Say hello to Austin Rose, the next featured member of Aksarben Curling!

Austin grew up in Broken Bow, NE (also home to Kinkaider!). He graduated from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 2018 with a degree in Actuarial Sciences and currently works as a data science transportation planner at WSP. Shortly after graduation, he moved to Omaha where he lives with his wife in the Hanscom Park area. They are expecting their first child in May!

You’ll most likely recognize Austin from our Tuesday night league where he typically vices despite being a natural born second and from our Board of Directors (fun fact: his grandpa was the Aksarben Curling President in 1970!). However, he started his freshman year of college in 2014 at UNL. During his time in college curling, his team was the national runners-up two years in a row at college nationals. Both trips were awesome and inspired him to continue his curling journey!

Outside of Nebraska, Austin has predominantly curled in Wisconsin (Centerville, Stevens Point, Eau Claire, Rice Lake, Wauwatosa, Kettle Moraine), Brainerd, MN, Fargo/Moorhead, ND, and Bismarck, ND. Notably, he got to curl in Rochester, NY and another Aksarben curler, Nancy Myers’, home club, the Schenectady Curling Club! Austin’s favorite place to curl has to be in Rice Lake, WI because of the great people and nice warmroom.

When asked about his favorite curling memory, he looked fondly upon his college nationals experiences as well as a Colorado bonspiel he attended with friends in 2018. They ended up winning the bonspiel, raffle prizes, AND the draw to the button contest! To quote Austin, “We felt like freaking conquerors.”

Austin’s advice for new curlers is that a stone in play is a good stone and that you really only need one good stone to save a bad end. If you’re looking for broomstacking recommendations, he recommended Kinkaider’s tumbler Tuesday deals as they cannot be beat!

Besides curling, you’ll usually find Austin spending time outdoors, especially camping or running. He also enjoys watching movies. The next time you see Austin, make sure to ask him about his 2025 goal he has with his wife: to watch every movie that Matt Damon has a credited role in!

Say hello to one of Aksarben’s newest curlers, Julia Castle! 

Julia is a Nebraska native, born and raised in Lincoln, NE. She still lives in Lincoln today and attends the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She is looking forward to finishing her senior year off strong and graduating in May with a degree in Advertising and Public Relations. As part of her studies, Julia works as a digital marketing intern for Sandhills Global. One of her goals post graduation is to start her own photography and videography business! Currently, she enjoys photographing just about anything, but loves couples and families especially. Her other hobbies include cooking and occasionally playing pickleball and golf.  

When Julia isn’t busy with school and work, you’ll catch her curling all weekend long. Her main leagues are Friday night and Saturday Doubles, but she subs at most Sunday leagues too! If you play against Julia’s team, you’ll probably see her throw second or vice, but more commonly vice. Vicing is her favorite position at the moment since she gets to do all the things - throwing, sweeping stones, and calling lines. When asked what her favorite shots are, she would tell you that a good takeout is really satisfying when done right! 

In her short 11 months of curling, Julia has taken advantage of everything curling has to offer. When she’s able, she enjoys broomstacking at Backlot Taphouse after leagues and getting to talk with other curlers in her league. She recommended everyone to try their crab rangoon pizza when it’s available! In addition to broomstacking, she’s come to love the traveling aspect of curling. She’s only been able to go down to Kansas City Curling Club’s dedicated facility a few times, but looks forward to traveling to other facilities in the future. 

One of her favorite memories since starting her curling career was getting to go to her first bonspiel in Kansas City with Isaiah Jacobsen, Molly O’Brien, and Nic Ridder. At that bonspiel, her team did so well and ended up winning the whole thing! Dedicated ice was fun for her to curl on for the first time, and she’s looking forward to when Aksarben gets their own. Another favorite part of curling for her is the great community it provides. The immediate connection and camaraderie over a shared interest is really special. Plus, being able to say she’s a curler is a unique fun fact to share with others! Not only is the community amazing, but it’s also a good way to stay active without stepping foot in the gym. Julia loves that she can leave the stress of school and life on the bleachers and have fun when she gets on the ice! 

