‘Pride on Ice’ – For the Frogtown Curling Club, Love is One Big Brushoff

It’s all about reducing friction, really.

Oh, at first glance, it might look like it’s all about reducing galactic tooth decay as eight lunatic dentists attend to the tartar-shredding needs of some planet-sized dragon, but these actions are in furtherance of a friction-reducing sport that looks, at second and third glance, like the unfathomable love child of billiards, bowling, hockey, marbles, floor scrubbing and maybe tiddlywinks, depending on what tiddlywinks is. 

The sport is curling — often ignored by the general public, and if not ignored, often ridiculed, and if not ridiculed, almost always misunderstood. Invented in 16th-century Scotland, curling is a sport where two four-person teams attempt to deliver a heavy, polished granite disk — a “stone” or a “rock,” depending on how you feel about Dwayne Johnson — across the perforated face of the sheet (or “rink,” according to people who refer to “European football” as “soccer”). Each team tries to score the most points by nudging the most stones through the house — a target found on either end of the sheet — ideally, laying claim to the house’s button, or bullseye. 

But there’s another feature, the one that accounts for the sport’s popular image. Once the stone is cast, two team members use brooms to saw the ice in front of the stone, producing dual effects: first, the stone often lists to one side or the other, granting the game its name; and second, the sweeping reduces the stone-on-sheet friction, allowing the oversized puck to travel, in the best of cases, 10 feet longer than it otherwise would have.

This physics-heavy sport manifests locally and regularly thanks to the machinations of the Frogtown Curling Club, a volunteer-run sports association located in the eponymous neighborhood of Minneapolis’s largest suburb, St. Paul. Robb Flaherty-Wilcox is currently a charter member of the club … but he had to overcome no small amount of psychic friction to get there. 

“As an out queer man who grew up surrounded by toxic masculinity, organized sports had never felt like a welcoming space,” he remembers.

In fact, Flaherty-Wilcox had to be pushed into the sport like a granite stone. 

“In 2011, after moving to the Twin Cities, my aunt invited me to join a team she had formed with some of her coworkers,” he says. “I was hesitant — growing up in northern Minnesota on the Iron Range, I knew a little about the sport, but I didn’t actually start curling until I was 25.” 

Upon joining, Flaherty-Wilcox quickly warmed to the ice-centric endeavor. 

“It didn’t take long for me to fall in love — not only with the sport itself, but also with my curling club and the people who gave me a true sense of community,” he declares. “Curling is so much more than the stones, brooms and strategy; at its core, it’s about good sportsmanship and connection.”

Such connections can become bigger than the sport that wove them. After Flaherty-Wilcox and his husband adopted a newborn girl, the Frogtown Curling Club turned one of its competitions into a surprise baby shower. 

“To this day, I get emotional thinking about a team of straight, older Midwestern dads showing up with a stroller and diapers for my family,” he confesses. “That moment broke down some of my own assumptions and reminded me to check my biases, too.”

This bias-checking was probably nurtured by the Club’s hosting of monthly bonspiels, a mixture of exercise on and off the ice. 

“The word bonspiel comes from curling’s Scottish roots: bon means ‘good,’ and spiel means ‘game’ or ‘play,’” Flaherty-Wilcox explains. “Today, bonspiels range from relaxed weekend gatherings at local clubs to major tournaments that draw elite teams from across the globe.”

One such gathering will soon radiate a particularly iridescent theme: Frogtown Curling Club’s third annual Pride Spiel, which will showcase the rangy talents of 42 teams from all across North America. 

“Hosting a Pride Spiel celebrates our values in a visible, joyful way — strengthening both the curling community and the broader queer community,” Flaherty-Wilcox insists. “Curling is built on traditions of sportsmanship, community and inclusivity. Plus, we go all out decorating the club — you’ll know it’s a Pride Spiel the moment you walk through the door!”

That seemingly-superficial-but-dazzling display will, in fact, catalyze an absence of friction that shall serve as the event’s beating heart, but less brush-oriented features include raffles, games, contests, drag entertainment and “what we do best — brunch!”

“Come down to the club and see the action up close!” Flaherty-Wilcox enthuses. “We’re one of the few clubs in the nation where you can watch games right by the ice. Of course, you can always stay warm in the lounge, but we highly recommend stepping out to the rink — you’ll get a front-row view, and there will be plenty of people happy to explain the game and welcome you to the club.”

Frogtown Curling Club
frogtowncurling.org
frogtowncurling.org/index.php/club-events/bonspiel-list/207-pride-spiel