Cook County Curling Club
Duane Hasegawa is the board president of Cook County Curling Club. Duane spoke with WTIP’s Chuck Olsen on January 9, 2024 about the appeal of curling, some basics about gameplay, and the types of events hosted by the club for both beginners and seasoned curlers. The club’s next event is the Charles J. Futterer Memorial Bonspiel taking place March 8-10, 2024.
The interview transcript and audio are below.
DUANE HASEGAWA
I’m Duane Hasegawa, I’m the president of the Cook County Curling Club and this is a Tuesday open curling activity which we have on Tuesday evenings. Open curling is where curling members will play a game based on who is actually here, so it’s very informal. We also have a group of resident new prospective members who are trying to learn some curling instruction so they are here, and they’re here with one of our curling members to get some basic ideas about curling and this is what we are using to promote new membership for our club.
CHUCK OLSEN
Right, and so is this every Tuesday night in the winter?
DUANE HASEGAWA
We have a combination of activities in the curling club. We have open curling on Tuesday nights and Wednesday afternoons. Open curling is all members can show up and curl in various formats.
We also have two league nights. Monday night we have the traditional four-person teams that will play a traditional curling match and standings are taking place. On Wednesday nights we have a two-person social league.
We also have bonspiels. For example this weekend. A bonspiel is a tournament where curling teams will sign up to compete for a match and the curling club hosts about three bonspiels throughout the curling season. This happens to be the second one, it’s called the two-person champagne open bonspiel and it’s a two-day event, and just like it’s described there is going to be two people on a team instead of the traditional four-person format and it’s a little shorter game but we play more games.
Plus we have dinner, lunch and social hour.
CHUCK OLSEN
And champagne?
DUANE HASEGAWA
Yes, champagne and dinner will be for the bonspiel, exactly.
CHUCK OLSEN
Great. I don’t imagine champagne is often imbibed here at the community center so that sounds like a classy event.
DUANE HASEGAWA
It’s a classy event for us. We have a third bonspiel that is our larger one. It’s the Charles J. Futterer Memorial Bonspiel and that’ll be on March 8th, 9th and 10th and that is one where we have a traditional four-person team playing a regular set of matches with the winners advancing to the final events on Sunday.
CHUCK OLSEN
Okay, and what is your history with the curling club here? When did you get involved and why did you decide to get into curling?
DUANE HASEGAWA
I’ve been a member of the curling club for about 11 years and I joined the club the very first year that my wife and I moved to Grand Marais. We enjoy winter sports and we wanted to meet some of the community people, and we noticed that there was a curling club so we dropped in and watched, and then we participated in the open curling events on Wednesday afternoons for a number of years. Then we started to play in league play.
I did it for recreation of course, I didn’t even know anything about curling when it started but I needed some activity especially to maintain balance and physical strength, so curling was ideal for me.
CHUCK OLSEN
Great. What is the real quick 101 on how does curling work – what is the stone and some of those basics?
DUANE HASEGAWA
So the game of curling is played on an ice rink. We have curling stones or rocks as they are called. There are eight stones on a side so there’s going to be 16 stones that two teams will be using during a match.
So the object of the game is to position your stones as close as possible to the center of the target which is on the other side of the rink – that’s called the house. Points are awarded for having your team’s stones closer than your opponent’s and so the strategy is to try to maintain your stones as close as possible while trying to either remove or allow or disallow or impede your opponents from getting into the center area. So it’s a game of strategy of course, and in a four-person event each player will throw two stones and then you’ll alternate throwing with the opponent’s throwing.
One team member will be on the opposite side who will decide what stone should be placed in what position and will tell his teammate who’s throwing the stones where to put that stone. So that person is the skip, and the skip will also throw two stones and in a regular game the last two stones for each of the of the two skips. So the game consists of eight ends.
An end is defined by having all eight stones thrown down to the other rink and in a typical game there are eight ends and that would be considered the game.
CHUCK OLSEN
Gotcha. Behind you I’m seeing stones gliding smoothly down and it’s very compelling to see that. For me it’s always been kind of a mysterious and compelling thing.
DUANE HASEGAWA
The ice surface itself is not smooth. It looks smooth but it actually intentionally has raised areas and we do that by actually spraying some water on the rink and it freezes, and then we will take the top off with a sharp instrument and what that does is it allows a stone that has a rotation to it to continue that rotation as it goes down the rink and that is what is called curling.
CHUCK OLSEN
So it needs a little bit of friction.
DUANE HASEGAWA
Needs a little bit of friction, and a lot of finesse to have the stone positioned in the right spot with the right curl for the right distance.
CHUCK OLSEN
Have Olympian curlers come out of Cook County Curling Club?
DUANE HASEGAWA
No not through Olympian but we have had national champions in the USA Curling events in the past. They’ve been usually some seniors that have played quite a bit of curling from years past so we have some and have had a number of very good curlers coming out of Cook County.
CHUCK OLSEN
Yeah I’ve heard that it’s a storied history of the club. Do you know how old the club is?
DUANE HASEGAWA
It’s got to be over almost 30 years as far as a club is concerned. The current arena here is about 25 years or so and we’ve been an integral part of the community center as you can imagine since we use the arena part during the curling season, which is from the end of October through mid-March.
CHUCK OLSEN
Do you want to talk a little bit about what we see here in the arena and what that transformation is like?
DUANE HASEGAWA
In early March what happens is there’s some compressors that will cool off the surface, and then the surface is flooded with water until we have an appropriate amount of water, and then we put in the decals, the actual targets, and it’s got paint to make it look white so it’s not the concrete actual surface there, and then the compressors have to stay on so the ice will stay frozen but it also requires a lot of maintenance.
Additional water has to be applied, scraped and then sprayed again to create the right surface, so it’s done at least three times a week during the curling season and it’s especially done prior to league play or open play.
CHUCK OLSEN
Great, so you obviously still are playing a lot yourself. Have you heard folks say why they keep coming back or what lured them in?
DUANE HASEGAWA
Curling is a sport for all for all ages. As you can see here we have children, we have older seniors, we have people who are working and it is a sport you can play for a long time. It’s also a very social activity because it’s a team sport and there are some rules about how we conduct ourselves, we are pretty good sports about how the rules are enforced which is good sportsmanship, and that’s what makes curling so fun.
CHUCK OLSEN
Great, well that’s the Cook County spirit anyways probably.
DUANE HASEGAWA
Exactly.
CHUCK OLSEN
Yes. Well thanks Dwayne.
DUANE HASEGAWA
Thank you.
CHUCK OLSEN
Good luck with the curling club this year.
MATT ZILLER
My name is Matt Ziller, here with my daughter Linnea, and we’re curling. It’s a Tuesday, it’s an open night so it’s kind of low-key and learn about curling.
CHUCK OLSEN
Have you been before?
MATT ZILLER
Yeah we’ve been, this is our first year we’ve been here most Tuesdays.
CHUCK OLSEN
Okay Linnea what do you like about curling?
LINNEA
That it’s fun and it always keeps you moving.
CHUCK OLSEN
Similar answer for you?
MATT ZILLER
Yeah there’s a lot more to it than just throwing a stone down the the ice, so it’s pretty interesting and the more you learn it seems like the more you need to learn.
CHUCK OLSEN
Strategy I’m seeing is important.
MATT ZILLER
Yeah there’s a lot of strategy, a lot more than I thought.
CHUCK OLSEN
And how is it going today?
MATT ZILLER
Pretty good. It’s a work in progress!
CHUCK OLSEN
Yep, okay thanks for chatting.
Chuck Olsen January 22, 2024