Despite being a novice curler, Julia has some great advice for brand new curlers. She’d encourage everyone to take advantage of practice ice times and sign up to sub for as many leagues as possible. Also, she would tell new folks to make sure to not be too hard on themselves and show themselves grace when a shot is missed!

We're coordinating three Spring Leagues in 2025:

• Fridays at 7 PM: 5 weeks starting March 21
• Mondays at 7 PM: 6 weeks starting March 24
• Tuesdays at 7 PM: 5 weeks starting April 1

Registration opens on Saturday, March 1 at 10:00 AM.

Registration will be first-come, first-serve. You don't have to have a full team — our league coordinators will help form teams!

This winter, we're offering practice ice and drop-in curling for Aksarben Curling members who have a 2024-2025 season membership. One sheet will be open alongside the Saturday 4:15pm doubles league for 90 minutes and one sheet open alongside the Sunday 6:45pm league for 2 hours. Members may practice, run drills, scrimmage, or play pick-up games with other members (full games, doubles, etc.). Remaining dates include:

• Sunday, March 9 at 12 PM (skills clinic)
• Sunday, March 9 at 6:45 PM (practice/drop-in curling)

Please plan to help with cleaning your sheet and putting away equipment once you are finished.

Note: We cannot guarantee that you will have enough people on hand to play with full teams.

This year's Irish Open Bonspiel is sold out! Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be added to the waitlist.

Join us for for Aksarben Curling's annual bonspiel, the Irish Open Bonspiel!

• Games: 3-game guarantee, 8-end games
• Teams: 24 teams / 96 players (individuals are encouraged to sign up — we'll pair you with a team!)
• First Draws: Friday 6pm, Friday 8:30pm, Saturday 9am
• Mini-games w/prizes: every Friday and Saturday draw
• Awesome raffle prizes and 50/50
• Broomstacking: Kinkaider Brewing (3 drinks included)
  Cost: Just $90/person or $360/team
• Location: Baxter Arena’s Holland Ice, 2425 S 67th St, Omaha, NE (lots of nearby hotels and great local restaurants in Aksarben Village!)
• Hotel group rate: Stay tuned for information!

Sign-up online today!

We have several curling leagues with openings that start this January:

• Winter Sundays at 12 PM: 9 weeks starting Jan 5
• Winter Sundays at 2:15 PM: 9 weeks starting Jan 5
• Winter Sundays at 4:30 PM: 9 weeks starting Jan 5
• Winter Sundays at 6:45 PM: 9 weeks starting Jan 5
• Winter Tuesdays at 8 PM: 10 games over 10-12 weeks starting Jan 7
• Winter Fridays at 7 PM: 9 weeks starting Jan 3
• Youth/Juniors Curling Saturdays at 2 PM: 8 weeks starting Jan 11
• Winter Saturdays DOUBLES at 4:15 PM: 6 weeks starting Jan 11
• Winter Newcomers Instructional League Saturdays at 4:15 PM: 3 weeks starting Feb 22

Join us for our annual fall fun spiel, the Bone-Spiel! Our season-opening tournament offers fun, costumes, and prizes, with broomstacking afterward. Costumes are encouraged but not required. Prizes will be awarded to the best individual and team costumes (Check out some of the costumes from 2021, 2022, and 2023).

Saturday, October 19

• Time: 2pm-7:30pm
• Format: 3 90-minute / 6-end games (whichever comes first)
• Broomstacking afterward
• 40 people / 10-team max
• Prizes for best individual costume and best team costume!
• Prize top performing team (points for games won and number of ends won)

Draw times

• 2pm
• 4pm
• 6pm

Register online.

The 2024-2025 curling season kicks off in September! Here's a preview of our upcoming season:

Throughout the history of Aksarben Curling, Sigrid Festersen led, served, and provided continuity from one generation to the next. She saw our organization through successes, setbacks, building moves, and explosive growth. Our Sigrid Festersen Volunteer of the Year Award provides a way for us to honor Aksarben Curling members who go above and beyond in the same spirit as she did.

This year, the Aksarben Curling Board of Directors voted to honor Nic Ridder with this award.

