BILLINGS — For the first time ever, Billings played host to the USA Curling Arena Regional Playdowns, a playoff to compete at the 2025 Arena National Championships this fall.
“The big focus of this was trying to find a good middle ground for all three states to have their clubs come and be represented. We could get more teams, more Montana representation, but not excluding the teams from North or South Dakota, as well," said Nick Vertz, the president of the Billings Curling Club.
“It's a life-long job of honing your craft. It's ever-evolving in curling. It's ice, so anything can happen, right?" said arena curler Mark Tolvstad of Aberdeen, South Dakota.
The Bonspiel, which is tournament in curling lingo, went Friday through Sunday at Centennial Ice Arena in the heights and featured 13 teams — nine men's and four women's.
Montana is part of the Dakota Territories Curling Association, so Billings was inundated with folks from both North and South Dakota this weekend.
“We brought in a head ice maker from Wilmar, Minnesota, Kevin Madsen, to come in and work on this ice. He worked quite a few days on the ice prepping it," Tolvstad said.
Vertz serves as the president of the Billings Curling Club, having moved from Wisconsin where he learned the game at a young age.
“A lot more curling in Wisconsin prevalent," Vertz said. "It was a case of the small high school where my graduating class was 54, we had two winter sports — basketball and curling. I figured out real fast I was not good at basketball, so I thought I'd give curling a try and the rest is history."
Teams from as far west as Missoula and as far east as Sioux Falls called the Magic City home this weekend in hopes of locking up a spot at the national championships this fall in Las Vegas.
