Stones & Stripes

The roots of Alaska’s Talkeetna Curling Club, and the next 4 teams to qualify for the 5-and-Under National Championships.

In 2014, Nate Bryan and Brian Robison of Talkeetna, Alaska made a decision. They were going to start curling. The problem? Despite living in The Last Frontier, they didn’t have any ice.

Over four years, the duo worked on getting themselves set up on black ice on local lakes. They built curling sheets on driveways. For all of that, they managed to curl just twice and dealt with the challenges of winter weather in Alaska every stop along the way.

In 2020, they decided to try something different. They went to the local youth hockey club in Talkeetna and requested to paint some rings on the ice rink at the local elementary. When the hockey club expressed concern about the curlers adding sand to the ice surface for “pebbling”, they were able to promise to not use any sand. With that, they found themselves after years of toil with the opportunity to host a bonspiel, and the inaugural Talkeetna Bonspiel was born.

It wasn’t without help. They received support from the statewide curling organization, CurlAK. The support included loaned curling stones and leading a Learn to Curl which created space for Talkeetna to grow in a town of just over 1,000 people. Thanks to CurlAK’s support as well as support from Fairbanks and Anchorage Curling Clubs, the dedication of the curlers in Talkeetna is bearing fruit. Talkeetna Curling Club now boasts over 20 league curlers with leagues that run from December through March and routinely draw more than 20 teams for their annual 3-day bonspiel.

The conditions are about what you could expect from winter in Alaska and an open-sided ice rink. Temperatures dropping well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, snow blowing in, and still, they make it work. They have a hot mop pulled by an old Dodge truck. They flood with a firehouse from the neighboring firehouse. Chris Bouch is the head ice technician and skip of the team that competed at the Arena National Championship, and he spends hours on a daily basis to ensure there is playable ice for curling and hockey programs.

In addition to the growth of the sport in their small community, Talkeetna Curling Club made their national championship debut when Team Bouch took the ice in balmy Las Vegas last month. They got to come home with a win in their first appearance at the Arena National Championships and earned points for Alaska in USA Curling’s new Regions Cup standings. I think it’s fair to say the frozen sweat and tears have been worth it.

5-and-Under Qualifier Results

Super Hero 5 & Under Bonspiel (Tempe, AZ)

Winner: Team Gilbert (Oval Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Team Kunkel (Coyotes Curling Club)

Last season, Ramin Gilbert and his team out of the Oval in Salt Lake City were probably the best team to not qualify for 5U nationals. They made two A finals, including the finals at Coyotes, and an A-event semifinal in 5-and-Under qualifier events. Fresh off a run to the playoffs at the Arena National Championships, it’s only fitting they found themselves in the final in Coyotes.

It wasn’t an easy road with their last four games coming against teams from last year’s 5U national championships. They barely survived in the quarterfinals against Nashville’s Team Elliot and then found themselves in a rematch of the Coyotes 5U finals with reigning national champions Team Campbell. Following a convincing win against Campbell, they had a rematch of their other runner-up finish from a year ago with the matchup against Kunkel.

Jeff Kunkel was in trouble in the semifinals but got some help from a wick on his final rock to sit shot and ultimately advance to the final. The finals started like a repeat of their matchup in Las Vegas last winter with nary a guard to be seen for the first couple ends, and the teams traded singles.

The third end turned out to be the key end of the matchup. With a center-line guard in play and a couple of misses, viewers were treated to a busy house. Kunkel chose to ignore a Gilbert rock sitting as the second shot rock and instead chose to play for a very aggressive steal of a minimum of one, possibly two. But when a draw came up short, it actually created a unique loaded gun situation to move the shot stone off of the button after spinning off the rock in the top 12-foot. Gilbert recognized this, and fourth Dave Hurst made the shot to move the rock off the button, also slightly cleaning up the front of the house. Kunkel’s final rock was heavy, tapping the shot rock and exposing more of his shooter. The Oval rink took advantage to pick out shot rock with the hammer and score two points.

From there, Gilbert would never relinquish the lead. Hurst made a clutch draw in the 6th end to prevent a steal, and the Utah team would steal again in the 7th to take a 6-2 lead coming home. They would run Kunkel out of rocks in the 8th, and the team who went to 2024 5U nationals secured a trip to Seattle for the national championship this spring.

The Cool Duck (Ardsley, NY)

Winner: Team Moran (Triangle Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Team Green (Bucks County Curling Club)

In 2024, the Cool Duck was not a 5U qualifier, and then at the last minute it was once again named a qualifier. No such drama existed this year for one of the most popular 5-and-Under events in the country. This bonspiel routinely filles in a matter of minutes and can be incredibly difficult to get into.

