We're offering a 4-week September League on Sundays from 1pm to 3pm. (Details about Fall Leagues beginning in October will be released later this month.) Click here to register. Leagues are $80 plus sales tax, and a $100 membership for the 2020-2021 season. We will have a cap of 24 people in this league, and have room for a handful of individuals to join.

We want to take a moment to acknowledge the comings and goings on our club’s Board of Directors, and recent leadership transitions.

First, we want to thank the outgoing board members whose terms recently ended: John Benefiel, Karen Benefiel, Nancy Myers, and Nick Allmaker. We’re really grateful for their service, and want to stress that our club is entirely all-volunteer run and wouldn’t happen without people stepping up to serve!

Second, we want to welcome two new board members elected by members during this spring’s election: Brian Cotner and Nic Swiercek. Welcome, Brian and Nic!

We also want to announce our Board’s new officers who were elected by the Board of Directors at our annual board retreat in June:

• Nic Ridder (President)
• Kaeli Samson (Vice President)
• Liz Akert (Treasurer)
• Michael Brich (Secretary)

Finally, we want to thank our most recent board officers who have passed the torch: Sean Morrison (Past President), Matt Suder (Past Vice President), and Nancy Myers (Past Secretary).

We hope you’re doing well all things considered amid this strange and unpredictable year.

The summer months are a quieter time for curling and our club. While last season ended abruptly, we want you to know that our Board of Directors is actively planning the upcoming 2020-2021 curling season and thinking carefully about how we can return to curling safely.

In June, our board visited with leadership from the United States Curling Association (USCA) to discuss health and safety guidelines, considerations they’re taking into account, and what they’ve been hearing from clubs around the country. We are very pleased with their level of thoughtfulness and advice for clubs. We have also been in regular communications with Baxter Arena about their health and safety precautions.

Our Board of Directors also held our annual board retreat in June to begin to map out what the next season will look like. We welcomed two new members to our Board—Brian Cotner and Nic Swiercek—that membership elected earlier this spring. We thanked outgoing board members whose terms ended: John Benefiel, Karen Benefiel, Nick Allmaker, and Nancy Myers. And we elected new officers for the coming year: Nic Ridder (President), Kaeli Samson (Vice President), Liz Akert (Treasurer), and Michael Brich (Secretary).

This upcoming season will look a little different than our typical season.Our top priority is the health and safety of our members. In addition to that, our priorities are to:

1. Provide a safe way to return to league play in some capacity this fall.
2. Retain and support our membership for the long-term health of our club.
3. Finish the 2020-21 season in a great position to host the US Team Trials in November 2021 at Baxter Arena and help grow the game in Omaha.

You’ll start hearing from us more in the coming weeks and months. Soon, we’re going to circulate a survey to members to understand how you’re feeling about this upcoming season, and what we can do to support a return to curling safely and foster camaraderie among our members.

Please keep an eye out for that survey—your response will be extremely helpful to the planning of the 2020-2021 season.

Thank you for supporting the Aksarben Curling Club, and all you do to contribute to the Club’s community.

With gratitude,

The Aksarben Curling Club Board of Directors

Throughout our newsletters we want to introduce you to our club’s board members so you recognize them at ACC events. In this newsletter, we want to introduce you to Michael Brich!

How long have you been curling?
This is my fourth year curling and my second year at Aksarben. I learned to curl at the St. Paul Curling Club in Minnesota and spent two seasons there.

How did you first get involved with the Aksarben Curling Club?
When I moved back to Omaha from the Twin Cities I was very eager to continue curling and grow the sport in Nebraska. Seeing the curling community in the Twin Cities first hand made me want to try and get the Omaha curling community to compare to what is a very popular sport in Minnesota. Immediately when I moved back, I reached out to the club and volunteered to help with Learn to Curls and any other things the club needed help with.

What is your favorite curling moment?
I have a few moments that stick out to me. When I was in Minnesota, I got to have some practices with Margie Smith, who has won the Women's Senior National Championship 5 times and won Silver at the 2019 Women's World Senior Championship. Also, at the 2019 St. Paul Men's International - my team got to play against Team Maerki, who is playing in the 2020 National Championships. Dominic Maerki, the skip, has an Olympic Bronze to his name for his work with the Swiss team at the 2018 Olympics. Obviously, my team lost that battle but we didn't give up more than 2 in any end so that it was a moral victory!

What do you like most about the Aksarben Curling Club?
I like how the club continues to grow throughout the entire year each year. Everyone is always inviting and very helpful with all of the work around the club and on the ice. I like how everyone seems to always invite more and more friends to different events and leagues every year. It seems every new league session, there is always a new team out there having fun and enjoying curling!

Other interesting facts you'd like to share?
I am getting married this summer to my fiancé, Erin! She doesn't curl (yet) but you can sometimes find her cheering on the Sweeping Swine on Sunday and Tuesday nights. I am a big fan of board games and I'm always looking for new people to play with - some of my favorite games right now are Wingspan, Crokinole, Root and Dominion. During the summer months, I also play Ultimate Frisbee and am in a golf league.

