Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Friday, February 21st, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Maylove here.
In part two today, we're speaking with our great friends from the Tri-City Curling Club.
We've got Mitch Wayne with us.
Mitch, thanks for being here.
Yep, thanks, James, for having us.
And we have Dean Berso with us as well.
Dean, thanks for being here.
Yep, thanks.
Appreciate the time, you guys.
And I want to send a shout out to Pam Hilke in the amazing timing she has because this weekend
is curling is cool day on this Sunday and everything.
So that just worked out perfectly having you guys in at this time.
And I do want to talk about why curling is cool and why it has been cool in this area
for quite some time.
When I get into the history of curling before we get into the 66 men's imitational bond
spiel.
Am I saying that right, bond spiel?
Right.
Excellent.
Before we get into that, let's talk a little bit about the history and there is a long
history of curling in this area, Mitch.
Yeah.
So our club originally started in 1956 in a club in Port Edwards and that's kind of where
the name the Tri-City Curling Club instead of just Wisconsin Rapids Curling Club.
We're actually on the mill site of the former paper mill down there.
And then in 1976, they were doing some expansion.
So we they moved the club to the current location on early street.
It's also if you're driving by you see a sign that says historical marker and there's
a dam right there.
So that's been our current location.
We've curled there since 1976.
What's interesting is our rocks or stones that we use.
We bought them used when we started curling in 1956.
So those are the original stones.
Wow.
Oh, that is cool.
That is interesting.
When it comes to the area being supportive of curling, this is something that was kind
of a grassroots thing.
It was something that people really saw here.
We like this.
We want to do this.
And that's a lot of where this started.
Yeah.
And Wisconsin's got the larger contingency of curlers in the United States.
And this area all have curling clubs, Stevens Point, Marshfield, Wapaka, Wasaw, Medford.
And then there's another big pocket down by the Portage area, Arlington and Poinette and
Lodi.
So there's a lot of curling in this area.
When it comes to that, and this is, there's no wrong answer here.
It's more of an opinion thing.
I'd like to ask both of you, why do you think that is?
Why do you think curling is popular and has still been so popular?
There seems to be a real consistency with the sport where other sports they come and
go or they fade or whatever.
Curling seems to have quite a consistency.
And I see this as the son of a hockey player and growing up around that.
And for those that don't know, there is a bit of a crossover here with hockey and curling.
And a lot of former hockey players loving to go into curling or a lot of, I know my dad
had a couple of teammates that took on curling to help with their stick play.
Just, so there's a little bit of a crossover there.
So I've known about curling my whole life and I've always thought it was kind of an interesting
sport.
But I didn't know until we moved up here that how popular it was here and everything.
And that was 20 some years and 30 some years ago.
It's still just as popular.
It's still kind of maintained that same steadiness.
Why do you think that is, you guys?
And I'll start with you, Mitch.
Well, I think there's just not a lot of activities in the winter time that you can partake
in.
And, you know, having the ice, and I'm sure originally it started with people with just
using a natural cold weather to freeze the ice and then it progressed to having refrigerated
clients that would do the cooling.
Yeah.
Deemed you.
Well, I would say the biggest thing is in the winter, especially now when the snow seems
to be very little, it's one of the best good things to do and it doesn't take any wear
and tear on your body really, so anybody can do it.
We got it.
Curl it was 88 years old.
We used the stick.
So, you know, it's lifetime sport.
Yeah.
Boy, you hit it right there.
That's a great sentence right there, lifetime sport.
I think that there's something, a lot about that.
You know, a lot of us start out, you know, young in life and we take bowling leagues.
And here we are in our late 70s or 80s and we're still bowling.
Curling seems to have a lot of that too to it as well, which is really unique and very
cool about the sport, I think.
Sports is such a big industry and there's so much pressure and different things associated
with sports in general.
I love these.
I don't like to call them fringe sports, but for lack of a better term, I love these
sports where there's the competitiveness, there's still some of that energy that we love
about sports.
There's also, it seems to focus much more on camaraderie and fellowship and just enjoying
being out there and doing an activity.
Yeah.
And you'll definitely see our club is more about the camaraderie than the competitiveness.
And, you know, talking about starting later, Dean didn't start curling until he retired
at age 55, so it's not too late to start curling.
It's a great point.
It's a great point.
Thank you for bringing that up.
