side national team and Five Elements clinic staff stated the following: “Te camp is an amazing success – way beyond my best hopes. I have never seen such unanimous agreement by campers and coaches that this is a huge benefit to everyone involved. I have NEVER seen my team so engaged and happy at a curling camp – in fact, I cannot identify any curler who is not enjoying this experience.” At the end of September, USA Curling’s in-
vestment in developing coaches and resources continued with a pilot program focused on adult curlers introduced at the Nutmeg Curl- ing Club in Bridgeport, Conn. Coaches Wayne Anderson and Clark Raven from the Grand National region worked alongside a USA Curl- ing coaching team of Rodger Schmidt, Phill Drobnick, Caitlin Maroldo, and 2010 Olympi- ans John Benton and Chris Plys. To summarize, a standardized educational
framework, coaches association, and coach- ing structure will help USA Curling, as the Olympic governing body in the sport, elevate the role of coaches; create greater demand and awareness for high quality coaching, and promote greater consistency of coaching ap- proaches within the U.S. curling community. However, we do not plan to stop here. Te
staff and Coaches Working Group will be evaluating how to better recognize the efforts of individuals within all sectors of the coach- ing community and, by capitalizing on sug- gestions from the junior coaching community, revisit how we can better recognize the efforts of individuals through the development of a peer-based recognition program annually and at select championship events. In closing, and not to be overlooked, devel-
oping coaching capability as well as education- al resources takes time – in fact, developing great coaches takes as much time, commit- ment and focus as developing great athletes! It is fair to ask, “How, will we know that we’ve been successful?” As we look toward the fu- ture, the USCA wants to see an increased in- terest in coaching in the curling community, marked by significantly greater numbers of coaches who become members of the Coaches Association; are engaged in the revised coach- ing education program at all levels, and whose athletes and teams either begin or continue to win medals at the Olympic, Youth Olympic, World Junior and World Curling Champion- ship events. Most importantly, the goal is to see new curlers young and old enjoying the sport and participating in it for a lifetime. n
// COMICS
// EIGHT-ENDER Bowling Green On April 14, 2012, the Williams rink made history at the Bowling Green Curling Club in Bowling
Green, Ohio, during the club’s USWCA All-American event. Te eight-ender is the second in the club’s 44-year history, but the first scored by club members. Second-year curler Jennifer Williams skipped while delivering lead rocks, Sharon Gargasz threw skip rocks, Scott Helle threw vice rocks, and Tim Polesovsky threw second rocks.