COVER FEATURE
by B.C. Kowalski
Curling persistence COVID shut down the curling center last season — now, curlers are ready to return as the sport celebrates 100 years in Wausau In mid-March of 2020, things were going well for the Wausau Curling Center and the Wausau Curling Club. They’d just wrapped up another season of league play, and the U18 National Curling Championship was slated to come to Wausau in May. It also happened to be the 100th anniversary of curling in Wausau, marking the year when the first folks to throw the heavy granite stones took to the Wisconsin River. And an Olympic year, always a boon for interest in the club, was less than two years out. COVID had other ideas. Business shutdowns all over the state began, the National competition was canceled, and curling for the foreseeable future was… ahem... on ice. In fact, other than an event featuring National men’s, women’s and doubles tournaments in May (multiple and strict COVID protocols were taken and not one single case resulted from the event), the curling club hasn’t seen any curling and the floors of the curling center were largely free of any ice. (New ice is created every season, in multiple thin sheets laid on top of each other for additional strength.) That’s about to change. Ice is currently being made at the facility layer by layer. Both new and seasoned club members are sending in inquiries to find out if curling is back on. And the winter Olympics are slated to start in February — that always brings in new club members and the club is sure to host coinciding “Learn to Curl” events to introduce the sport to those who gain an interest in watching it on TV. (Data shows curling gets the most interest on Google searches of any other Olympic sport, though that interest also drops off sharply after the games conclude.) This year the club can finally celebrate its 100th year as a sport in Wausau. The address sign on the front of the curling center, tucked away across from the soccer fields of the People’s Sports Complex, reads 1920 Curling Way. That’s a reference to the first year anyone threw a curling stone in Wausau.
Make it the best
Curling has always had strong support in the Wausau area, says Wausau Curling Club president Randy Brandner. That support extended through the COVID pandemic even as the membership overwhelmingly voted to not have a
2020-2021 season. Running a club the size of Wausau’s — with one of the top curling barns in the country — still costs a lot to maintain. How did the club get through the season? It turns out, club members stepped up to help pay the expenses, Brandner says. One donor came forward and offered to match any other donations. Between all the club members, they raised $50,000 to keep the club in the black during the shutdown season. Membership has always stayed pretty steady. Brandner says the membership has held steady at around 500 members, with people coming and going over the years. I asked because according to data from FiveThirtyEight, a data journalism website, interest in curling spikes during Olympic months far more than any other
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