When it comes to the curling season, I don't know if that's common knowledge or not, but
for those that may not know and not want to learn and maybe even take up this sport and
everything and those listening, how long does the curling season stretch?
How long does that go?
So for us, it's November 1st till the end of March.
I think a big thing for us and we know we notice if people can be outside, walking, golfing,
doing other activities, they'd rather be doing that than going into work.
What?
Cold building and curling.
So, yeah.
100 percent.
Well said.
Yes.
And I think that part of the, to that point too and everything, I know a handful of people,
I don't know how common this is, that have enjoyed pickleball, but they really look forward
to curling.
They have kind of their summer thing and they're for exercise and their winter activity
for exercise.
And again, they cross over there that is existing, but I think there's a similar thing
with that sport too, where it's, you know, I can finally be outside.
I've been stuck indoors for so long.
I just want to get out there and just give me something to do.
Okay, what's this?
I'll learn it.
You know, curling has a bit of a thing with that where as far as getting, being stuck
indoors and wanting to get out and just do something.
And not just something, but something that it, not only has exercise and this, you know,
camaraderie to it and everything, but it's fun that, you know, there's a reason this
sport has been around as long as it's has and everything.
And when it comes to that, I think that the stretch of the season is really unique too,
to people out there listening and knowing that there's a lot of different activities
that go on throughout the season.
Yeah, and like one thing I'll talk about is like bowling.
We think they have too long with season, they'll start Labor Day and then Memorial Day
and it's too long, ours is just about right.
Yeah.
In fact, March gets hard because spring break and everybody has the kids and everybody's
heading somewhere.
So you can get through the iffy and March where everybody's looking for subs.
You're right.
Right.
Exactly.
And one other thing, a couple other notes I wanted to mention before we get into the
bounce field was certainly while there were a bunch of guys talking about this right
now.
There is no age or sex or anything like that.
When it comes to this, all are welcome to curling.
All are welcome.
All can come down and have a good time with this sport.
Yeah.
So one thing I want to bring up last weekend, we had a interclub bounce field where we had
just our local teams curling.
They all curled three games against each other.
We had ages 12 to 80.
One interesting thing we had, Officer Borkart and his family curled and his boys had never
curled before.
They were 12 and 15 and by the end of the weekend they were doing really well.
And we're hoping to get them back in a youth type program next year.
It's got to be a great feeling to see new people come by but to see kids picking up that
broom and getting into it.
That's got to be a great feeling.
Yeah.
He wanted to be the skip who's the captain on the team and he was down lining up shots
like a pot and he was kind of laying on the ground which really you shouldn't be doing
but when kids are having fun out there, we let things slide.
I remember being frustrated when I first learned bowling and they had put the bumpers
out there.
I'm like, my papa, they ain't using the bumpers out of what I got to use but that's
how you learn.
It's how you get it.
And grow the sport.
And in that part I wanted to get to before we got to the bond spiel and the growing of
the sport.
And it's part of the reason why we have you guys on.
We want to bring up the Tri-City Curling Club and mention it to more and more people out
there.
Just in case there's anybody out there listening to it doesn't know about it or maybe
have been curious to know more about it.
But it's great to have these kids involved in this for a million different reasons but
one of the main ones is certainly us wanting to keep this sport relevant alive and keep
the membership up about it.
Yeah.
So Dean and I are active participants in our Learn to Curl program.
This year it's on Wednesday evenings.
We've got kind of two sessions.
We run a session from five to six thirty and then another session from six thirty to eight.
Five o'clock is more of the people that have younger kids.
So we've got a grandpa and an uncle and four kids that come very regularly.
And then we've got another family that also comes.
And then we've got fifteen to sixteen people that curl in the second session.
All new curlers they've been curling on Wednesday nights all year.
They're all getting good enough.
We'll be able to get them into the leagues next year.
Mitch I apologize.
I do my homework for these interviews.
I didn't know about this program.
If I had I probably would have signed me and my dad up.
My dad and I have actually been talking about this.
I was going to mention this off air to you guys.
But my father and I just got hip surgery a couple of years ago and he's probably about
a year removed from it.
He's starting to feel a little bit better.
Former hockey player wants to get on ice.
No, he can't get on skates.
Curling.
I mean there you go.
It's sitting right there for you and everything.
We got really excited about it but he wasn't sure necessarily where to start.
There we go.
There's a great program right here in town for something like that.
That's really cool, Mitch.
