USADSF Curling Team Spotlight

Hello! We are the US Men’s Curling Team.

I’m Joseph Bata and I’m from Minnesota. I’m the coach.

Hello, my name is Keith Mischo. I grew up in Wisconsin, but now living in Utah. I’m an alt, which means if a player is hurt, I take their place.

Hello, my name is John Knetzger, and I’m from Wisconsin. I throw first and second. which is the position called ‘lead’.

Hello, I’m David Nathanson. I’m from Minnesota and I play the position of ‘second’. I throw the third and fourth rock. I also communicate and sweep a lot.

Hello, I’m Calvin Rausch, from Minnesota. I’m the ‘vice-skip’ throwing the fifth and sixth rock.

Hello, my name is Herman Fuechtmann, from Minnesota. My position is ‘skip’ and I’m responsible for calling shots and throwing the seventh and eighth last stones.

Herman: Our team usually practices in different curling sheets and different clubs. Three of us are from Minnesota and we practice in Blaine against hearing leagues. These are four-hour games on Tuesday nights. Other players fly in for curling tournaments on weekends called ‘bonspiel’ as often as twice a month. All to practice and get ready for Deaflympics.

People are becoming more aware of curling as a sport. The US Men’s Curling team from the hearing Olympics won gold two years ago. As a result, the sport became more appealing and it’s growing with more people involved.

Calvin: This environment is not what I expected. I’ve been to Italy before, but this is my first time up in the mountains with the snow. It’s beautiful and I’m really impressed with Madesimo.

Calvin: We don’t bring our stones. Host countries provide the stones because each stone weighs 42 pounds. There are 16 rocks altogether. It’s worth about $700 - $1,000 each.

This tournament is very competitive with 12 countries and many good teams. We’ve played against them 4 and 12 years ago. We know each other well.

Calvin: In 2007, we got Silver medals. Nothing in 2015. Our goal is to get a medal here.

I hope we get into the top 4 because we compete for medals. It’s a high honor to represent the USA. We will show you and you will be proud of us.