Neal: St. Paul Curling Club shows its pride in its Olympic curlers

Ali Creeger arrived at the St. Paul Curling Club around 6:15 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15, for a full day of activity.

The American women’s curling team was about to play China at 7:05 that morning, with the men facing Norway at 12:05 p.m. That meant three members of the SPCC were in play: Tabitha Peterson Lovick and sister Tara Peterson for the women’s team, and alternate Rich Ruohonen of the men’s team.

Creeger, on the board of directors, crafted a plan for a viewing party once she found out the Olympic curling schedule. She expected about 100 visitors over the course of the day Sunday, especially with league play beginning at 4 p.m. She laid out snacks, coffee — Bloody Marys were eventually available — and crayons for children to color with.

“Because we have three Olympians,” Creeger said. “We should support them. We must support them.”

About 40 showed up for the women’s match in the morning. It was a pleasure to sit among the hardened, veteran curling crowd. They criticized shots. They criticized coaching. It was like sitting among Vikings fans during a game, without the swearing.

It didn’t help that the Peterson rink was off the mark during the first five ends of its match against China. Spectators grumbled when Peterson Lovick misfired on a takeout attempt in the fifth, allowing China to steal one and take a 4-1 lead. Doubt filled the second floor of the SPCC.

The skeptics included Steve Cerkvenik, 63, who lives a few blocks away from the facility. He’s a longtime curler who walked out on Sheet 7 at the SPCC two years ago for a bonspiel and discovered he was playing against current Team USA skipper Danny Casper.

Peterson Lovick drew in to the button with her final shot of the ninth. China’s Rui Wang attempted a takeout that curled too much and caught a stone at the top of the 12-foot circle. Steal No. 1.

The American skip then made the shot of the game in the 10th. With five stones lined up diagonally above the button, she found a way to draw in. Wang was given an impossible task. And her takeout attempt failed. Steal No. 2. And the win for the Americans.

“I’ll have to say I wrote them off,” Cerkvenik said. “There was no way they were going to come back without some steals. And they did it.”

After the match, Cerkvenik was down on Sheet 2, getting a lesson from Jason Smith. Smith, who was born in Robbinsdale, grew up in Chisholm, Minn., like longtime U.S. skip John Shuster. Smith was Shuster’s third in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

It was then that Cerkvenik attempted to get a visiting sportswriter to throw a stone.

But enough with the family history. Shelley Dropkin, what was it like to meet Snoop Dogg in the stands at the Olympics?

“He was great,” Shelley Dropkin said. “He was really, really cool. Just a real conversation about the game and how it is played. What was happening, why it was happening, what they were trying to do. He likes the humanity of the game.”

Pictures of the two flooded the internet after their chat.

“The pictures went viral,” Keith Dropkin said. “We heard from so many people.”

The Dropkins returned from Italy on Thursday after watching their son team with Cory Thiesse to win the silver medal. Boy Korey didn’t have a good poker face. His emotions, positive and negative, were on display. Girl Cory was calm, calculated and confident. Boy Korey was fire. Girl Cory was ice. And it was a match, made in Duluth, that worked.

“It’s a gift, honestly,” Shelley Dropkin said. “For them to have that level of communication and really be there for each other.”

By the time the men’s match began Sunday, the bar area was packed, with a couple of signs, face paint and cowbells. Casper’s rink stole two in both the second and third ends to take early control of the match, so cowbells were activated several times.

But the cultured curling crowd had no choice but to applaud a shot by Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell to end the seventh. The Americans had four stones in the scoring zone when Ramsfjell’s howitzer cleared all of them, counting two for Norway.

Ramsfjell struck again in the 10th with a takeout for three. Norway was back from the dead, tying the match at 8-8 and forcing an extra end.

Creeger stood on a chair while addressing the crowd: “I need to hear more cheering. You guys are fading.”

Meanwhile, Cerkvenik managed to talk a broken-down sportswriter onto the ice to throw a stone for the first time. The result was horrible. And it was the least interesting thing that happened Sunday at a club with many interesting people in it.