Team Tesch Attributes Success to Realistic Expectations
November 29, 2023
After their Bronze medal win at Arena Nationals, Cale Tesch, skip of Team Tesch from Cedar Rapids Curling Club, had some positive words to share. “We tried to go into the event with realistic expectations. We really just wanted to play well and have fun. If we won a couple games along the way, great. If we got 2 wins, we were going to be happy. Dallas was in our pool and we had to play them first, and we knew they were multiple time champions.”
Tesch states that after Dallas took 4 in the first end, the rest of that game didn’t go their way. They were able to regroup as a team, and won the next four games against Rochester, Atlanta, Oval, and La Crosse to finish pool play 4-1. “At this point, we had already exceeded all expectations we had, so we just wanted to have fun going into the semi-finals. Due to tiebreakers Dallas was the #1 seed and we were the #4 seed, so we had a rematch with Dallas in the first game.”
Going into the Bronze medal game, Team Tesch knew they would face a tough team, but still held no expectations and were happy with how their event had gone that far. Cale gave the game breakdown: “We gave up a steal of 2 in the first end this time, but were up 5-2 at the break. They came out and tied it up after 6. We got 2 in the 7th and played a good 8th end to leave them really tough shots to try to score 2. Everything fell our way to get the bronze.”
Team Tesch also would like to note, “We seriously can’t thank enough all the support from friends in Cedar Rapids and all the MCA clubs. The countless texts, messages, posts, and people watching the live streams on Facebook was amazing and completely unexpected. The whole event was an absolutely amazing experience in every aspect.”
When asked about the future of the team, Cale noted, “Unfortunately, the team is probably going separate ways. Parker and Stephen’s fiancées are both expected to finish up grad school at the University of Iowa this spring. Both will probably be moving out of the Cedar Rapids area depending on where future jobs take them. Greg and I will have to figure out plans for next year.”
Team Tesch’s line-up includes Cale Tesch, Parker Abbott , Stephen Spence, and Greg Schmitt.
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