It was the afternoon of February 21st, and we were just hours away from the start of the first, of what we hope will be many, Guardians of the Ice Bonspiel (GOTIB) at the Minot Curling Club (MCC). Arriving first was the skip (team captain) for the Missile Monkeys curling team, Kyle Hostetler. Hostetler flew in from Albuquerque New Mexico where he was stationed after PCS’ing from Minot Air Force Base (MAFB) and still resides with his wife and 3 children after retiring from the Air Force this year.
Fitting that Hostetler should be the first to arrive at the event as he was to be honored during the opening ceremony of the GOTIB for his dedicated efforts founding and supporting the military curling partnership between the MCC and MAFB. Hostetler joined the MCC in 2018 with a couple of his colleagues in the maintenance group on base, they competed in the MCC regular city leagues until the 2021 season. During the slow days of 2020 Hostetler got the idea that there should be a Military Curling league and maybe even a Military Curling Championship, he approached the MCC and pitched the idea and found support.
Hostetler’s dedicated efforts bared fruits and the MAFB Extra Mural Curling was founded starting in Jan 2021, and continues to this day with 17 teams competing this year on Tuesday nights. Now with the GOTIB even his dream of an international and inter-branch military curling event has become a reality. Hostetler was presented with a plaque commemorating his contributions and vision fostering camaraderie and competition among our service members through curling during the opening ceremony of the GOTIB.
Next to arrive was a team from Las Vegas who found the information on reddits /r/curling and decided they were in. “One of the local curling clubs had an open military night, a learn to curl event. A lot of us wanted to try curling for fun” according to team member Chris Debroy “right now it’s just 4 of us” and the team is competing in one of the curling club’s regular leagues. Where are the team members from? “Ohio, Florida, Florida and upstate New York” and none of them had curled before. “That first learn to curl event was the first time we all curled. We had only seen it on TV before that” according to Debroy. One of the members was from Bowling Green in Ohio where there were regular curling leagues. “Next year there is a team of veterans that will plan on being here.”
A member of the Minot Curling Club, Dan Ringrose broke into our conversation briefly to welcome the team to Minot. The group had participated in a spiel (short for Bonspiel) before their trip to Minot, having curled 5 games in that competition.
And what happens next year when the entire team PCS’s out of Las Vegas. This group flies the MQ-9 Reaper “which is remotely piloted aircraft” out of Creech Air Force Base “we’re with the 11th Attack Squadron”.
Their shared story of trying to get a curling league started at a base located in the middle of the desert gave a bit of insight into their determination. Today was Friday, and the team had flown into Minot on Thursday. Winning games would be a great option, but the fellowship and comradery were most important. The goal of this group is to build a foundation for future Airmen to come and try curling and get the continuity of a curling presence at the local curling club.
Out on the ice, volunteers were doing the last minute prep work before the 2-day bonspiel would begin. There were 3 main sponsors for this first-ever event: The Northern Sentry, Ackerman-Estvold and Verendrye Electric.
Word was that there would be a team from The Naval Academy in Annapolis, and sure enough the group of 4 arrived mid-afternoon. “Yep, we’re The Screamin’ Goats” says skip Quinn Gonzalez. “Wes (Wesley Mason) reached out to us via our Instagram page and once we heard about it we all said whatever it takes to make this happen.
We have to do it. It would be the coolest experience ever” says Gonzalez. The group left the east coast on Friday morning and were raring to go for the spiel on Friday afternoon. Unlike the team from Vegas “this team, well this is year 3 for us, but I have been curling for around 9 years.” Being from Wilmington, North Carolina, it was easier to find dedicated curling ice and organized leagues “I started curling once a week, and pretty soon it turned into twice a week, so I started doing that.” There is a group of 20 people on a rostered team in Annapolis and different team members may find themselves together according to schedules and availability. The entire team are seniors this year and will be graduating from the academy “with 3 of us going to flight school right after graduation and one of us is going to do to school for subs” says Gonzalez. The submariner of the team, Loren Steinberg, is from Fargo, North Dakota. She earned her nomination to the Naval Academy in 2020.
Wes Mason took a few minutes from his busy schedule to talk about the Military Curling League “which started with just 7 teams during covid. That was a huge challenge” according to Wes. Still the league continued on Tuesday nights. “And this year we have 17 teams, and there’s still room for growth. Of course, the challenge is that a team forms and then a couple of years later two, three or four of them PCS out and need to be replaced.”
The bonspiel opening ceremony kicked off at 1730 with a local bagpiper playing martial marching tunes as the competing teams marched around the ice double file behind the flag bearers, who had the colors affixed to curling brooms slung over their shoulders. Standing at attention on the ice while O’ Canada and the Star Bangled Banner were performed gave the event that mix of formality and fun that most would agree is a hallmark of the sport of curling.
12 teams total competed over the weekend, along with the 2 out of town teams mentioned previously there was also a Canadian Armed Forces Army team from the CFB Shilo base across the border by Brandon Manitoba. The teams competed in 4 team pools playing a round robin, with the top 2 teams in each pool moving onto a single elimination bracket to crown the champion.
Smiles and laughs could be heard and seen all weekend, the curling itself was secondary to the camaraderie, but the teams still left it all out on the ice. The event championship came down to the very last stone, the Screamin’ Goats had a 1 point lead on the Missile Monkeys with the Missile Monkeys needing to throw the last stone around a pile of guards and sit right by the button (center of the target) to force a tie and move to a skips draw (curling shoot out). In a heart breaking turn for some players, the Missile Monkeys came in an inch too narrow and wrecked on the guards, giving the Goats the honor of being the GOTIBs first champions.
8 PM Saturday night the Northern Sentry Trophy was presented by publisher Ted Bolton to the winning team, the Screamin’ Goats who were led by skip Quinn Gonzalez with Eric Tingle, Sarah Moore, Loren Steinberg rounding out the roster. The dates for next year’s Guardians of the Ice Bonspiel were tentatively set for February 20th – 22nd of 2026.
Others placing were:
2nd Place, Missile Monkeys: Minot AF Team
Players: Kyle Hostetler (retired), Levi Janssen, Jacob Romig, Jason Keen (retired)
3rd Place: Ice Strikers: Minot AF Team
Players: Steven Lawless, Erick Duran, Ashley Reers, Emoke Tothe
