2025 Men's Club National Championship Preview
Many familiar names will battle for the Men's Club National Championship in Milwaukee
Back in one of my January newsletters, I noted we were starting to see some curlers competing in club playdowns who have also competed at the US National Championships. I brought up the thought: what is the intended competition pool for club nationals, and should there be any limits on eligibility for club nationals if a curler is competing or has recently competed at the USA National Championship?
After thinking on it on my own and hearing perspectives from a number of curlers around the country, I don’t believe there should be any sort of limits on this. Eligibility for club nationals requires all team members to be members of the same club. And while it’s possible for 4 really good team members from the same club to come together just to try and win a playdown, winning the playdown is no given. Team chemistry matters, or the 4 team members have to be incredible.
And besides, why should curlers who are active at their own club be prevented from representing their club? These are the Club National Championships, not the Amateur Curling National Championships or the 98% of Club Curlers Are Eligible National Championships. The name 98CCAENC is pretty catchy, though, you’ve gotta admit…
As we take a look at the men’s teams competing in Milwaukee, you’re going to see a lot of names who have competed at national championships. In fact, there are not only curlers from the recent US Men’s National Championship on the teams. We’ve got curlers from the recent U18 Nationals, recent 5-and-Under Nationals, Senior Nationals, Mixed Fours Nationals, and more.
The Club National Championship field is a wide array of curlers. Some of whom started just a few years ago as adults, some of whom started a few years ago as juniors, and some of whom started… more than a few years ago. And they’re all in one place competing together.
Curling is the best.
How To Watch
It appears that Milwaukee Curling club will broadcast all games on their Twitch channels. I would not be surprised if games were co-streamed on USA Curling’s YouTube, but nothing has been announced.
I will update this post with any new updates as I hear them.
Draw Schedule
Milwaukee Curling Club is a 5-sheet club which means two teams will always have a bye. The full draw schedule can be found here. The first draw of the men’s championship begins at 8pm CT on Wednesday, March 26 and concludes with the finals at 1pm CT on Sunday, March 30.
The 3 top teams from each pool move on to the playoffs, with the top seed in each pool getting a direct bye to the semifinals.
Meet the Teams
Teams are listed in order of peer seeding.
Note: I did the best I could to research the teams’ past experience at club nationals. I apologize if there are any errors regarding whether or not a team has previously played at club nationals.
Pool A
Berg - Fargo-Moorhead Curling Club (Dakota)
The last time I saw Ryan Berg curl, Matt Hamilton and Jennifer Jones were waiting in the wings with microphones. Team Berg returns to club nationals after winning last year’s championship on home ice. Ryan Berg, along with lead Randy Askew, also won the bronze in 2019.
Berg was able to requalify for nationals after going 6-0 at the Dakota playdowns, including a 7-3 victory over Team Workin who is also in the nationals field. The team features 3 different curlers who were at the USA National Championships in Duluth. Tim Hodek skipped a team with Josh Moore throwing second (Evan Workin was the vice for this team), and alternate Ethan Sampson skipped a team, losing in a tiebreaker to Chase Sinnett. It’ll be interesting to see how much ice time Ethan Sampson sees, as he played in the national championship final in Fargo last year.
Leichter - Broomstones Curling Club (Grand National)
While this is the first club national championship for Alex Leichter, this is not his first national championship. Leichter has curled in a number of mixed doubles national championships and competed at multiple US National Championships, including appearances with vice Ryan Hallisey at multiple US National Championships.
The team from Broomstones had a very strong showing at the GNCC playdowns, and they’re one of my picks to make a deep run this year in Milwaukee.
LeClair - Coyotes Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
It seems like almost every year, it’s a rotating team from Coyotes Curling Club in the hunt at club nationals. This year, the rotation comes back around to Team LeClair. They navigated the 12-team MoPac playdown in undefeated fashion, including victories over past club nationals skips Shawn Tait and Sean Aronson. LeClair’s rink finished with a silver in 2020 and 4th in 2019, losing to Ryan Berg in the 3rd place match. They are coming off a 2-2 finish at the Senior Men’s National Championship in Traverse City.
Davis - Denver Curling Club (Mid-America)
For me, Team Davis out of Denver Curling Club is one of the biggest wildcards in the men’s event. The Mid-America Curling Association playdown saw the reigning silver medalist skip among a whole host of teams all log-jammed in the 6-team event. Brett Davis and team emerged from the logjam with a 4-1 record to make his skip debut at club nationals. The skipper and second Justin Boshoven have each curled at club nationals in the past, each playing at 2nd with Darrick Kizlyk in different years.
Wright - Exmoor Curling Club (Midwest)
Of the field, I believe Jeff Wright may have the most club nationals appearances of any curler. He’s curled in all but one Club National Championship since 2016, when he finished as the runner-up. In that time, Wright has amassed a slew of wins. While he finished 1-4 in 2024, the experience the Exmoor rink has at club nationals can’t be discounted. Not to mention, Wright is no stranger to Milwaukee Curling Club. Jeff holds the record for most titles won at the annual Milwaukee Men’s Invitational.
Johnson - Fairbanks Curling Club (Alaska)
It likely is going to be an uphill battle for Team Johnson in Milwaukee, but this is the type of team make-up that has me excited for the future of curling in the country. Skip Jon Johnson is coaches a junior’s team and is a major advocate for growing the game in Fairbanks. Vice Dave Hejna skipped a Fairbanks team at each of the last two 5-and-Under national championships, and the front end is made up of two junior curlers, Dylan Skaggs and Coleman Martin, who have competed at the last few U18 national championships.
