OfflineJust a notice that a well-known Wisconsin Junior Team whose name rhymes with "Baldwell", recently entered a May Open Spiel, lost its first game and promptly forfeited. They didn't talk to the bonspiel chair; they simply posted a notice saying "we forfeit; cannot get enough players" and left the spiel chairman scrambling to keep the draw sheet in tact. In don't even want to pass judgement on this - I think we all know how incredibly weak a move it is. Instead, I want bonspiel chairs to realize that a received entry from this team in the future may not be worth the paper it's written on.
Yikes, I wonder what happened. There's two sides to every story, maybe something came up.
Not to excuse the move, but they only ended up missing one game on Saturday. They returned to play their final two games. A substitute team was recruited to play in their place for the game they missed. Definitely not a cool thing to do, but not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
I think it's called an unfortunate problem. No ill will intended. &%*# happens. Leave them alone.
As I said, they left claiming they forfeited. If they returned and played, good for them. And enough with the "leave them alone" crap. That was potentially a major breach of etiquette.
Those are pretty strong words ("weak move") coming from somebody who's claiming not to pass judgment. !
Fair enough. I claimed I would not pass judgement and then did it anyway. My bad. Still, this seems like an attempt to steer attention from what happened - or could happen again.
My only point is that if - and it is an IF since there could be other factors - a team left a bonspiel because they lost a game, this is a team that many people would not want to invite to a future spiel. If all of you who are so bold to be posting anonymously wish to have teams who won't play out their schedule at YOUR bonspiel, have at it. I couldn't care less.
But.... we are a tight-knit community and one of the few sports that polices itself. I think we want it to stay that way. And the fact that they are kids is spot-on. Let's make sure those of us who have made mistakes before them help them so that they don't make the same ones themselves.
Gimma a call 507-381-5973
STC - looks like we can't get a good connection. You can email me at scottmatchette@sbcglobal.net if you like
In addition to the team name rhyming with "Baldwell", the junior curler with the name rhyming with "Gamelton" missed his final games also. Word from his young team was that he just wasn't "into" it, and had curled way to much this year. Agreed he did curl a lot, but another example of the lack of courtesy, etiquette, and responsibility shown by the junior circuit.
Over the last few years I have been witness to countless examples of poor judgment, unsportsmanlike actions, bad etiquette, and lack of curling courtesy by many of these up and comers. I hope that their coaches begin to spend a bit more time on training them on the finer points of curling instead of just shot making, sweeping, and strategy.
I was there all weekend as well. I hope no one gets the idea this was not a well run highly competative bonspiel because nothing could be further from the truth. The ice was great, the competition tough and the food and hospitality outstanding. There was one forfeit but the commitee put together a team so no one missed a game. Mr. Hamilton did go home but his team stepped up a position and curled great. We plan on returning next year because of the quality of the spiel.
Amen to that. The spiel is fantastic - one of my favorites all year. Dave and crew did a great job with the ice. It's amazing to stand outside when it's 70+ degrees and then go curl on a fantastic playing surface. Congrats to Poynette for making this all happen.
I couldn't agree more about the ice, organization, hospitality, and volunteers. Poynette is top notch.
Ok lets just be straight forward, it was team caldwell.
i am the lead on this team and it was my fault they didnt have a full team. i am a senior in high school and my class ran the 2008 relay for life which kept me from coming.
for all you put-downers, this is a relay that raises money for cancer, fyi
it is a very busy time of year and we feel bad about missing the game, but life goes on.
and how about posting your names? then we can talk to you and find out what we REALLY did to make you not like us!
John Landsteiner
I'm the third on Caldwell's team, and I am also the person responsible for "defacing the entire draw sheet", with my short explanation of our absence. All things aside, something did come up. We tried to find a sub all morning, calling other juniors in the area we knew. Our apologies to the people we may have inconvenienced. I suggest bumperdown give Small Town Curler a call.
Sorry, I thought ITH allowed you to look up names as long as you're logged in. Apparently not.
