#debbie mccormick

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2010 Was Actually Pretty Good

In a few days it will be my birthday and full-on adulthood looms large. I figure now's a good time to look back on the year that was. While I can't control the future, I can control the past! So, let's strip away all the b.s. of 2010 and revel in the curling highlights for me, the the teams and the blog.

Last January started out well enough. When Team Zissou and the Bond Girls were prepping for MoPac playdowns in Seattle, Chris Erskine of the LA Times came by to do a story on curling. It's a pretty average curling article, but when in ran it in the paper, my photo was right there on the front page of the LA Times sports page, under Kobe and LeBron and a story on the LA Kings. Needless to say, that's the highlight of my curling career so far. Please note that my sweeping form has improved in the year since. At the end of the month, we had an Open House, and Olympic Skip John Shuster was in town to do the Leno show and he was gracious enough to stop by! He took pictures with the new curlers and did the raffle and everything. Super cool guy. He didn't pack his curling shoes, and had to borrow mine. I think all my bad luck rubbed off on him. I also had the chance to be on the radio. Kevin and Bean have been doing a morning show in Los Angeles for as long as I've been listening, so when they needed someone to talk about curling on the show, I was thrilled to get to do it! I was super nervous, but at least I was confident in my message, and I think I held my own. It ended with the proposition game; if they played us and won, we'd disband the league. It never happened because of scheduling. In February, the Simpsons curling episode aired, especially cool since The Face and I helped teach the writers about curling while the girls were at Club Nationals in '09. Then the Olympics happened and it was crazy! Exciting to see so many other people get interested in it. This blog got so many hits, mostly from my fake profiles of Olympians.

While we were teaching all the n00bs at learn to curls, the Bond Girls were off in Madison for their second straight Club Nationals appearance. In 2009 they made the local paper in Utica, this time they made it on TV. Better yet, once they returned, the girls were featured in a Spanish language show, Con Chile y Limon on our local Univision station as they taught the host all about curling. Hopefully I'll get video of that up at some point. It wasn't long before we were back on the ice and actually playing games. My top highlight that actually involves me curling this year was when we attended the PIC. We were so out of our element, but it was fun and a great learning experience. It wasn't always so pleasant for the Wife, but she came out of it with an overall good experience and a new tattoo. Vancouver is a rad town, hope to go back there and spend more time in the city. During the Summer, I programmed a short film festival for our bonspiel. It was a good crop of films, and Deadspiel is always a crowd favorite. The bonspiel itself was fun, Zissou and the girls got ousted from the A bracket and spiel in back-to-back draws by the eventual winners from Scotland. Even with the Olympics in our rear-view mirror, the demand for curling was still pretty strong. So much so that we got to teach people to curl in Vegas! If you know me, you know I'm a degenerate so when you add gambling to the combination of drinking and curling, it's like hitting 7-7-7 on that slot machine!

Photo by Mark Dossett

For Labor Day both teams trekked up to Vacaville, CA for The Crush bonspiel. It was a good trip, steady improvement for both of us, but the best part was meeting our second Olympic Skip, Debbie McCormick. She even signed my cowbell. Now if only I made it down to San Diego, I could have got Cheryl Bernard to sign the other side. Just as the new curling season was about to begin, Olson Curling came out with a new line of colorful curling shoes. I've been saying for as long as I've been curling that traditional curling shoes are pretty ugly, and apparently others agree. This is, by far, the most popular post on NoHoCurling.com. Maybe I should talk about shoes more often. So, when is Goldline or Olson going to hire me to design a shoe for them?

Speaking of hiring me. The Curling News tapped me to write an article on curling in America. I compared curling to narcotics and in my photo I'm drinking a giant beer. Yup. When I got that issue in the mail, it capped off a good week when I was tops in a curling pick 'em and won best costume at our curling Halloween party.

Curling in 2010 ended well in quintessential Los Angeles fashion. Team Zissou won the multi-league club championship. We lost our only game of the season in the Sunday league finals to the Bond Girls. However, we made it into the four team playoffs as the wild card (other winners were the Wednesday league and early Sunday league) by virtue of our 8-1 overall record. We finished the league with 10-1, beating the Bond Girls (2-1 against them for the season) after each of us had a semi final win. Based on this, I'd say a pretty swell year for Zissou, The Bond Girls and the NoHoCurling.com. Here's to 2011 being half as fun as 2010, at least on paper.

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Worlds Collide!

I haven't posted much more about the 49ers since pre-season. They started out strong, but they've come up short in so many games, that it's been pretty hard to watch some times. Alex Smith has gotten the nod to start again, and at times has shown flashes of why he was chosen number one over all. However, he seems pretty good for a crushing fourth quarter interception every game, so we'll see if he can shake that habit. Combine all that with the fact the Cardinals are finally looking again like the team who almost won the Super Bowl last year, and the playoffs are fading fast (that's putting it kindly). They would have a shot at a Wild Card slot, but they just lost to a team who is also in contention (the Packers). So it looks like the 49ers will get an extra month of off-season, again. However, if you thought the only connection to the 49ers and curling was this blog, think again. Looks like the AP set up session for 49ers tight end Vernon Davis to try the sport out, and see how an elite athlete feels about the athleticism of curling.