If you’ve helped with any of our Learn to Curls, it’s likely that Nic was there – in a pair of very bright pants, armed with helpful tips and advice and meeting his quota of fitting in two curling puns. And while he’s helped so many new curlers slide out of the hack with their first rock, he’s also the key driving force behind organizing our league operations.

No matter the number of teams and number of weeks, Nic can put together a structure for how a league should run. He’s been instrumental in mapping out ways to get more curlers into popular leagues by adding bye weeks.

More structured leagues and better ways of naming a champion for each goes a long way in raising the overall competitive level within our organization, which in turn helps with retention as our curlers become more experienced.

We’ve leaned in to his expertise as we map out what leagues will look like with our future jump to dedicated ice, and the additional curlers and leagues that will bring. Our leagues and learn to curls are at the core of what we do, and we couldn’t do either without Nic.

While it seems like Ridder has been around forever, he only started curling back in 2018. He was quick to jump in and help where needed – offering not only ideas on where we could improve operations, but giving time and passion to every project he helps with. He perfectly illustrates the power of our volunteers, and we’re lucky to have him.

About Sigrid Festersen
Throughout the history of Aksarben Curling, Sigrid Festersen led, served, and provided continuity from one generation to the next. She was a terrific curler and an advocate for women's curling everywhere. She saw our organization through successes, setbacks, building moves, and explosive growth.

All future success of curling in Omaha can be traced back to a foundation Sigrid was so deeply involved with. While we lost Sigrid in 2022, Sigrid’s spirit lives on within our organization.

Read more about Sigrid Festersen and her legacy with Aksarben Curling.

On April 12-14, 2024, Aksarben Curling hosted its Season Championship bonspiel at Baxter Arena. The event featured sixteen teams including the champions of our 10 fall and winter leagues, our top college league team, the 2022-2023 defending champs, and four wild card lottery teams.

Teams competed for the Katie Beck Championship Cup, our annual trophy honoring the legacy of Katie Beck, one of Aksarben Curling's most accomplished curlers. Read more about Katie Beck's legacy and curlers' memories of Katie Beck.

Teams played in 4-team groups that broke into semi-finals and finals. Participating teams included:

Group A
Naughty or Ice (Winter Sunday 6:45pm)
Wire Wombats (Winter Tuesday 8pm)
Stone Cold (Team Aksarben - defending champs)
Cobra Kai Curling (Wild Card)

Group B
Team Anderson (Winter Sunday 2:15pm)
Sixteen Stones (Fall Friday 7pm)
Taken for Granite (Fall Tuesday 8pm)
Little Raise of Sunshine (Wild Card)

Group C
No Stone Left Unturned (Wild Card)
Buff N Stuff (Fall Sunday 2:15pm)
The Bee's Knees (Wild Card)
Moore Trash (Fall Sunday 6:45pm)

Group D
UNO Curling (College League)
RockSteady (Fall Sunday 4:30pm)
The Ice Is Right (Winter Friday 7pm)
Hollaback Curls (Winter Sunday 4:30pm)

Congratulations to our season champions!

2023-2024 Season Champions
Buff N Stuff
Steve Jaixen (second), Buffy Linke (skip), Chris Becher (vice), Scott Jordan (lead)

2023-2024 Season Championship Runners-Up
Naughty or Ice
Alex Wilson (lead), Amanda Wilson (skip), Nic Ridder (second), Meredith Daniels (vice)

2023-2024 Season Championship Third Place
Taken for Granite
Sean Morrison (lead - subbing for Mo Shukry), Matt Suder (skip), Jeff Friesen (vice), Doug Johnson (lead)

2023-2024 Season Championship Semi-Finalist
RockSteady
CaSandra Johnson (vice), Steve Kraft (skip), Rob Latimer (second), Kristen Peterson (lead)

We facilitated six leagues in the winter of 2024: three 9-week Sunday Leagues, a 10-week Tuesday League, an 8-week Friday League, and a 5-week Saturday Doubles League.

Let’s have a round of applause for all of our 2024 Winter League champs! Each of the champions (outside of the Doubles league) qualified for our 2023-2024 Season Championship on April 12-14, 2024.