Congrats to the two teams that finished on top of their Winter Early Leagues:

Winter Early Tuesday League Champions
Little Raise of Sunshine (5-1)
Matthew Truesdell, Lisa Truesdell, Kaeli Samson, Nic Swiercek

Winter Early Friday League Champions
Big Dawgs (4-1)
Kevin Severin, Jesse Brandenburg, Dave Hill, Mary Murrieta

UPDATE: It is with a heavy heart to share that we decided to cancel this weekend's 2020 Irish Open Bonspiel. Please make sure everyone on your team knows just in case they don't see this or didn't receive the email. Full refunds will be issued to everyone.

Our bonspiel committee and many of our board of directors decided Wednesday evening, March 11 to cancel given additional cases of coronavirus appearing in the Omaha metro area and many public events doing the same. Other curling clubs have also decided to cancel bonspiels this weekend including the Columbus Curling Club and the Curling College National Championship in Fargo, ND.

We didn't make this decision lightly, but the safety of everyone attending, your families, and the wider community is paramount to us.

To everyone coming from out of town who made accommodations at the Hilton Garden Inn Aksarben Village: We called the hotel this evening and they said they are being super lenient on issuing refunds. Please contact them to request a refund at your earliest convenience and let us know if you have trouble. We will be calling our room block coordinator first-thing Thursday morning to ensure they are aware of the situation.

We are super bummed to cancel, but we want folks to be safe.

If you have questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

Thanks for your understanding,
Irish Open Bonspiel Committee

The Aksarben Curling Club is run entirely by volunteers, including its board of directors who set the direction for the club and makes decisions about our programming, equipment, and budget. We want to introduce you to our board members in future newsletters so you recognize them at ACC events!

Meet Liz Akert, Board Treasurer

Liz grew up in Madison, WI but didn’t learn to curl until 2016. Liz joined like a lot of us in recent years: by signing up for a Learn to Curl, and getting hooked instantly! In 2018, Liz joined the Aksarben Curling Club’s board of directors and serves in the critical role as our board Treasurer. When she’s not curling, she works as an accountant at Union Pacific.

Liz formed a team with her husband, Brian, and friend LJ McElravy, and later picked up Bill Citro. They’ve been playing together for a few years now as Stop, Drop, and Curl—currently playing at the 2:15pm Sunday League draw.

When asked about her favorite curling moment, Liz shared it was winning the Irish Open Bonspiel’s Novice/5&U bracket last year in March 2019: “I was four months pregnant and exhausted, but we played great!” Liz shares she can’t wait to teach Piper how to curl (though, Piper was technically already on the team for Liz’s win at the Irish Open!) 

Liz loves talking up the Aksarben Curling Club to everyone she meets. “Most people from Omaha don’t know about our club, and are surprised about our size and how often we play. I always encourage everyone to try a Learn to Curl. I also love the community of the club and our gatherings at Pauli’s. Everyone is passionate about curling and eager to get to know each other.”

This fall, Aksarben Curling coordinated five leagues: Sundays at 2:15pm, 4:30pm, and 6:45pm, Tuesdays at 8pm (two halves), and Friday at 7pm.

We want to take a moment to celebrate this season's Fall League champs!

2019 Fall Sunday 2:15 league champs
Team Becher (6-0-1)
Left to right: Scott Jordan, Steve Jaixen, Shawn Lavallee, and Chris Becher

Registration is open for the late-half of our Winter Leagues beginning in late-February and early-March.

• Tuesday 8pm (5 weeks late half)
• Friday 7pm (5 weeks late half)

Our Leagues webpage lists the dates for each league. Click here to register for leagues on our Event Registrations page.

Registration is $20 per game. Your annual membership ($100) must also be current for the 2019-2020 season for your registration to be accepted.

Questions? Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On Wednesday, USA Curling, the Omaha Sports Commission, and Olympic Gold Medalist John Shuster announced that the US Olympic Team Trials for Curling will return to Omaha in November 2021!

The top US teams will compete in Omaha at Baxter Arena to earn the opportunity to go to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing!

We’re thrilled to help host the trials once again alongside USA Curling, the Omaha Sports Commission, and Baxter Arena.

Check out coverage from the Omaha World-Herald and USA Curling.

As you know, the trials came to Omaha in 2017 and played a big role in growing the game in Nebraska! And, we helped send off Team Shuster to PyeongChang, South Korea where they won gold! We were happy to welcome John Shuster back on Wednesday at the announcement press conference.

Stay tuned for more details about the USA Curling Olympic Trials in November 2021!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our annual Bone-Spiel Fun Spiel on Saturday!

We had lots of great costumes and a fun skills challenge between games: double take outs and draw to the button, no skipping and no sweeping.

Here are some highlights from Saturday’s festivities:

Sweeper Mario Brothers
Best Team Costume

Magic Brooms
Top Performing Team
Skills Challenge Winners

We held our annual Irish Open Bonspiel just a couple weekends ago, and had a great time! Eighty curlers came together among 12 teams in a novice division, and 8 teams in an experienced division, including teams from Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and St Louis!

Check out the photo album on Facebook. Special thanks to everyone who volunteered to run the bonspiel and brought items for our Saturday evening dinner raffle!

Here are our 2019 Irish Open Bonspiel event winners and runners up:

Experienced Division A Event Winner
Buff N Stuff
Buffy Linke, Kevin Schuster, Chris Becher, Steve Jaixen