Thank you, U.S. curling people (and sheep)
There remains some debate about … the sheep.
They made colourful appearances in the background at the U.S. Nationals inside The Rink at the American Dream shopping center.
They started out small in number, but steadily grew during the championship.
The sheep were clearly seen dotting the carpeted “field of play” during Curling Stadium’s streaming coverage.
What were they and where did they come from? And who was responsible?
If it weren’t for the venue itself—and the sheep—Shawn Olesen and his mates would have ranked as top show stealers at the championships.
Olesen is the head ice technician for USA Curling, and he and his merry team of icemakers did yeoman’s work preparing championship-caliber ice in the middle of a shopping mall.
Olesen is one of a kind and the top ice guy in the U.S. for a reason.
But “Shaun The Sheep” and his own band of colorful friends almost garnered as much attention as the elite athletes who competed on the ice.
The sheep had curling social media talking and aflutter with questions and intrigue.
Even USA curling official Randy Czarnetzki got in on the fun, posting daily updates.
Mysteriously, the sheep took on the look of a new life form each day, shifting from mere spectators (with unpurchasable ice-level seating) to becoming members of the ice crew to “working” as USA Curling officials—complete with jackets and communication earpieces.
Knowing the jokesters that Czarnetzki and his wife Susie are—she’s USA Curling’s National Chief Umpire—I’m sure they were behind some of the daily shenanigans.
Or was it someone else on Olesen’s crew … like Charlotte Curling’s Frank Mogavero?
There is also debate about who found them first and started bringing them to the playing surface—was it the athletes themselves?
The sheep came from the Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park, just one of the many New York City-sized attractions located inside the American Dream. They’re decorations from that installation which double as kids’ seats … and rumour says the players began lifting one or two as the week went on.
The herd simply grew from there.
Speaking of Olesen, the quiet and soft-spoken North Dakota native and his crew did an incredible job inside an unpredictable facility. He continually produces top-notch, championship ice across in the most challenging of venues and locations, which include Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Olesen was an understudy to the legendary and longtime USA Curling head ice technician David Staveteig, who resigned at the end of the 2019 season. Olesen was named as the replacement for his mentor a short time later.
But with icemaking half-art and half-science, the American Dream had to have presented a sheep of a different color. Daniel Ostheimer is the Broomstones Curling Club head ice tech—and was the assistant to Olesen last week—and he acknowledged the challenges the crew faced.
In an online post the day after the men’s and women’s finals (won by Team Tabitha Peterson and Team John Shuster) Ostheimer mentioned Olesen’s guidance in helping navigate the two-week affair, from the start of setup to the conclusion of tear-down.
“If you would have told me I would be a part of making championship ice in a mall a year ago, I probably would have called you crazy,” Ostheimer wrote. “With the leadership of Shawn Olesen, I worked on a team that did amazing things. Learned a lot over the past two weeks.”
American curlers know firsthand about Olesen’s abilities but a few quietly mentioned their concern before round-robin play last Monday night.
“I was skeptical when they said that we’d be playing in a mall, but the crowds were great and made such a fun environment to play in,” Shuster third Chris Plys posted. “Our ice crew at USA Curling also knocked the ball out of the park.”
“The staff of USA Curling this week was unmatched,” Shuster said in a lengthy Facebook post.
“The event you all put on in what had to have been an incredibly new and challenging place was second to none. That being said, the American Dream mall is a top-notch place with top-notch people working there.”
Despite the serious nature of the championships, there seemed to be a prevailing sense of fun throughout.
And then there were the crowds. There is nothing small about the Big Apple, and that included the big-time curling inside the American Dream and the amount of people packing the building as the sold-out championship weekend drew closer.
Curling needs more outside-the-box thinking, and the decision to host the U.S. National Championships a stone’s throw from the shadow of Lady Liberty provided big exposure in a completely different area of the country.
Even with college basketball in full swing, plus the NBA and NHL in the heart of their regular seasons, hosting a U.S. curling championship event in the nation’s largest media market can’t be a bad thing.
Former NFL All-Pro and Team Ruohonen lead Jared Allen did a live hit on local New York television one morning, and a handful of stations covered the pre-competition media day.
The Curling Stadium livestreams were hosted at the USA Curling website and numerous CurlingZone platforms. Every game was covered, and the men’s final tracked between 7,000 and 8,000 viewers in the early going.
Skip Delaney Strouse took note of local sports fans getting their first doses of curling at the rink during round robin play.
“I love seeing people walk by taking photos, there’s so much media and so many people wanting to see what it’s about,” Strouse said.
“I see new faces every day which isn’t usually the case when I go to a nationals. In general, the environment is really fostering something really exciting in the sport.”
