Curling, Etcetera_ A Whole Bunch of Stuff About the Roaring Game - Bob Weeks [14]
“They look like they’re going jogging. Or maybe going to a pyjama party.”
—Werenich commenting on the new-style athletic gear being worn by several European teams at the 1990 World Curling Championships
“I don’t want him as my coach. I’ve worked 32 years for this moment. I don’t want someone like him jumping in.”
—Werenich, after winning the 1990 Brier, when he would not accept Canadian Curling Association official and longtime rival Warren Hansen as his team coach for the World Championships
“I went to Sweden, drank beer in my room, and came home with a bouquet of flowers and a $5 silver tray.”
—Werenich summing up his experience at the 1990 World Championships in Vasteras, Sweden
“They not only want me to look pretty, they want me to be able to dance, too. I just hope they don’t ask me to use Grecian Formula and get my teeth fixed.”
—Werenich, when told he would have to lose 22 pounds and do aerobic exercise if he hoped to qualify for the 1987 Olympic trials
“How do you think this would look on my ass, Leon?”
—Werenich, while mooning Ontario Curling Association official Leon Sykes after Sykes had presented him with his Purple Heart for winning the 1981 Ontario championship. Werenich had battled officials all week over a problem with the playoff format.
“We went into this thing thinking we needed to be 8-3 to get into the playoffs. We’ve got the easy three over with. Now we have to go over the hard eight ones.”
—Werenich at the 1984 Brier in Victoria after the defending champions started out 0-3
“They’re four real jerks. I know where they can put their brooms.”
—Werenich referring to the Swedish team in the 1983 World Championship, skipped by Mikael Hasselborg. The Swedes used messy corn brooms to sweep, a tactic Werenich believed was akin to cheating. For years after that incident, the Hasselborg team carried pictures of Werenich and teammate John Kawaja with them, saying they used them to get up for important games.
“When I’m on the curling ice, that’s my office. I’ll challenge anybody in the world on certain things, like calling strategy. I know curling, okay? But I really don’t know anything else, just curling and firefighting.”
—Werenich to author Jean Sonmor in the book Burned By The Rock
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
In some places where curling isn’t always a mainstream sport, curlers have had to make do with whatever they can to play their game. Here are a few unusual locations in which curling has been held:
• In 1992, the Imperial Grand Ballroom of the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, was transformed into a curling rink to host the Desert Spiel, a curling pro-am in which players competed on teams skipped by Canadian, U.S., and world champions. Curlers from across North America descended on Vegas to play in the event on ice made by world-renowned ice technician Shorty Jenkins.
• Vegas isn’t the only place where curling has been held in a casino. In 2007, a made-for-television skins game was held in the Entertainment Centre at Casino Rama, near Orillia, Ontario. The location is usually reserved for singers and comedians, but the high-stakes shootout brought together Glenn Howard, Kevin Martin, Wayne Middaugh, and Brad Gushue.
• On more than one occasion, the skating rink in front of Rockefeller Center in New York City has been changed into a curling rink for an exhibition of the roaring game. In 2007, television personalities were given a lesson in curling by American Olympians Cassie Johnson and Pete Fenson in the heart of Manhattan.
• Curlers have been known to have the odd drink and so it might not be that big a surprise that a bonspiel was held in a location where some of this liquid is manufactured. No, not Scotland and Scotch, but California and wine. In 2007, a bonspiel was held in Vacaville, California, in the heart of Napa Valley. A local hockey rink was transformed into curling sheets, and the competitors threw rocks and sipped Merlot.
• According to the International Guide