigning Olympic Champion…Brad Gushue. That game was really the only negative from the weekend.

We all came away from the weekend with optimistic views. We’re really working hard on the small stuff now. For those of you not in the know, team dynamics, communication and the use of systems are all critical to success in curling. So we’re really focusing in on those things and are ready to start the second half of the “Cash Season”.

We were also able to spend some time with USCA Athlete Development Director, Ed Lukowich. Ed is a former World Champion and has a wealth of knowledge to share so it was good for the team morale to have him work with us. We all had some things to take away from there to work on.

So we’re off to our next stop on the tour tomorrow. One of my favorite events . . . The Duluth Cash Spiel! Yes, we go to all of the glamorous places! J I really do love Duluth. Anyway, this event has a much more American flavor to it than our last few, but we will see a number of teams from Thunder Bay as well. This is one we should qualify in and have a good chance at winning. Once again, you can follow our progress online at the World Curling Tour website.

http://www.worldcurlingtour.com/events.php?eventid=2125&view=Round-Robin

Thanks to you all for the support.
Please wish us “Good Curling!”

John Benton

Here is your week four Team Shuster Update.

2008-10-22T13:11:00.000-05:00

The Good the Bad and the Exhausted!

After our successful trip to Brandon, the team was excited and ready to take the ice in St. Paul. We started out very well and won our first 3 games and reached the qualifying game in the A bracket! It looked as if we were poised to qualify in our second event in a row!

Now for the bad. We’re not exactly sure why as of yet, but we ended up losing three straight games. Yikes! We just didn’t play as sharply as we had been. Our front two players just didn’t set things up very well and put undue pressure on our other players to pick things up. For me personally, I have found that hosting an event and playing in it can be an exhausting exercise and I might need to rethink that process.

We were all very disappointed with our finish and have been discussing some cause and effect and how to ensure that we don’t end up in that situation again.

On the very positive side, I think that we have all agreed that this season is a long process for us and it is still very early.

So you’re probably thinking we’ll take some time off now, right? WRONG! We’re heading right back to Manitoba this weekend! This will definitely be our toughest test of the year. The Myers Norris Penny Prairie Classic in Portage La Prairie, MB. This event is by far the deepest field of teams we will see. With a list of players that reads as a who’s who of former World and Olympic champions and players we’ll have our work cut out for us. We’ll need to get back to working together and staying positive to earn our way to the money round here. As usual, you can follow our progress on-line.

Thanks again and wish us luck.

John Benton

Here is your week three Team Shuster Update.

2008-10-16T13:09:00.000-05:00

Things with the team are coming together.

After a good first game in Brandon, MB we ran up against former Canadian and World Champion, Jeff Stoughton. A great test for our squad. We really played well and controlled a good part of the game but failed to take advantage of some opportunities and ended up losing 9 to 3. The score is not a very good indication of how we played. We followed that loss with another well played game against Don Nelson which we ended up losing on last rock! Despite the losses the team seemed to be in pretty good shape and had some time to discuss our plans for Saturday’s matches. It was time to tighten things up a bit.

Our 5th man, Jeff Isaacson (Ike) made the trip with us and we decided to rotate him in on Saturday morning. Our game against Brendan Taylor was not quite as sharp as we had hoped but we were able to battle back from a two point deficit in the final end to force an extra end where we caught a break when Mr. Taylor missed his last shot giving us the victory.

As a team we decided that we needed to take full advantage of that break and put a few good games together. We proceeded to play our two best games of the year so far against Manitoba veteran Dave Bohemer and Scottish transplant Willie Lyburn! Things just started to click and I could tell that a little more time on the ice was the key to the team putting our shaky start in Ottawa behind us!

By winning those two games we qualified to the quarterfinal bracket of the event! This is significant for two reasons. Number one, we accomplished our first team goal of the year by “Qualifying” in one of our first 4 events. Number two, we earned some serious cash by advancing to that level, which takes a little pressure off of our pocket books! J Unfortunately our run ended there as we came out a little flat on Monday and lost our game to Alan Lyburn (Willies older brother). Nevertheless, we are all in good spirits to have seen some moderate success early in the season. You can see our results here.

So what’s next? Many of you already know that this weekend is the St. Paul Cash Spiel, which I happen to host as well as play in! This is another 32 team WCT event with good money up for grabs for the teams that advance to the final 8 in the Championships. Please stop by or check us out online at http://www.stpaulcashspiel.org/.

I hope to get some photos (in our very popular Gemini uniforms!) this weekend to send along with my next update.

As always, thanks to our sponsors.

Wish us luck.
John Benton

Hello again. Here’s your Team Shuster update.

2008-10-09T13:08:00.000-05:00

We had a bit of a rocky (excuse the pun) start in Ottawa. We played well, but had some early season mistakes which led us to a 1 and 3 record. However, we gained some valuable insight on our team dynamics and were able to come out of it with some positive goals for the season.

Upon our return we went to work and set up practice time and started working toward some of those goals.

So tomorrow begins our second event weekend in Brandon, MB where we can put that work to the test! This is a tougher field of teams than we saw in Ottawa so we’ll have to get our A game going right away. If you’re interested in following our progress, you can find Team Shuster in the Manitoba Lotteries Curling Classic on the World Curling Tour Website: http://www.worldcurlingtour.com/events.php?task=Event&eventid=1954

Again, wish us luck and thanks for the support!

John Benton

Team Shuster Starts their run to Vancouver tomorrow!

2008-09-24T13:03:00.000-05:00

Family and friends,

Yes, it’s already curling time! It seems like we get started sooner every year!

As many of you already know, this is a very important year for US Curling since the Olympic Trials are in February!

I am starting up with a new team this year. The Skip (Captain for you curling neophytes) is John Shuster who was a member of the Bronze Medal team from the 2006 Games and the winner of the 2007 World University Games. The other players beside myself have a wealth of experience as well. I am very excited about our chances. This will be the year!

One huge bonus is the fact that we have signed a number of sponsors to help us defray some costs this year. First and foremost is Gemini Sport Marketing who is supplying us with apparel. Many thanks to Brad and his staff for working so hard to get us outfitted. We look forward to representing them well.

We have a very busy competition schedule of eight events before the Trials process so my schedule from now until March is pretty well booked! Our fist event starts tomorrow in Ottawa, Ontario. You can follow our progress this weekend here: http://www.ontariocurlingtour.com/events.php?eventid=1872&view=Round-Robin

As always, I want to thank you all for the continued support. And a special thanks to my wife, Carrie, for her commitment to this dream of mine!

I’ll periodically send updates throughout the season.

Please wish us luck.

John