He's a good sport, and a good guy. If nothing else about the Mike Singeltary era, I think you can point to him as the turn-around factor for VD. Here's one more curling video, since I don't feel like putting a whole other blog out about it. Carson Daly's show is doing features on Olympic athletes (that whole NBC/Universal synergy thing). This aired a couple weeks ago, a segment on curling with Debbie McCormick.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Bon curling. My HCC week 6 recap should follow soon.

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Fit To Curl

My training has been a little stale as of late. My intention was to go at least 3 times per week, but the last couple weeks I've only managed to make it to the gym twice each week. I have, however, improved my running time. This exercise quest is an attempt to get into curling shape ff we make it to Club Nationals. We'd have to play 9, 10 end games in 5 days. Figure, even with a bonspiel, we'd play 2 or 3 games day, 2 days in a row. If we play both leagues this fall, it will be back to back games for 9 weeks. So, I'll probably need the conditioning regardless. Plus, it will help for softball, roller hockey and if we ever get to it, team handball. I received some good help from the USCA. They've been super nice, and extremely helpful and a good start. Definitely a good start. However, the information isn't presented in a manner, or set up in a fashion for an average curler (with a full time job and limited facilities) to really take full benefit. I'm trying to make it work, though. Today, I find through Google Reader, a new book that looks very promising. Fit To Curl written by John Morris seems to be exactly what I've been looking for. You can download a preview from the website, the images look good but not a whole lot of info to gleam right away. One of the cool things you can see, is a breakdown of what muscles you use during curling. This would have come in helpful last June when someone actually asked me that question at a learn to curl. I BS'ed an accurate (if not wholly incomplete) response. Now I know. The book doesn't ship until September 8th, and it looks like you can only order it from their website (no Amazon Super Saver shipping here). It's $19.95 and $10 for shipping to the US. In other words, my broke ass won't be ordering it anytime soon. • Debbie McCormick was featured on Milwaukee Public Radio recently. It's a good interview, she talks about some of the physical and mental training she goes through, as well as the Olympics, working at Home Depot under their Olympic program and some of her accomplishments. It's about 15 minutes long. • A couple weeks ago, CTV caught up with Canadian Olympic hopeful, 50 year old Randy Ferbey and documented his work our regimen. Ferbey talks about the importance of being in shape, since everyone is working harder now. And how his wife digs his more svelte appearance. Also learned from the CTV video page, Martin Brodeur shops at Target.

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Olympic Profiles: Debbie McCormick

I continue my series spotlighting some of the Olympic competitors we'll see at the upcoming games in Vancouver. Yesterday, I began with USA men's skip John Shuster. Today I'll look at his female counterpart.

Skip Debbie McComrick spots Bob Barker in the crowd at the Olympic Trials.

Photo: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Name: Debbie "Deborah" McCormick Country: USA Age: 35 Curls out of: Madison Curling Club Teammates: Allison Pottinger, Nicole Joraanstad, Natalie Nicholson, Tracy Sachtjen Highlights: 6 time US national champion Favorite Condiment: Best Foods Mayonnaise Hobbies: Watching Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune, Pheasant Hunting, Pheasant Preservation Training regimen: Curl hair in the morning, curl up with a good book, curl ribbon, then curl at the rink; Games of chicken foot and euchre Debbie's family immigrated to the United States from Canada when she was very young. Her father, Wally Henry, wanted to give his children a better life in the Land of Opportunity. He would risk his life sneaking them into the country, a treacherous 45 minute wait at the border checkpoint only served to make the family that much closer. Upon arriving in the US with only the clothes on their backs, and $20 to their name, the Henry's were relegated to the Canadian ghettos of Madison Wisconsin. It would be months before the Henry's could expand their diet beyond Canadian bacon and Moulson. Wally Henry would not let his family down, and he worked relentlessly to provide for the family. Living with the other Canadian ex-patriots, Debbie and her brother Donny practically grew up on the curling rink. Between curling sessions, she would learn English by watching American game shows like The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune. As the Henry's became cemented into the American way of life, they became resented by their less successful Canadian neighbors. Fearing for his family's safety, Wally has the family trained extensively in hand-to-hand combat and fire-arm proficiency. Again, Debbie excelled, and has since used her fire-arm skills to become a world class pheasant hunter. If she didn't need her face to sell calendars, she would also be a formidable opponent in women's MMA. Now, living the American dream, Debbie is on her way to the Olympics in Vancouver. The multi-hyphenate looks to expand her resume this Winter.