2024 Winter Sunday 2:15pm League champ
BuffNStuff
Chris Becher, Steve Jaixen, Scott Jordan, Jenn Becher, Buffy Linke (not pictured)

2024 Winter Sunday 4:30pm League champ
Hollaback Curls
Matt Manderfeld, Aaron Adams, Doug Michel, Lois Imig

2024 Winter Sunday 6:45pm League champ
Naughty or Ice
Alex Wilson, Amanda Wilson, Meredith Daniels, Nic Ridder

2024 Winter Tuesday 8pm League champ
Taken for Granite
Nicholas Bjornson, Jeff Friesen, Matt Suder, Doug Johnson

2024 Winter Friday 7pm League champ
The Ice Is Right
Blake Anderson (sub), Michael Feit, Greg Tunink, Ray Koza, Randy Brodner (not pictured)

2024 Winter Saturday Doubles 4:15pm League champ
McCright? More Like McWrong!
Jay Dykes and Joe McCright

Knowing where to stand Part 2—Skip's Edition

In our last tips newsletter, we shared information about where to stand during a curling match. This time, we want to focus on some best practices for skips during the game.

WHEN YOUR TEAM IS THROWING
The skip should be the only person in the house when their team is throwing. Skips typically call line from the tee-line of the house, though on some sheets you may have to move forward so as not to move into a neighboring house or to better see the broom.

As the rock approaches the house, the opposing skip may move forward to sweep a heavy rock out, or to sweep one of their own rocks if it gets bumped towards the house.

Be mindful of where your opponent skip is and try not to be in the way of their sweeping. As soon as the rocks come to rest, step out of the house and give control of the house to the other team.

WHEN YOUR TEAM IS WAITING
When the opposing team is throwing, the skip should stand behind the house. Typically, you’ll stand behind the throwing team’s skip so that you can view the line the opposing team’s rock is released on.Stand still so that you don’t distract the person throwing the rock. Be sure to hold your broom off the ice.

The opposing skip may sweep an opponent’s stone when it crosses the tee line, so you may move into the house as the rock comes into it. If the opposing team’s skip is communicating with their team or concentrating on the rock, they may not realize you’re there. It can be helpful to give them a heads up that you’re moving into their space to sweep (e.g., “on your left!” or “right behind you!”).

PLEASE BE MINDFUL OF PLAYERS ON OTHER SHEETS
As some of our sheets fall considerably in one direction (i.e., “negative ice”), it may be necessary to call a line outside of your house. This is common on sheet 2 this season.

Rather than set your broom in a neighboring house, please place your broom no farther than halfway between the two houses and then walk forward to call a wider line (e.g., just in front of the house).

A NOTE FOR SWEEPERS
If you’re playing on sheet 2 or sheet 4 where most of the rocks are being thrown towards sheet 3, please stand and walk on the opposite side of the sheet (i.e., the “low side” of the sheet).

This helps you stay out of the line of sight between the opposing team’s skip and the person throwing the rock.

We've received some good feedback from members this season requesting helpful tips around etiquette, pace of play, shot calling, and more.

We recommend two standing resources you can always check out on our website:

1. Our handy Member Handbook, which has lots of great info about our organization, rules of curling, ice prep guidelines, etiquette tips, and more! (this is a living document that we're continuing to update)
2. Video tips with Jamie Sinclair. On our website you can find nearly two dozen short videos (2-5 minutes each) about curling covering delivery, strategy and shot calling, alignment, timing, and a lot more.

This week's tip: Knowing where to stand

When 40 people are on five sheets at a league game, it's important to be aware of where you are on the ice.

It's easy to accidentally be in the way of sweepers on another sheet, or in someone's line of sight between the hack and their skip. In addition, we want to make sure that the team throwing a rock can do so without the distraction of a lot of movement on their sheet.

The illustrations below share some common etiquette guidelines for where to stand and what to watch out for during games.

(You can find these figures and more in our Member Handbook's Appendix B: Curling Etiquette & Pace of Play Tips!)

We're coordinating three Spring Leagues this season:

• Spring Mondays at 7:00 PM: 8 weeks starting March 11
• Spring Tuesdays at 7:00 PM: 6 weeks starting March 26
• Spring Fridays at 7:00 PM: 4 weeks starting March 22

Registration opens on Saturday, February 10 at 11:00 AM.

