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.

Check out the Midwest Curling Association for more information about curling near you.

The calendar ticked over to August this morning.  That means that our first Midwest Curling Association events are on the horizon.  We are looking forward to a jam packed year full of member club bonspiels, MCA hosted events like Prairie State Games, and many MCA Playdowns.  Because of all of the amazing events we offer throughout the region, we have separated the calendar by member club events and MCA hosted events.  Keep an eye on our Midwest Curling Association page for more information and registrations.

The MCA Arena Bonspiel was established to create a fun, no-frill event for MCA regional arena curlers to compete against each other. The event will rotate between the arena clubs and be hosted simultaneously with the MCA Arena Playdowns, a new competitive national qualifier. Sponsored by the Midwest Curling Association, this event is offered at a low cost and allows curlers to socialize, curl, and watch some great games.

This year, we had three teams from Cedar Rapids Curling Club and St Louis Curling Club participate in this two-day, three-game guarantee event at ImOn Ice Arena in Cedar Rapids, IA. We look forward to welcoming more curlers and hopefully more regional arena clubs at the event in 2024!

1st Place:

2nd Place:

3rd Place:

Team Hagenbuch: Windy City Curling

Bella Hagenbuch, Rilee Kraft, Mae Hagenbuch, and Lauren Hein

Team Schallmo: Exmoor Country Club

Nicholas Schallmo, Joey Pieracci, Gideon Heltzer, and Tristian Knoll