As in previous years, the 24-team event was split into three brackets of eight teams. The bracket winner with the best draw shot challenge score would advance directly to the finals while the other two faced off in a semifinal. Team Green, who won this event last year, won their bracket to advance to the final. Triangle’s Team Moran earned their place in the finals with 6-4 win over the home club Michalski rink in the semifinals and got a win over 2025 national championship participants, Team Wright.

Moran jumped out to a lead early in this game with a steal of two. They continued to make Green work for points over the middle ends of the game after a steal in the 5th gave the Triangle rink a 4-2 lead, but the reigning Cool Duck champion, Green, was not out of it yet. The Bucks County curlers scored two with hammer in the 6th, and when Moran’s draw against two counters crashed on a guard in the penultimate end, Team Green stole two for a 6-4 lead going into the eighth end.

The momentum started to sway back towards Triangle when second Kiera O’Donnell made a double to sit two, flipping the pressure back to Green. Team Moran was sitting with two guarded scoring rocks going into skip stones and forced Rob Green into some difficult and high-pressure shots. After Green’s last rock went deep, Pat Moran was sitting first, second, and fourth shot. He needed to essentially get close to a bite of the 8-foot-circle for the win. His rock was heavy, but he actually ended up splitting his 4th counting rock to score four, take the win, and claim a spot at 5-and-Under nationals.

Mad Anthony 5 & Under (Fort Wayne, IN)

Winner: Team Parira (Potomac Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Team Mack (Kettle Moraine Curling Club)

Fort Wayne Curling Club has been working on expanding their 5U qualifier each of the past few years, and it was great to see them get up to a full field of 32 teams for the Mad Anthony 5 & Under event this year. Even better, in my opinion, was seeing two women skipping the final of an open event!

Tiyash Parira of Potomac Curling Club led her team on a run to the finals, including a win over 2025 nationals participants Team Papineau. Kettle Morain’s Bekka Mack may not have faced any former national championship teams in her run but still faced many teams who have been regulars on the 5U circuit in recent years.

The final was an exhibition of teams maximizing their opportunities with hammer. Mack and Parira traded scores of multiple points in the first three ends. After exchanging scores of two and threes, Team Parira blanked the fourth and then converted with four points in the 5th end.

The most crucial end turned out to be the sixth end with the first and only steal of the game. A few misses from Team Mack and a center guard from Parira on her last to guard a rock on the button, and the pressure was on. Mack’s hammer would come up light, and result in a steal of three to take a commanding 10-5 lead entering the 7th, effectively sealing the game.

Tiyash Parira and her team will be making their 5U championship debuts in Seattle, and it also assures Potomac Curling Club will be represented in the event for the second consecutive year.

Frogtown 5U (St. Paul, MN)

Winner: Team Wysocki (Stevens Point Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Team Despins (Curling Club of Rochester)

Last season, Trevor Wysocki’s team went into the Frogtown 5U looking to qualify for the 5-and-Under National Championships in a second consecutive year. To say it didn’t go well for them is probably an understatement, but they were the embodiment of “Don’t let curling get in the way of a good bonspiel.” They would go on to later qualify for nationals through another event.

This year, they returned to the Twin Cities “fun club”, this time aiming for a third straight year, and it was quite a different result. The Wysocki rink went undefeated in pool play to earn the 2nd overall playoff seed. The Curling Club of Rochester’s Tyler Despins earned the 8th overall seed with a 3-1 record, advancing into the playoffs by virtue of a Draw Shot Challenge score to resolve the tie.

In the finals between the two, the ice at Frogtown appeared to give them a few challenges, but hammer efficiency turned out to be the key as Wysocki scored three in the third end and two in the sixth end. Despins managed two in the second end, two in the fifth end, and blanked two ends, giving him the hammer and a two-point deficit coming home.

On the first of his skip stones, the Rochester skip made a great draw to the button to sit either two or three points, and Team Wysocki needed some time to talk through their options. It appears they settled on a draw-weight chip off of their own, and Trevor Wysocki made it to perfection to sit one point and buried. Despins had no good options, and their attempt to remove the shot stone was unsuccessful. With the win, Trevor Wysocki and his team from Stevens Point will head to his third consecutive 5-and-Under National Championship.

Up Next

5U and club playdowns really are going to kick into high gear for a few weeks next month. I expect to do a recap of the first few qualifiers in early December, followed by another newsletter a couple weeks later ahead of the holiday break.

In the meantime, be sure check out my Rock Channel articles for The Curling Group and the Grand Slam of Curling at thegrandslamofcurling.com, especially with the recently completed Olympic Trials, the upcoming Olympic Qualifying Event, and December’s World Junior B Curling Championships!

The next three months, in particular, are going to be filled with drama, and I absolutely cannot wait. Thanks for joining me on the ride!

Until next time, good curling!