Are there ways people can find out more about it, sign up for it, etc.?
Yeah.
So we're kind of winding our season down.
We've got another three weeks left in that.
So next year what we'll do is we'll have some information on our website for next year.
What we do is three weeks in December, mainly training sessions and practice delivery, practice
sweeping, start to learn the rules and then we turn them loose the rest of the year and
then let them play against each other and keep developing their skills so that when they
get to the leagues the following year, they feel comfortable and not overwhelmed.
I'll tell you guys right now, you're going to have a couple of Italians coming down
there and you're going to learn to tell your swear words for my father.
He's going to, he's going to have a little, he'll learn, he'll learn, he'll enjoy it.
He'll have a lot of fun.
That's great.
Thank you so much for letting us know about that, Mitch and that website, Mitch's referencing
trycitycurling.org that is try-citycurling.org mentioned that again before we wrap up and
how people can find out more about try city curling.
Let's get into this.
The 66th annual men's invitational bond, bond spiel going on February 28th, March 2nd.
Before we dive too much into the event, 66th annual, that is awesome.
That is amazing.
Yeah, and we're trying to do the math to make sure that was the right number and the only
time we missed was the COVID year when we had shut down for one year.
But otherwise we've held it every year.
What is the event in tail for those that haven't heard of it before, maybe haven't been
able to attend before?
Yeah, so we have 16 teams coming from around the state.
We've got five teams coming from Green Bay and we've got Portage, Loadai, Arlington.
We've got a home team playing.
So it's kind of spread around the state.
We'll start on Friday morning at 11 a.m. and we'll go till 10 p.m. Friday night.
And then Saturday and Sunday we're starting at 8 a.m. and games will go to around 4 o'clock.
So what we do is all the teams will play three games and that will seed them into a certain
event.
The third game, if you win, you get to play a fourth game in the finals.
So half the teams play a fourth game on Sunday.
Very cool.
So the finals will actually be on 2 o'clock on Sunday.
That'll be the four best teams will be playing at the end.
And it comes to how long a match lasts, I think it's a whole match.
How much it lasts?
A game.
A game, yeah.
How long it lasts?
An average, how long do those usually go for?
Again, just for listeners out there, don't know.
We try to keep a game to two hours, although you'll see two hours and 15 minutes is a little
closer.
We schedule them at two hour intervals.
And I would say to two audience members that maybe you don't know much about curling
or you've seen it on the Olympics a little bit and that's about your experience with
it.
That two hours flies.
This is an exciting sport.
It really is and the intensity with it is fun on this level and you guys enjoy yourselves
and everything.
But the pace of this sport is actually pretty quick and moving and quite exciting actually,
which is kind of funny when you consider how this sport is actually played and how the
pace of it.
It's very interesting.
And like all sports, it's more fun if you're actually playing than watching.
And to keep a game and done in two hours, both teams need to, it's a flow of when the
other team throws their shot, the next team's getting ready, the sweepers are getting ready,
the skips getting ready to call and you need to just keep moving.
We made our game last night less than two hours, but we really moved.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These days, just as a quick side note here, I want to bring you guys back after, before
the new season begins, and we can talk more about it, maybe you could do a little recruiting
and some of that.
One of the things I would love to dive into with you guys is the actual playing of the
sport and how that works out and how it is scored and so many of these things, just
to spread awareness of the sport and more attention to it.
But for now, focusing on the 66th annual men's invetational bond spiel, this is a full event
that you guys, because the curling alone would bring people in and be a lot of fun.
But you guys are offering also, they're going to dinner, lunch, some snacks down there as
well, making sure that people are going to want to stay there all day.
Yeah.
And basically, the entry fees that they pay include meals and refreshments for the weekend.
So we have a team of cooks and kitchen help.
And it's like putting potluck, all the members are bringing food down.
And then we conclude it with the best meal of the weekend, Saturday night.
We cooked a hundred pounds of prime rib, and it's pretty good meal.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would imagine people may even show up just for that and let it all go to the good meal.
We do want to say a big thank you to everybody, making this stuff and working on these things
too.
We know that when it comes to our nonprofits, individuals like you guys are important and
huge part of this, but they don't exist without our volunteers and so many people helping
out.
Yes.
Yeah.
We get the whole club helping on an event like this.
Yeah.
And a real big thank you to all that, because this is the kind of, these are the kind of
events that we love to highlight and talk about here at WFHR.
