2024 Men's Arena National Championships Preview
Is this the year a team unseats Dallas-Fort Worth Curling Club?
It shouldn’t come to a shock to anybody that I, an arena curler, am a huge proponent of having a championship for arena curlers. My feelings about the Arena National Championship are similar to that of the 5-and-Under National Championship - it’s an amazing space for recognizing grassroots curlers who have put significant time and energy into the sport, and who deserve to have a championship experience.
This event only dates back to 2013, and up until COVID, any team could register to play in nationals. Beginning in 2022, arena nationals got a makeover and is now run more similarly to club nationals with most teams qualifying via regional playdowns.
I believe one of the biggest changes we’re going to start seeing, and likely have already started to see, as a result of this change is more competitive development for good curlers who are subjected to having to play on bad ice. I’ve seen it firsthand. I was not expecting to watch a team make four or five 20-foot runbacks against me in one arena playdowns game, but I had the best seat in the house for it. Arena curlers are getting better, and that’s a great development for everyone.
So, club curlers: I know you mean it as a compliment when you say, “Wow, you’re so good for being based at an arena club,” but “Good curling, you guys played great” will suffice.
With that, let’s take a closer look at the schedule, the teams, and my picks (as with the women’s event, my picks are really just lightly educated guesses - I fully expect to be wrong).
How To Watch
All games are being livestreamed on the Wausau Curling TV YouTube channel. They’ll be co-streamed on the USA Curling YouTube as well.
Wausau Curling Club put together a great webpage with links to draw sheets, line scores, and lineups.
The men kick off the championship week, with the first draw starting at 8am CT on Thursday, October 24. The finals will be taking place on Sunday at the same time as the women’s games.
Men’s Draw Schedule
Thursday, October 24
Draw 1: 8am Central
Seeding matchups: 1 vs 6, 2 vs 4, 3 vs 5
Draw 2: 4pm Central
Seeding matchups: 3 vs 6, 1 vs 4, 2 vs 5
Friday, October 25
Draw 3: 8am Central
Seeding matchups: 4 vs 6, 2 vs 3, 1 vs 5
Draw 4: 4pm Central
Seeding matchups: 4 vs 5, 2 vs 6, 1 vs 3
Saturday, October 26
Draw 5: 8am Central
Seeding matchups: 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, 5 vs 6
Top 3 teams advance to the playoffs. Top ranked team from each pool gets a bye to the semifinal.
Quarterfinals: 4pm Central
A2 vs B3, B2 vs A3
Sunday, October 27
Semifinals: 9am Central
1st and 3rd place matches: 2pm Central
Meet the Teams
Note: I did the best I could to research information as fully as possible. If you find notes that are incorrect and need to be fixed, please email me at hoppecurls@gmail.com. I’ll do my best to get it updated.
Men’s Pool A
Myers - Dallas-Fort Worth Curling Club (Mid-America)
Nick Myers. Laith Sando. Keith Roberts. John Lambert. These 4 have worked together to win each of the last 4 arena national championships. All told, they’ve won 5 arena gold medals (2015, 2018-2023), 1 arena bronze medal (2017), and 1 club championship bronze medal (2018).
Last year in Eveleth, they lost their final game of round robin play, their first loss at arena nationals since 2017. The streak will come to an end at some point, but who is going to be the team to stop their reign? Will it be this year?
Betts - Wine Country Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
The Mountain Pacific region usually has a pretty solid turnout for playdowns, and this year was no exception with 10 teams registered. The Betts rink came out of their playdowns on top after a 6-4 victory over fellow club members, Team Spangler. As far as I could find, this is the first time to arena nationals for the Betts rink. They went 5-1 at arena playdowns, their one loss coming in the last game of pool play. I was impressed with their ability to keep pressure on their opponents without hammer. We’ll see if they can do the same in Wausau.
Spangler - Wine Country Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
Unlike Team Betts, Wine Country’s Spangler rink has a good bit of experience playing at arena nationals. As one of MoPac’s representatives in 2023, they rebounded from an opening game loss to Houston’s Team Schaeper and won the remainder of their pool play games to earn a spot in the playoffs. While they dropped their 2 playoff games to finish just off the podium in 4th, the team returns all their members from last season. They qualified as the 2nd place team out of MoPac with their lone playdown loss coming in the final to Team Betts.
Schaeper - Curling Club of Houston (Mid-America)
The last non-DFW team to win arena nationals was from the Curling Club of Houston. The 2024 Houston team looks very different from that of the 2017 team, except for Carl Schaeper. Throwing 2nd in 2017, Carl will be throwing 4th rocks in Wausau. Schaeper and teammate Nathan Nissley return from the 2023 arena nationals team, having gone 3-2 and missing the playoffs on tiebreakers.
In the house calling the game will be long-time curling veteran Greg Major. The arena national championship allows for stick curlers, and Greg is one of the few stick curlers you’ll see this week as he throws lead rocks. The Schaeper rink secured their spot at the national championship by winning the Last Chance Qualifier in La Crosse.
