BILLINGS — Two local Montana women are members of the first team from the state to qualify for the USA Curling Arena Club National Championship, set to be held this October in Las Vegas, and are making their mark on the sport.
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Jamie Connell of Laurel, who serves as treasurer of the Billings Curling Club, never expected to compete in curling five years ago. She only picked up the sport after her sister invited her to try it.
"She took up curling because she saw it at the Olympics and we'd all seen it many times on television, but I didn't really have any thought that I would get interested in it but as soon as my sister invited me, I curled for one or two times and I just fell in love with the sport,” said Connell. "This one surprised me just how much I really enjoyed the aspect of playing the game, the competition, the strategy behind it, and the community of the people that curl."
It has now become a way of life for her and fellow teammate from Red Lodge, Mary Johnson, who had a similar path into the sport.
“We had a friend about 10 years ago who said, 'Let's just go to Billings and go to a learn to curl,' and we thought, 'Is curling that sport with brooms?' We thought it was the goofiest thing we'd ever seen," laughed Johnson. "As it turns out, the family around Montana, the curling family, it's been so nice to get to know those people."
Now both women play a central role in growing curling’s reach across Montana, where the sport is played by a tight-knit, but passionate, group of 25–30 club members who share ice at the Centennial Ice Arena.
“Anybody can play. We have people 80. We have people 15, and everything in between," said Johnson.
Curling, often thought of as a once-every-four-years Olympic curiosity watched on television, is a highly strategic sport. Arena curling even requires the ice to be prepped before playing to help the stone curl properly.
"Curling is where you launch rocks, 40-pound rocks down the ice. You twirl them so that they spin and as a result, curl or bend on the ice and try and have your rocks that are your color closer to the center of the house than the other team, and then you sweep along the way to try and make the rock go just a little bit farther," explained Connell. “It's a very different surface when you curl on it than it is for hockey players, and to make that switch in sometimes 20 minutes is all they have between hockey players on the ice and curlers showing up."
"It's looking ahead two or three moves to see what you should do offensively and defensively," added Johnson. “People call it a cross between chess and shuffleboard."
The two teamed up with Amanda Opitz and Abbie Ebert of Helena less than a year ago to form their women's curling team, called Team Montana. At the beginning of the month, they competed in Montana's first-ever USA Curling Arena Regional Playdowns tournament, or bonspiel, in Billings. The event drew nine men's and four women's teams from across the state and North and South Dakota, the current largest turnout for a playdown across the nation so far. After several days of competition, the team came out in first place.
“We didn't know the talent of the teams coming, and so it was sort of walking into something we just didn't have any expectations for," said Johnson. "We were surprised when we won.”
Related: USA Curling Arena Regionals takes place in Billings
The win qualified them for the Women's USA Curling Arena Club National Championship in Las Vegas from October 14-19. The tournament will feature 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams from across the country, and the victory marks a milestone for the state's curling community.
“This is the first Montana team that I'm aware of to make it to a national-level curling tournament ever," said Connell. "We just wanted to play well. We wanted to have fun and we wanted to represent ourselves well in this event.”
The women will now begin preparing for the national stage. With their home ice closing during the summer, they plan to travel to Denver for additional training. Their upcoming trip to Las Vegas is exciting, but for the women, curling is more than just accolades. The sport is open to all ages and skills, but according to Johnson and Connell, more importantly, it is the camaraderie formed that is unmatched.
“Curling has meant a lot to me," said Connell. "There's something about curling that when the match is over, people have formed friendships in a way that I haven't seen in other sports before. It's really quite nice."
“It's a real gentleman's, gentlewoman’s sport. It's like the other team makes a good shot and you slap five and go, 'Yeah, nice shot,' even though they're playing against you," agreed Johnson.
Whether or not they win in Las Vegas, Team Montana is proud to carry their state’s curling hopes and spirit into uncharted territory and continue sweeping the competition away.
“If we were to win in Vegas, that would be shocking," said Connell. "But, that's not to say that we can't give them a great game, and you know, on any given day, somebody can win a curling match, and it might be us.”
For more information on the Billings Curling Club, click here.