Participation from across the experience spectrum in Fairbanks is something I hope to see more of across playdowns from all regions in the future.
Pool B
Polo - Duluth Curling Club (Minnesota)
As I noted back in January, thanks to Sean Gallagher, Team Polo is the first team to represent Duluth Curling Club at club nationals since 2011. Considering the curlers who have come out of that club, it’s a really remarkable nugget. The Polo rink dropped one game at their regional playdowns, and notably, that one game was one where Joe Polo was unable to play.
Out of the entire field, Joe Polo is likely the most noticeable name, having earned a bronze medal at the 2006 Olympics and serving as the alternate during the 2018 US gold medal run. Sam Thiesse and Derek Benson are good curlers in their own rights, though many casual curlers are more familiar with their spouses on the women’s circuit (Cory Thiesse and Courtney Benson). The most unknown name is their vice, Matt Mellin, who is the reigning 5-and-Under national champion skip.
Workin - Fargo-Moorhead Curling Club (Dakota)
While the MoPac region received the additional berth for the women’s event, that additional berth went to Dakota on the men’s side because they had 17(!!!) teams enter their regional playdown. Team Workin, the reigning bronze medalists from 2024 nationals, made it to the finals undefeated to take on Team Berg and came up short.
This is yet another team with a significant amount of national championship experience outside of the club event. As already mentioned, Evan Workin curls with Tim Hodek on the men’s circuit, and the vice, Jordan Brown, won a US Mixed National Championship with Workin (and Rachel Workin of Team Podoll) in 2019.
Nelson - Madison Curling Club (Wisconsin)
While Wisconsin might not have had the 17 teams that Dakota had for their playdown, they did end up with an impressive 14. Dave Nelson and his team from Madison came out on top, winning all 5 games, including a low-scoring 3-2 affair to claim the state title.
I believe this is the first club nationals appearance for all 4 team members except for vice Pat Roe who went 5-5 in 2018 playing front end for David Brown. Lead Erich Inglin competed in the 2023 5U National Championship in Hibbing, and Will Buckingham might not have much for playing experience at club nationals, but he did get to watch his daughter win the whole thing playing lead for Team Schroeder last year. That might have been more nerve-wracking than having to play!
Bond - Granite Curling Club of Seattle (Pacific Northwest)
The last time the Pacific Northwest Curling Association took home a medal from the men’s side of the Club National Championships, Sam Galey threw third rocks on the way to taking home the championship in 2018. 2025 marks Sam Galey’s return to club nationals, this time playing with former competitive teammate, skip Chris Bond. Both Bond and Galey curled together at the US National Championships in Spokane in 2020.
They’re returning to championship competition in Milwaukee with Nick Pleasants and Thorsten Frank, who has competed at the 5-and-Under National Championships, at the front end. While they did drop one game at their regional playdown, I would not be shocked to see Bond make a run and find themselves in the playoffs where they’ll be a tough out for anyone.
Packard - Milwaukee Curling Club (Host)
Will Buckingham gets to have the club nationals experience after watching his daughter, Lois, compete in it last year. Jay Packard gets to have the club nationals experience with his sons, Colin and Campbell, and that’s a pretty incredible thing. The skipper is also the chief ice technician at Milwaukee Curling Club, so with USA Curling bringing in their own ice tech, I hope Jay gets to enjoy his time curling with his sons and vice Terry Walsh. Packard won a 6-team playdown for Milwaukee men’s teams with a 5-1 record and hopes to continue some of that magic when he takes the ice against Team Polo for their first game on Wednesday night.
Levy - Detroit Curling Club (Great Lakes)
I was a little surprised to see Team Levy get the bottom seed in pool B, but I suppose it has to be someone. Detroit Curling Club is represented for the first time at men’s nationals since 2018, when Ben Levy threw 3rd rocks on the way to a 3-6 finish. Because of the number of teams competing at playdowns at Great Lakes for men and women, and only having 4 sheets of ice, the Detroit rink had to navigate a challenging playdown to earn their trip to Milwaukee.
Levy lost their first game of the event but then went on a run to meet the GLCA’s 2020 Club Nationals, Scott Strouse in the finals. Because Strouse was undefeated and Levy had dropped a game, Levy needed to beat Strouse twice to qualify, and they won both games in pretty convincing fashion. Both vice John Gaul and lead Steven Smith have competed at 5-and-Under nationals in recent years.
My Picks
Gold: Leichter (Broomstones)
Silver: Polo (Duluth)
Bronze: Berg (Fargo-Moorhead)
At the risk of being repetitive: there is not a whole lot of science behind these guesses because they’re just that — guesses. I believe both Fargo teams will make the playoffs, but there are so many good curlers across both pools, it’s hard to tell who will emerge from the long week in Milwaukee. My best guess is that the peer seeding will end up being pretty accurate with Leichter, Berg, Polo, and Workin making up the semifinals.
I was very impressed with Leichter’s run through GNCC playdowns, going undefeated across 8 games (no other team in the field played this many in their playdown), and only one of those games was close, so I’m ultimately going to stick with them as my pick for the title, Polo taking second, and the two Dakota teams battling it out for the 3rd-place game.
There is going to be no shortage of fantastic games on both the men’s and women’s sides in Milwaukee. If you find yourself in eastern Wisconsin or northeastern Illinois, consider making the drive up to Milwaukee Curling Club. For the rest of us, I hope you’ll take some time out of your days (or nights) to celebrate these curlers and watch some great curling.
I’m looking forward to watching and then recapping club nationals in my next newsletter!