OLYMPIC FLASHBACK: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? //
the hammer shot that Tim was leſt with to win the game was even possible to make,” recalls Peplinski. “But he did make it – a perfect shot. I looked down and saw both their rock and ours were in the four-foot with ours maybe a centimeter closer to the button than theirs. Te joy we all felt was indescribable.” Tough proud of their performance at Nagano, you can hear the heartahche
in Mike’s voice when he talks about coming up short in the medal round (for a fourth place finish). “To go so far, come so close, and fall short ...” His voice trails off. “Later in the Olympics, aſter our competition was over, we were able to watch the USA women’s hockey team as they won their gold medal that year. At that point, it really hit me how incredibly close we came to accomplishing something so rare.” When I caught up with him recently, Peplinski had just returned from New York City where he was celebrating his 20th
wedding anniversary with his wife,
Michelle. He related that curling played a role in the two becoming engaged. In a burst of creativity, Mike had (through great effort and with the help of a good friend) spelled out his marriage proposal to Michelle at the local curling club – literally spelled out, on the ice, using all 64 of the four-sheet club’s stones. Mike’s dream to get to the Olympics started when he was 10 years old and had
first started curling. He says his mom tells the story of young Mike turning to his grandmother and saying, “Grandma, I want to be in the Olympics for curl- ing.” She explained that curling was not an Olympic sport (this was in 1984). “Oh, it will be some day,” he recalls saying. Somewhere in his mind, he felt he could be at a high level of performance and competitiveness with curling. Pep- linski says when his teams started winning, it made him want to practice more and learn more. “Te great coaches I’ve had over the years, I am really grateful to. Tey made me want to be the best that I possibly could be,” he said. Te influence of his coaches is something Mike, now 42, readily talks about. In fact, when asked, he can’t really attribute his success to just one of them.
“If
I have to pick one, it would be Olympic coach Tom Casper who was particularly helpful to me.” Ten he quickly adds, “But Lynita Delaney, who coached me for five or six years and started the junior program in Centerville, Wisconsin, is the one who really got me going and encouraged me to play competitively instead of just for fun. She was a huge boost.” Eighteen years aſter the Olympics, Mike’s life is filled with teaching fourth-
grade students at Locust Lane Elementary School in Eau Claire, Wis., as well as coaching baseball at Eau Claire North High School. Not to mention being a husband to Michelle and father to his two children, Matelyn and Jaren. Michelle also is a teacher and coaches basketball at Eau Claire North High. “Control what you can control” was a lesson from Coach Casper that Pep-
linski has taken to heart. “He taught us that you can’t control everything and that has become a life motto of mine,” offers Peplinski. So much so, that he loves instilling that philosophy in his students. “You can’t do everything. You have to stay within yourself. Tat allowed me to play at my best,” he explains. Mike, a self-admitted sports fanatic, clearly loves interacting with and coach-
ing his students. He takes the job seriously, using a system called three-dimen- sional coaching, engaging the athletes’ hearts and brains as well as their athletic skills. “Our goal is to teach them to be great people and contribute to society in the future. We coach their hearts and minds as well as their bodies and try to get to know them as people and reach them at their level. Te purpose is to get out- side of the Xs and Os. We end up building lasting relationships and ultimately gain greater success,” Peplinski said. It’s easy to feel his love for a sport that has given him a lot. “Curling gave me
a number of opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise. It took me around the world and gave me a chance at the Olympics,” he says. “I’m grateful to the sport.” Curling recreationally, and occasionally competitively, he says it is always
great to get out on the ice and meet up with people he hasn’t seen in a while. Inevitably, stories get told and memories are refreshed. Among these are one of his favorite non-competitive memories regarding the opening ceremonies in Nagano. It involved the men’s curling team’s desire to get a little TV face time dur-
ing their walk-in to the stadium. Knowing that they were participating in a sport that was being newly reintroduced to the Olympics in 1998, the curl- ers figured they were doomed to obscurity. But, being good strategists, “we thought it would be best if we were next to a famous athlete in a well-known sport because we didn’t think we would get on TV on our own.” So, they chose to walk in next to the well-known figure skater Tara Lipinski (little did they know that Lipinski would go on in those Olympics to win a gold medal.) And, the strategy worked – the CBS camera crew swooped in on Tara (and the curlers) as they came in to the stadium. Peplinski celebrated another
anniversary this past summer – 18 years with his new liver, donated by his father-in-law, Bill Brendel, shortly aſter Mike’s return from the Olympics. Before heading to the Olympics, he had been diag- nosed with an autoimmune con- dition, Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy, necessitating the transplant. How’s his health today? “I’m on
medications that, unfortunately, can interact with each other, and cause me, at times, to not feel that great but, all in all, my health is pretty good. I’m very fortunate to have the medications and the ups and downs balanced out most of the time.” He adds, “I’m grateful to be able to do what I want – I’m a father, husband, teacher, coach – so I’ll take it.” Q
Captions:
Te 1998 U.S. Olympic Team included (top, l-r) Tim Somerville, Mike Peplinski, Mike Schneeberger, John Gordon, and Tim Solin. Peplinski with family members (above), including daughter, Matelyn; son, Jaren; and wife, Michelle. Peplinski competing in a recent bonspiel (opposite, photo courtesy of Gary Giombetti, Hibbing Daily Tribune).
USA Curling (( 15
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