Talking 5U with Chris Plys and focusing on the bigger picture, 5U qualifiers, Regions Cup update, and more!
It is no secret I am a huge proponent of the 5-and-Under curling program we have here in the US. I know there are some who may not like certain elements of 5U curling, and I will not argue that the system is perfect.
We have, after all, seen the growing pains of the program. There are issues that need attention. There have been new challenges that have emerged nearly every year on top of other recurring challenges. Sometimes, though, we (note: I’m including myself in this) put so much focus on what is being done suboptimally, we lose focus of what is being done right.
Many of us occasionally find ourselves a little too close to 5-and-Under to fully appreciate what it has done for the sport in the United States. A few weeks ago, I sat down with Olympian Chris Plys, and his perspectives on 5U really helped put into focus the vibrance this program is injecting into American curling culture every day.
“At its core, curling is more than just an Olympic sport,” Chris shared with me. “And what 5-and-Under has done to ignite what this sport can be and what it should be, is, in my opinion, every bit as cool as the gold medal in ’18.”
Various forms of 5-and-Under existed well before Team Shuster’s run in Pyeongchang in 2018, but it really exploded following the “Miracurl on Ice”. The US Women’s Curling Association (USWCA), with support by John Shuster, put on a couple national championship events for 5U, and then after COVID, the proof of concept was made into a sanctioned national championship by USA Curling in 2022.
Timing is everything, and the timing of that national push couldn’t have worked out much better. The gold medal curling boomers were four years into their curling lives, the Beijing Olympics welcomed another rush of new curlers, and suddenly there was a slate of national championship qualifying events for all of them.
As a self-identifying 2018 boomer, I can attest to the fact that the convergence of all of these curlers at one time resulted in a rapid development of a new and powerful curling community. I had fun on the ice in my experiences at 5U qualifying events (I attended nine qualifiers over three years), but it was the 5-and-Under community off the ice that kept my bonspiel calendar full of nothing but 5U.
In my first year of 5U ineligibility, I did not make it to any events to watch or support the community that hooked me into the sport, but I know the community kept chugging along. Plys saw the heart of the 5U collective himself.
“This year, I went to the 5-and-Under nationals in St. Paul. The amount of fun and just seeing people sitting at a table, chatting it up after the game, there to compete but also there because they want to be. I think it is the greatest thing that USA Curling has invested in.”
Plys graciously gave me permission to share the full clip of his thoughts on the 5U program from our sit-down earlier this month. (Please forgive my interjections and background noise, I was not intending on sharing audio from our interview originally!)
5-and-Under Qualifiers in 2025-2026
Early in the summer, USA Curling announced their qualifiers for the 2025-2026 season. As a reminder, there are 23 qualifying events with one spot reserved for the host club.
At the time of the release, there was some consternation that the Pacific Northwest only was awarded one qualifying event when they have historically hosted two events per season. Those concerns should have been eased somewhat when the host club was announced to be Seattle’s Granite Curling Club, effectively awarding the PNWCA a second qualifier event. This will mark the first time the event will be held outside Minnesota since USA Curling’s inaugural national championship was held in Los Angeles in 2022.
Wisconsin and the GNCC were each awarded five events with the Minnesota and MoPac regions each being awarded three qualifiers. The Midwest Curling Association is not hosting a 5U qualifier for the second consecutive year. Hopefully a club bids to host a qualifier event next year.
A few other quick notes on some of the other groups of qualifiers offered this year:
There are two women’s events this year, down from three last year. There is one mixed event this year, up from zero last year.
At least four, and likely five or six, of the events are region-locked or region-limited events. Three of those events are hosted by the GNCC. Last year, the 5U events hosted by MoPac, Denver, and Dakota were also region-locked or -limited.
At least 16 qualifier events are totally open with no restrictions on team makeup or club affiliation.
And now that we’ve got that out of the way… let’s go to our first results of the season!
5-and-Under Qualifier Results
Tahoe Tessie Women’s 5U Bonspiel
Winner: Team Pytlarz (Silicon Valley Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Team Bonache (Wine Country Curling Club & CurlVegas)
Just like that, the 5-and-Under season is underway, and the first team has booked their spot to Seattle! Eight teams converged on Lake Tahoe Epic Curling in Stateline, Nevada, to kick off the 2025-2026 qualifier season.
This is the first women’s qualifier we’ve seen hosted in the western US (that I am aware of), and a bunch of really good curlers made the trek up to Lake Tahoe for the three-day event. Team Pytlarz, a.k.a. Skip It, secured the victory and a trip to Seattle next spring with a solid showing all weekend.
Pytlarz dropped their first game to a strong Coyotes team led by skip Alyssa Duncan after giving up a steal of five in the fifth. Not only did the eventual champions not lose another game after that, including avenging that lone loss to Duncan in the semifinals, they gave up just one stolen end for the rest of the event. In the final against a Wine Country and CurlVegas team, led by arena national championship competitor Anne Bonache, the Silicon Valley rink hung a score of 5 in the 5th end to effectively seal their event championship.
“We are fortunate to have qualified this early so we can get right to work,” skip Jaclyn shared with me after her win. Pytlarz and vice Rachel Roberts will be making their return trip to 5-and-Under nationals after going 1-4 in the national championship in St. Paul last year.
USA Curling Announces Regions Cup Points System
Over the summer, I postulated what the recently-announced Regions Cup points system might look like. In that newsletter, I looked into a few different systems based on what they had shared to see how the Regions Cup would have shaken out last year.
What USA Curling released earlier this month most closely resembles my 2nd version of points, but with one notable difference. In situations where a region has multiple representatives, only the highest ranked team will get points, but the other regional representative could knock other regions down a peg by finishing higher in the standings.
For those familiar with the scoring in Cross Country, it works the same way where teams have 7 runners, but only 5 runners score points. The sixth and seventh runners are costing points anytime they finish ahead of the top 5 runners from another team.
In an ideal world, this creates even more incentive for regions to encourage participation at playdowns which typically impacts how those final spots at national championships are filled. It also can create a scenario where a team might not win a national championship at, say, arena nationals, but their performance could effectively help secure the Regions Cup title for their entire region.
I fully expect to see some flaws in the first few iterations of the Regions Cup, but I appreciate adding in some new fun numbers to watch throughout the national championship season, which gets underway in just a few weeks!
Other News and Notes
I am excited to officially share with all of you, Stones & Stripes subscribers, that I will be a contributor for The Curling Group for the upcoming season. In my coverage there, I’ll be heavily focused on the top US curling teams and the major news of US curling throughout the course of this exciting Olympic season. Here is my first article, a recap of this weekend’s Slam. There should be even more on this coming soon.
The opportunity I have to cover curling was due, in part, to all of you who have read and shared past newsletters. Your support has been a major part of the joy I’ve had in writing about curling, and it’s now leading me to be able to provide even more coverage of American curling teams. Thank you!
If you don’t already, please follow the Grand Slam of Curling and The Curling Group on social media to stay connected with everything going on in US curling through the Slams, Olympic Trials, Olympics, National Championships, and then onto Rock League next spring!
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with my first arena national championship preview of the season! Stay tuned to meet all 24 teams headed to Las Vegas and get my picks to click for both men and women. Last year, I successfully named 60% of the medalists, but only 20% of my medalist picks finished where I predicted. Can I improve this year?
Be sure to subscribe to find out, and feel free to share this post so more people can see how foolish I look when I’m wrong!
Stones & Stripes 
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