DENVER, COLORADO—This is a team that is not necessarily supposed to be having the success that it has enjoyed the past few years. Coach Greg Major and his ladies curling rink representing the Houston Curling Club won the Mid America Curling Association (MACA) district playdowns (which takes in the area from Kansas to Texas in the US) have now qualified for the US National (Club) championship.
The Major rink is an arena team that play in an arena in Houston, Texas. “The success of this team is kind of a fairy tale story,” Mr. Major, who is originally from Gore Bay, told The Expositor. “Because we are based out of an arena, we only have ice to practice on four hours a week, two hours on Friday evening and two hours on Sundays. We virtually have no time to practice. But earlier this year we won the silver medal at the US Arena Nationals, having been three-time defending gold medal champions and then taking a silver in the event this year.”
“This team is so good we signed up for the MACA championships,” said Mr. Major.
The team includes skip Julie Segovia, vice Alisa Parks, second Heather Cook, lead Jessica Boswick and fifth Allison Miller. They participated in the MAC championship at the Rock Creek Curling Club in Denver.
“We ended up curling seven games in three days,” said Mr. Major. He explained after the round-robin component of the event, “going into our last game we had won four straight games. But we were beat by the Turbo rink representing Denver. So, after the round-robin they were undefeated at 5-0 and we were four and one.”
“In our last game of the round-robin, which was also the third game we had played on Saturday, with the altitude in Denver and having played five games in less than two days, our ladies looked gassed. They (Turbo rink) beat us in that game. But after good night’s sleep we were ready to go Sunday.”
“The rules outline that it is a double knockout, so among our two teams someone had to win two of three games, and the Turbo rink had won the first game on Saturday,” said Mr. Major. “We beat the Turbo team in a game that started at 9 am on Sunday morning, being up by several points.”
The third and final winner take all game on Sunday afternoon, “was a fantastic game,” stated Mr. Major. “We went up 5-1 after three ends and in the sixth end they got three points so were down 5-4. Then in the seventh they (Turbo) stole two to take the lead by one going into the final end.”
“In the final end we had the hammer, and there were rocks and guards in the house,” said Mr. Major setting the scene. “Our skip, Julie Segovia made a deuce, drawing behind a guard with her first shot to basically tie it and then drew to the four foot, with the hammer shot for the win.”
“Our goal is to medal in the MACA championships,” said Mr. Major. “In 2023 we went to the nationals and finished fourth, missing out on medaling by one spot.”
The MACA National championships will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin March 26-30.