Here's my take on all of this: No one will have an issue with people on the team being unavailable - especially in May when we all have things to do. The mistakes as I see it are as follows:
1) You assumed because 1-2 guys could not play, that the team should forfeit. In curling, we get subs. I can't imagine this relay run came up out of the blue on Friday night yet what was done to plan for it? And think about what was going to happen with your team not there - you were going to force a team of Poynette club members to play and, with only 14 teams entered in the spiel, this was going to be a group who preferred NOT to play since, had they wanted to curl, they'd have been entered already. Anyway, why not have 1 or 2 of them play with your team instead of forcing 3-4 of them into action as a new team?
2) The bigger issue though - and it's just my opinion - is leaving only a note and not talking the spiel chair. That just should not have happened.
So, I understand how things come up and I think it's fantastic that people on the team were supporting a charity run. I just think you had an opportunity to handle all of this a little bit better and you didn't take full advantage of that. That's all. This doesn't have to be WW3.
I really don't care who did what to whom in the end. My bigger issue is this: Poynette puts on a great Spring Spiel. They have volunteers run the event and run it well but Poynette can't have the only skin in the game when it comes to making this event work. Every one of us needs to also do our part or these events will not be available to us in the future. So in a way, I feel I'm protecting my option to curl there again in coming years.
And one last issue: I run a competitive spiel in the fall and I've heard good things about the Caldwell rink in terms of both curling and sportmanship and I'd like to invite the rink to play. Obviously this was an issue I wanted out of the way before that happened.
Scott Matchette
Wauwatosa CC
Chair - Tosa Skins Spiel
I mostly agree with this post. We screwed up. However, I don't know how fair it is to refer to us as "at team that rhymes with baldwell", saying we made an "incredibly weak move" on our part or that "a received entry from this team in the future may not be worth the paper it's written on." In the future please just contact us directly, instead of posting on an internet forum.
Thanks,
Matt Collom
608-865-0338
I mostly agree with this post. We screwed up. However, I don't know how fair it is to refer to us as "at team that rhymes with baldwell", saying we made an "incredibly weak move" on our part or that "a received entry from this team in the future may not be worth the paper it's written on." In the future please just contact us directly, instead of posting on an internet forum.
Thanks,
Matt Collom
608-865-0338
For all following this saga, Small Town Curler and I just had a very good phone call. He's a great guy and understands the issues well. My main objective in all of this was to make sure that this wasn't going to occur again and I can say for certain that it will not.
I have not met the other members of the team but Brad is a very mature guy and understands that the events of the weekend should have taken place in another way. I'm sure the rest of the team is made up of stand-up people too so, from my standpoint, this should all be water under the bridge.
Posting this "incident" on an internet forum was just as wrong as them posting a note saying they can't make a draw.
I know these guys. I know their coach. I respect them all. We all make mistakes. I hope the next time I do something wrong it doesn't get posted on a forum.
TEAM CALDWELL.............YOU'RE WELCOME TO MY BONSPIELS ANYTIME!!!
MY OBSERVATIONS OF TEAM CALDWELL
BRAD-VERY MATURE
MATT-VERY MATURE
TY-VERY MATURE
JOHN-VERY MATURE
Thats about every one in a nutshell for everyone who is not sure of who they are.
hey am i going to be seeing u guys down at the st. paul spiel next week??? cuz its my birthday the 30th and i want to do something else on my b-day other than curling...
Team supporter, mascot, fan, and friend,
Aaron Tasa!!!
p.s. john we should go golfing sometime, i want to show u how to truly golf like a pro.!
tasa- as far as i know they wont be at the spss but brad will be around and you can always come hang with us girls! we miss you guys! I'll see ya at the club on friday.
Yeah, sorry Tasa, that one isn't on our list. Although we might be doing the camp thing later this summer, wherever it's being held this summer.
Wow. I should read what i write before i post it.
what camp? since when? wtf
This is one sad thread. While few will argue that the skip of team "baldwell" is goofy and a little odd - this team's sportsmanship is far above that of some recent junior teams that have had success at the Mn and Wisc state level. How was your maturity level one yr out of high school? This team conducts itself in fine fashion both on and off the ice
These kids are eager students of the game and have a passion to win. While, true they should have planned around the relay for life event a little sooner - lesson learned. I have no doubt the skip that picks up "baldwell" and "land miner" to play front in the coming yrs at the Men's level will be a happy one.
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