Oakville, Ontario Day 1&2

Well, it's our very first time on the ice this season and I have to say, we're looking pretty BALLIN' and Laura hasn't even fallen yet..

We left for Toronto yesterday (Thursday) evening and typical Team Walker travel dilemmas ensued. Apparently thunderstorms across the country were enough to cause delays all over the east coast and while Karyn, Nikki and Monica waited in Boston during a three hour delay, Laura and Jillian in Philadelphia waited even longer. Finally the team was reunited at 1:45 AM in Toronto (pronounced two-ron-two.. don't ask). Facing a half hour drive to reach our host family's home in Brampton, we promptly popped in our CWB Season 4 BALLIN' cd and drag-raced our GOLD minivan down Route 9-esque highways against some skeevy Indian dude who wanted to get Karyn in the back of the van if you know what I mean.. After being thoroughly sketched out and thoroughly exhausted, we called it a night at 3 AM, thoroughly anticipating the 6 AM wake up call to come soon and the beginning of the tournament.

Well the next morning was not pretty as only Nikki showered. But Team Walker entered the Oakville Curling Club with class and got right into game one against the Laura Crocker rink of somewhere in Ontario. An amazing Laura runback, two Nikki high hit peels and massive amounts of Jillian butch sweeping later, Team Walker won it's first cash prize reward and first game in Canada for a while now.. It was pretty exciting and we celebrated by buying ourselves lunch at Wholefoods, which brought our cash money flow back to zero.

Being thoroughly exhausted as we were, Team Walker took a quick nap in the gold minivan of heaven and then got right back out there for more Canadian ass-whooping, this time taking on most of an Ontario (Ottawa?) rink that we played and lost to in Calgary, Alberta back in 2005. After five ends the score was 9 to 0 for Massachusetts and Team Walker received it's second cash money prizes galore in the form of fifty bucks that will most likely be spent on food tomorow! Canada and cashspiels are so cool, you get money to curl, what a great idea.

So overall, a pretty decent day in beautiful, flat, eerily and densely populated Ontario. Time for some real sleep and more curling to come tomorrow! IT'S CURLING SEASON ONCE AGAIN!!!

Car Wash 2007

Yay Karyn!

http://www.usacurl.org/usacurl//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205&Itemid=1

Henry, Cousins named USA Curling's top coaches for 2007 Wally Henry and Karyn Cousins are USA Curling's Coach of the Year and Developmental Coach of the year respectively.

Aug. 10, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USA Curling announces 2007 coaching awards

(STEVENS POINT, Wis.) - Wally Henry, Beaver Dam, Wis., and Karyn Cousins, Medfield, Mass., have been named USA Curling's top coaches for the 2006-07 season.

Henry was named 2007 USA Curling Coach of the Year after leading his daughter Debbie McCormick's team to back-to-back national championships and a fourth-place finish at the Women's World Championship in Aomori, Japan, in March. He was a member of the coaching staff at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and also coached McCormick's team to the 2003 world championship - the first and only world championship to date won by a U.S. women's team.

"Coach of the Year is an honor I never expected, and I am very thankful for the recognition," said Henry, a USCA Level IV coach, Level II instructor and Level I official. "Working with (USA Curling athlete development directors) Ed Lukowich and Rob Meakin over the past few years has allowed me to learn coaching techniques that will be of great benefit in the future."

Henry had a busy year as his men's team won the U.S. Senior National Championships and finished fourth at the 2007 World Senior Championships in Edmonton, Canada. He also is a two-time U.S. national champion and twice won the bronze medal at the subsequent world championships.

"As a curler, I never really had an interest in coaching until I was part of the staff at the 2002 Olympics, and then the clincher was being involved with the team winning gold in 2003," Henry said. "We really want to get to that level again and to have the opportunity to medal in 2010 at Vancouver. This team loves competing in Canada."

Cousins was named 2007 USA Curling Developmental Coach of the Year. She coached Monica Walker's junior women's team to back-to-back silver medals at the U.S. Junior National Championships in 2006 and 2007.

"The award is meaningful because it provides positive feedback from the U.S. coaching community that they like the work I'm doing with junior teams and junior camps," said Cousins, a USCA Level III coach, Level II instructor and Level II official.

With two members of Team Walker aging out of junior competition after the 2007-08 season (over age 21), Cousins sees big things for her team for the upcoming season. "I see them representing the U.S. at the Junior World Championships in Sweden in 2008." To reach this goal, Cousins will keep the team focused. "Team Walker needs to make the most of their available time," she said. "Juggling college schedules, on- and off-ice practices and 'spiels is tricky, but the team is motivated to make it all work."