Bessert - La Crosse Curling Club (Wisconsin)
After going winless in their debut at arena nationals in 2022, Team Bessert notched two wins in the 2023 championship. As I mentioned for La Crosse’s Team Hamann, Bessert had to qualify this year through a playdown with a new arena club out of Rhinelander, WI, and competition in playdowns is only ever going to be a good thing. In addition to having the opportunity to represent their home state of Wisconsin, skip Brian Bessert has been a crucial contributor to the USA Curling Arena Club Working and was recently recognized as the 2024 Volunteer of the Year.
Preiss - Inland Northwest Curling Club (Pacific Northwest)
As the only registrants from the Pacific Northwest Curling Association, Team Preiss was awarded their slot at arena nationals uncontested. They return two members from last season’s arena nationals team, including skip Ben Preiss. After going winless in 2023, the team will look to rebound from a few close losses in Wausau as they seek to notch their first win in Wausau.
Men’s Pool B
Weber - Sioux Falls Curling Club (Dakota)
Skip Austin Weber wasn’t new to arena nationals, but the rest of his team was new in 2023, and they made an impressive entrance. Losing to Team Spangler in pool play, the team from Sioux Falls Curling Club would go on to rattle off 4 straight wins, including a revenge win over Spangler in the semifinals. They were added to the growing list of silver medalists to lose to Team Myers. I’ll be fascinated to see what they can do in their return trip to the arena national championship.
Tesch - Cedar Rapids Curling Club (Midwest)
Along with Team Weber, Team Tesch made sure the Midwest represented themselves really well in Eveleth in 2023. They only lost to one team last year, and unfortunately for them, that one team was Team Myers… twice. Going 5-2, four of the five wins were by at least 5 points, including the bronze medal match against Team Spangler. I would not be shocked to see Tesch back on the podium in 2024.
Ridder - Aksarben Curling Club (Mid-America)
I’ll be honest, I did not have Team Ridder winning the Mid-America region’s playdowns on my bingo card. With Team Myers absent via qualifying as reigning champions, I was fully expecting one of the teams from Texas to win it, and Team Ridder made me look like a fool, going 5-1. Their only loss came after their skip sat for the final game, having already secured the top seed out of the playdown. Just like Team Schaeper, you’ll see stick curler Dave Hill throwing lead rocks and then calling the game from there with Nic Ridder throwing darts at the 4th position.
I’m looking forward to seeing Aksarben represented at arena nationals. I believe they’re the largest arena club in the country, and with dedicated ice likely coming in the next couple years, they won’t have too many more opportunities to compete in this national championship. I am pretty confident they’d be thrilled to not be eligible.
Russell - Curling Club of Rochester (Minnesota)
The Curling Club of Rochester is once again serving as the representative of the Minnesota region at arena nationals. While a different team from Rochester represented Minnesota in 2023, Michael Blazing and Tyler Despins return from the 2022 rink who went 1-3 in Eveleth. Stephen Russell was at that event coaching both the men’s and women’s teams. I would not be surprised to see this team take another step forward this year and present some challenges throughout pool play.
Curtis - Rocket City Curling Club (Grand National Curling Club)
As mentioned in my women’s post, it’s always great to see Rocket City represented at these championships. They’ve got a great community of people, and Rocket City Curling Club always travels well to bonspiels across the country. GNCC did a random drawing to select their representatives this year David Tutwiler is the lone representative who has curled at arena nationals previously, as far as I could find. His Rocket City team went 1-4 in Eveleth in 2022. These are some curlers who have been traveling quite a bit, so I would expect them to provide a challenge for every opponent.
Mercer - Cleveland Skating Club Curling (Great Lakes)
I was a bit surprised to see the Mercer rink come in as a 6th seed after peer seeding, but somebody has to be, I suppose. Though they were not at last year’s championship, they competed in the prior 2 championships. They won at least 2 games both years (including a win over the Rochester rink in 2022) and made it to the semifinals in 2019. They’d go on to take 4th place in 2019. I expect Pool B to be really tight and would not be shocked if we see the playoff qualifying come down to head-to-head and DSC tiebreakers.
My Picks
Myers, DFW
Tesch, Cedar Rapids
Spangler, Wine Country
With all due respect to the curlers from Dallas-Fort Worth, I’d absolutely love to see some new blood at the top of the podium. I just don’t know that it'll happen this year. Myers has been playing vice for Team Sobering on the competitive circuit, gaining invaluable experience the rest of the teams won’t have. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I would guess we’re a year or so away before Team Myers is dethroned.
The Arena National Championship can be extremely unpredictable, especially as some of these curlers will find themselves on top tier ice conditions for the first time. Texas teams have historically been on top, but I believe we’re seeing excellent developments across other arena clubs throughout the country, especially in the west and midwestern parts of the United States.
Thank you for reading and be sure to take some time to enjoy watching Arena Nationals this week. Until next time, good curling!
Talk about a mix up!