Registration will be first-come, first-serve. You don't have to have a full team — our league coordinators will help form teams!

By Maliik Jones, UNL Journalism & Mass Communications

With the 2023-24 College Curling season coming to a close, let’s take a look at the Emerging region’s championship results. Coming into the Cornhusker College Bonspiel, ten different universities participated at the John Breslow Ice Hockey Center on January 19-21. Even though this was an Emerging region event, some teams participated from the Midwest region. The top Emerging region team received a place in the USA Curling College National Championship on March 8-10, 2024.

Participating universities and their position within their respective region (as of 1/10/2024):

Emerging
#2 Nebraska-Lincoln – 17 Points
#4 Arizona State – 5 Points
#5 Bowling Green – 5 Points
#6 Nebraska-Omaha – 4 Points
#7 Creighton – 1 Point
#8 Denver – 0 Points

Midwest
#1 Wisconsin-Madison – 36 Points
#2 Wisconsin-Stevens Point – 33 Points
#3 Minnesota – 29 Points
#6 Michigan Tech – 16 Points

Each team played four matches in the first two days. Then, the results from those matches placed the top 8 teams into Sunday's finals matches: the 1st Event, Emerging Region Qualifier, which granted the winning team a chance to compete in the national championship, the 2nd Event, and the 3rd Event.

Each team’s final record was the following:

Arizona State University competed against Denver 2 for the Emerging Qualifier, and ASU came out on top to earn their spot in the National Championship. This will be ASU’s first ever USA Curling College National Championship!

The rest of the Emerging region’s positions at nationals will be decided by the top regular season points finishers. Due to the region's size, the Emerging region will only have two other teams qualify through points. The current top two points leaders are the University of Toledo with 21 points and local team the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with 17 points.

There are two more regional championships to be held for the Northeast on February 9th and the Midwest on February 10th. These regions will have the top two teams qualify for nationals through their respective events. For the remaining national championship positions, the top two points leaders from the Midwest and the top seven points leaders from the Northeast will qualify. The USA Curling College National Championship will be held on March 8th in Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

If you are interested in learning more about curling or how to start college curling at your school, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!

We facilitated five leagues in the fall of 2023: an 11-week Tuesday League, three 11-week Sunday Leagues, and a 9-week Friday League.

Let’s have a round of applause for all of our 2023 Fall League champs! Each of the champions qualified for our 2023-2024 Season Championship on April 12-14, 2024.

2023 Fall Sunday 2:15pm League champ
BuffNStuff
Scott Jordan, Buffy Linke, Jenn Becher, Chris Becher, Steve Jaixen

2023 Fall Sunday 4:30pm League champ
Rock Steady
CaSandra Johnson, Doug Johnson, Rob Marcuzzo, Steve Kraft

2023 Fall Sunday 6:45pm League champ
Moore Trash
David Steinhauser, Doug Moore, Matt English, Randy Kruger

2023 Fall Tuesday 8pm League champ
Taken for Granite
Harry Suder, Matt Suder, Doug Johnson, Jeff Friesen

2023 Fall Friday 7pm League champ
Sixteen Stones
Matt Mickeliunas, Nic Swiercek, Dusty McIver, Eric Rodawig, and Tonya Carroll (not pictured)

Let's also give a round of applause to our 2023 Fall League runner-ups!

2023 Fall Sunday 2:15pm League runner-up
Leave No Stone Unturned
Ashley Hoover, Nick Allmaker, Molly O'Brien, Skyler Barton (not pictured)

2023 Fall Sunday 4:30pm League runner-up
Always Pick Red
Hanna Frekot, Paul Bernady, Jeff Tiemann, Kathy Weber

2023 Fall Sunday 6:45pm League runner-up
Naughty or Ice
Alex Wilson, Amanda Wilson, Meredith Daniels, Nic Ridder

2023 Fall Tuesday 8pm League runner-up
Little Raise of Sunshine
Matthew Truesdell, Lisa Truesdell, Kaeli Samson, Nic Swiercek

2023 Fall Friday 7pm League runner-up
The Ice Is Right
Ray Koza, Michael Feit, Bruce Nelson