Coaching positions in the sport of curling within the U.S. are primarily volunteer positions, thus asking a lot of an individual's time and financial input to make it work. "I am motivated by the progress I see in the youth I coach," Cousins said. "In addition to changes in skill, I see growth in perspective and attitude. It motivates me to have a hand in this growth, to inspire these young curlers to enjoy and value every minute of this phase of their curling careers."

The Coach of the Year and Development Coach of the Year awards are determined by the USA Curling Coaching Committee. Winners of these awards are nominated for the United States Olympic Committee annual coaching awards as well.

USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust Technologies and Nike as well as by AT&T, General Motors, The Home Depot, and Bank of America through a joint marketing program with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

(30)

For more information: Terry Kolesar, USA Curling, terry.kolesar@usacurl.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , 715-344-1199.

a note from philly

so only a few more weeks!! i'm getting wicked excited for our upcoming season. it is going to be the best yet. don't know if everyone's heard but 2014 winter olympics are in RUSSIA. GET PUMPED! haha it's been too long since we've been curling. i wish i could come home to play on the cape ice. i know it's not the best but it's ice. so i was trying to find an image for cwb, and this is what came up... it made me laugh and i thought it might make you smile too. i think it really captures our team's intimidation factor... haha


anyways... i can't wait to be back in the bay state. i know this post is kinda random but i wanted to say HI.

THE REAL DEAL : 2007-2008 SCHEDULE

TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN TO TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT
TEAM WALKER / CHICKS WITH BROOMS SCHEDULE

JUNE 15-17 MILWAUKEE CAMP AT THE PETTIT ICE ARENA

SEPTEMBER 28-30 JUNIOR CASHSPIEL (OAKVILLE, ONTARIO)
OCTOBER 19-21 NO BOUNDARIES CAMP (BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA)
NOVEMBER 2-4 OVCA JUNIOR SUPERSPIEL (OTTAWA, ONTARIO)
NOVEMBER 23-25 CORNWALL JUNIOR SPIEL (CORNWALL, PEI)
DECEMBER 8-10 BROOMSTONES OPEN SPIEL (WAYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS)

DECEMBER 26-31 GNCC JUNIOR REGIONAL PLAYDOWNS
(UTICA, NEW YORK)

JANUARY 12-15 WOMEN'S CASHSPIEL (LONDON, ONTARIO)

FEBRUARY 3-12 2008 USA JUNIOR NATIONALS
(PORTAGE, WISCONSIN)
MARCH 2-13 2008 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
(OSTERSUND, SWEDEN)

I've been sitting here too long, with a man from Milwaukee..

The haze clears over Lake Michigan and I catch my first glimpse of Milwaukee through the airplane window. It is a fairly unimpressive city with one lone white building that turns out to be just a bank. Jillian is on my left; we've had a great couple of flights stopping in Cleveland along the way, no delays. We even got to meet the pilot, told him all about curling and the Olympics and then went on our way after reminding him to fly safely and try not to crash. Continental is probably one of the best airlines we've flown yet. Certainly a huge improvement after AirTrain.

It's a blazing 85 degrees when we get off the plane. We meet Laura at baggage claim and head upstairs for a bite to eat as we will be waiting a while for a ride to come. Laura spilled her Starbucks everywhere... typical :) I feel like everywhere we go, people just look at us. I mean I won't deny I take extreme delight in watching people's reactions as our broom bag labeled "Team Massachusetts -- Curling" makes its way around the baggage claim carousels. I relish in noting which people are oblivious to oddities in front of them and those that take notice and make mental notes. Maybe because of that broom bag, they will one day try curling for themselves.

We decide to take a cab after an hour or so of waiting. You'd think a fifteen minute ride would be less than forty dollars. Either way we make it -- we step out of the cab and gaze at the monstrosity before us that is the Pettit Olympic Training Center. From there it is all dreamlike; the first person we meet is Rob Meakin who is off to rejoin Kerry Burtnyk in hopes of winning the Briar. Everyone that is anyone in the USA curling world is there... Debbie McCormick, Erika Brown, Todd Birr. We have made it..





***

After a perfect balance of hard work and socializing, Team Walker heads back to the East Coast. We've overused all of our muscles, made plenty of contacts (including the USA Women's Olympic Soccer Coach, April), and learned tons of new and interesting information about our sport. It really is all coming together -- Curling is becoming a full-fledged, funded, scientifically explored, Olympic sport. Someday professional USA curling atheletes will exist... and how cool would it be to be one of them?

All other athletes practice year round...

why must curling end.......?