We have for so long, but we also just, there's so much fun too.
I want to remind everybody about that, because there's going to be not only something for
you to do all day, but there you've got food, you're going to be taken care of when it
comes to that.
Are there anything else going along with the event that we wanted to touch on?
No, just that people are free to come in, stop in, watch some good curling.
If they want to do the need to RSVP for this event, or can they get tickets the day of,
how do they get tickets?
No, it's free if you want to come and watch.
Right on.
Very cool.
Where is the teams playing?
Those are the teams you mentioned from the area and some are not.
How did that work out reaching out to some of those teams and getting them involved in
this?
How much do you guys work with other kind of curling organizations in the state?
And basically, it's a word of mouth, and we go to the bunch fields at their clubs and
then we ask around and we need most of the people, our returning people who have come
and had fun.
Some of these teams, all of Curled, 20, 30 years down at our club, like a lot of the Green
Bay teams, they have one member that used to live in Wisconsin Rapids and so they now
live in Green Bay and then they grab three friends and hey, we're going back to my club,
my original club, a lot of that, how we get people.
Where to mouth?
You know, it's always going to be the best one.
And they have USA Curling and Wisconsin Curling.
It's on their website, on their calendar too, so if somebody's looking for a bond spiel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Guys, this has been great.
I appreciate not only the time today, but also helping us spread the word of the sport.
Before we wrap up, I'm curious and I think this will be incentive to many people out there
that maybe on the fence on curling or what have you.
What brought you to the sport?
You both came to this at different times and everything.
So Mitch, I'll start with you.
What brought you to curling?
So it was a workplace, my boss, Curled and so did another coworker and they just said
you're coming down to the curling club.
That was not much of a choice.
You're boss tells you that's a good way to do it, yeah, that's what, actually, I might
have to take pick.
That's a good idea, actually.
That's great.
Thank you for that.
I appreciate it.
And Dean, how did you, as Mitch was saying, you came into this a little later?
Yeah, I was always played volleyball in the winter, co-ed in men's and it was kind of
dying.
Plus, I was getting old, the ankles were given out and I decided I have to do something
in the winter.
So I thought, I'm going to curl, try curling because I knew Mitch Curled, I knew other
curlers.
So I'm going to give it a shot and Lombie Herald, I curled, well, my wife was from Canada.
So she curled when she was little, but she hadn't curled for like 30 years.
Right.
Yeah.
Has she come down to those?
Yeah, she curled.
Oh, cool.
Oh, that's awesome.
Nice.
That's a shout out to her.
That's awesome.
And thank you for that sharing that, you guys, because I guarantee there are listeners out
there that have similar stories or similar interests there and it could really enjoy
themselves and have a fun time with this.
And I can't think of a better way if you have been curious about curling, what a great
way to find out, what a great first event coming to this one right here, the 66th Amounts
Invitational Bond Speel, taking place February 28th through March 2nd.
It'll be right over at 131 Hurley Street right here in Wisconsin Rapids.
And if people have followed questions, they'd like to know more about this event or just
curling in general.
How can they find out?
How can they reach it?
Yeah.
So the best thing for us is to come down to the club Monday through Thursday.
If you come down at 6 o'clock to 8 o'clock, there's people there that and it'll be pretty
quiet most nights and you can talk to someone, watch a little game and that's the best
way to do it.
If not, we do have the Curling Club website, Tri-City Curling Club website.
We've got an email.
You can send me an email and then also the phone number is, we have a message and Dean
and his wife monitor the messages.
So if you call the club, because most of the time people aren't there, you know, during
the day until 6 o'clock, the phone's not going to get answered.
That email mentioned there, Tri-City Curling Club at gmail.com, that's Tri-City Curling Club
at gmail.com.
The website is try-citycurling.org.
You throw this into your search engine, you're going to find it though I tested it this
morning and I just threw in their Tri-City Curling popped up right away, should be able
to find out more information and you can keep up to date on this and be sure to follow
them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up to date on things and share their posts on your page.
You just never know who might see it otherwise.
Great conversation today guys, thank you very much for the time, wish you the best with
the event.
We'll be sending people your way.
Thank you very much, James, for having us.
Thanks guys.
And a big thank you to Pam Hilke and the amazing scheduling she does week and week out.
We appreciate your Pam, appreciate all of our guests throughout the week.
Be listening next week for more Midday Magazine right here at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR.
We are locally growing radio.
