The good news about the end of the Bozeman Curling Club season was that we finished up all our planned league games and events before the COVID-19 pandemic shut downs occurred. The bad news was that the heart of the MT Bonspiel season with the Missoula Big Sky Bonspiel the Billing's Big Sky State Games Bonspiel were canceled so curling will have to wait for the Fall.

At this point we are planning for a normal Bozeman Curling Club leagues at Ressler starting in November 2020 and continuing into March 2021. We have listened to our members and we are planning a more competitive season with full tracking of scores and a league play down. Please look back here for updates and the opening of registration for the Fall and Winter 2020/2021 season.

If you have suggestions for our planning please email us at [email protected].

On the morning of Friday January, 31st the Bozeman Curling Club gave a Learn to Curl for the students of LaMotte School. LaMotte is a small K-8 country school on Bear Canyon road without gymnasium facilities, but has a great parents/school supported and maintained ice rink. PE Teacher Mark Aamot reached out to the club looking for ways to add curling to the life-long activity section for his students, and we were happy to provide a youth Learn to Curl activity. Boardmembers Joel Boehnke, Chad Kucera, Zeb Barber, and Garrett Turner brought equipment and stones to the LaMotte rink and instructed over 40 students from the 2nd - 8th grades. The students were introduced to curling, given brief instruction, and had the opportunity to throw real curling rocks on the ice in the form of some simple games. We all had a great time, and the club volunteers were energized by the excitement and enthusiasm of the great students and teachers of LaMotte School.

If you are a school or run a youth organization and would like to explore youth curling opportunities to help us fulfill our mission of expanding curling in the Bozeman area, please email [email protected] with your information and request.

Last weekend the Bozeman Curling Club hosted teams from our Sunday and Thursday leagues, out fellow Montana clubs, and from Logan, Utah for the 4th Annual Bozspiel. We all hope it was a fun event for everybody that participated, the BCC board and volunteers felt it was another great success, with the only problem being that the vacuum insulated tumblers we purchased for beer mugs did not arrive in time. Have no fear, we have received the mugs they look great and we will get one to everybody that purchased one. The competition started on Friday night with registration, pizza, and beer, and two draws to start us off.

The event continued Saturday morning with breakfast burritos donated and prepared by Santa Fe Reds (Thank You!). Saturday evening we had a banquet catered by Dickie's BBQ, where we raffled off a number of donated prizes including: a Pro-Bow Viking turned curler Jared Allen autographed jersey, a metal art rainbow trout by Iron Maiden, and a metal art curling stone/broom holder by CJ Verploegen (who also made our 1st place prizes), two pairs of hand crocheted party pants by our own Michelle Ponca, and great prizes from sponsors collected by our dilgent board member Chad Kucera.

Throughout the weekend we had plenty of beer provided by our beer sponsors including Neptune Brewing, Bridger Brewing, Beehive Brewing, Outlaw Brewing, Madison River Brewing, and Bozeman Brewing. Special shout out to Neptune for donating two very large kegs that made running out of beer impossible.

The competition ended Sunday with two draws to determine the champions of the different brackets (including the newly inaugerated "Chicken Bracket") with pictures listed below. Thank You All! to the participants and volunteers for making this another great event for the Bozeman Curling Club!

Sharp Shooters A Bracket 1st Place

Button Blasters A Bracket 2nd Place

Larry's Curling Stooges A Bracket 3rd Place

Stonados B Bracket 1st Place

House Rock B Bracket 2nd Place

Curl Haggard "The Rooster"

Ice is Right "The Hens"

We are holding a Learn to Curl on Dec 27th, 2019 from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Big Sky Town Center Ice Rink. The Learn to Curl is conjunction with the Big Sky Skating and Hockey Association. The public is welcome, but please pre-register here so we know how many people to expect.

https://bozemancurlingclub.com/index.php/club-events/event-registrations/clinics/learn-to-curl/big-sky-town-center-learn-to-curl-dec-27th

January 10th - 12th at the Ressler Motors Ice Rink

We hope to have another successful event following last year.

Here are the major highlights:

• Curling starts Friday evening
• Banquet Saturday evening
• Curling ends by 1 pm Sunday
• Endless Beer Mugs
• Raffle for signed Viking Jersy from pro-bowler turned curler Jared Allen

Registration found here: 2020 Bozspiel

It should be a great season of curling with new stones and a great looking paint job!

We have filled both the Fall Sunday and Thursday Night leagues. We have 27 teams on Sunday and another 9 on Thursday night making 36 teams in total.

The Fall Sunday League runs 8 weeks every Sunday 2:30 pm - 8:20 pm between Nov 3rd and Dec 22nd. The Fall Thursday League night league runs from Nov 7th through Jan 9th at 7:00 pm - 9:20 pm. The public is always welcome to come watch and cheer.

With our sucessful 2018-2019 season, the Bozeman Curling Club board decided it was time to invest in new set of stones to replace the older metal handled stones that we purchased from Bozeman Parks and Rec. Those stones were intended for outdoor use and were somewhat mismatched (if you played leage on Sheet 1 you should have noticed the two black stones that were noticeably different and slower than the other stones in the set).

Once the decision was made, Ryan Anderson negotiated a deal with George of Philips Stone and Rink Supply (formerly Dakota Curling Supplies) of Langdon, ND to trade in these old rocks for stones of beautiful Red Trefor granite quarried in Wales + new handles (Olympic Red and Yellow) with markings of sheet and number. The new stones were lightly used by their former owners, which was a club in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

To get the stones here, Ryan and Pat Anderson loaded the 1344 lbs of the old rocks, hauling them to Langon, ND and hauled back the new rocks for an 1800 mile, 4 day round trip. We all need to give Ryan and Pat a hearty cheer of thanks. Thanks!

The price of the new stones was $366 ea  + diesel, but we were able to get $200 ea for the old stones and handles, so the final cost to the club is very reasonable.

I am sure we are all looking forward to playing with our new stones this coming fall season. League starts on the first Sunday in November!

The 2018/2019 Bozeman Curling Club Leagues were a great success. In the Winter Session there were 25 teams playing on Sunday, and 10 playing on Thurday - with only two overlaps, making a total of 33 teams, and 165+ members in the Bozeman Curling Club.

The BCC also hosted the 3rd Annual Bozspiel with 23 teams participating from Montana, Utah, Washington, and Nebraska.

This year's leagues ended with a Mini-Tournament on March 10th crowning The Sharp Shooters as league champs. Congrats!

We would like to thank all of the BCC members for making curling a fun and growing sport in Bozeman.

We hope to see you all next season, and keep looking back here for news, Learn 2 Curl dates, and registration for the 2019/2020 season.