James Joseph & Augusto Perez with the Paralympic torch
Picture source:
USACurlThe U.S. is holding it's 5 member team tryouts for Team USA starting Friday in Stevens Point, Wis. The team that's picked will represent the US at the 2009 World Wheelchair Championships and Paralympics in Vancouver.
The team will choose it's members after three individual drills to evaluate their skills and game tactics. The tryouts continue at the Fourth Annual Cathy Kerr Memorial Bonspiel in Ottawa Can. on Nov. 29 and finish with the 2nd Annual US Bonspiel in Utica, NY Dec. 5th through 7th.
A curling team consists of five players, and must have both sexes in wheelchair competion and this years team will be one of these ten players.
> Augusto Perez, 36, East Syracuse, N.Y. USA Curling's 2008 Male Athlete of the Year, Perez competed at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games as well as the two world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze, and 2007)
> Tammy Delano, 35, Rome, N.Y.
> Julia Dorsett, 40, West Chester, Penn.
> Roy Heathcoat, 43, Franklin, Wis.
> James Joseph, 46, New Hartford, N.Y. Joseph competed at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games as well as three world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze; 2007 and 2005)
> Patrick McDonald, 42, Orangevale, Calif.
> Jacqueline Kapinowski, 45, Point Pleasant, N.J. In her first year of curling, Kapinowski made Team USA and won bronze at the 2008 World Wheelchair Championship.
> James Pierce, 45, North Syracuse, N.Y. Pierce competed at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games as well as three world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze; 2007 and 2005)
> John Powell, 60, Balch Spring, Texas
> Robert Prenoveau, 43, Chittenango, N.Y. Has been the alternate at two world wheelchair championships (2008, bronze, and 2005
"Wheelchair curling began in Europe in the late 1990s and in North America in 2002. The first World Wheelchair Curling Championships was held in Sursee, Switzerland in 2002, and was won by the host nation who beat Canada 7 - 6 in the final. It débuted as a Paralympic sport at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino. Canada won the gold medal, beating Great Britain 7-4 in the final. GB skip Frank Duffy, with the final stone, had a wide open hit of a Canadian stone in the four foot to win the game, but he missed. " Wiki
