Rhinelander Curling Club women’s team going back to nationals

For a second straight year, the Rhinelander Curling Club women’s team is heading to the U.S. Curling Arena National Championships.

“Again, just having the experience under our belts certainly helps, kind of knowing what to expect,” team member Jean Rice said. “Certainly to just keep curling information out there a little bit more as we keep trying to develop this new club up north.”

The team of Rachel Bolte, Beth Chladil, Alexa Megna and Rice will be representing the state of Wisconsin.

“We are just one of, at this point, there are only three arena clubs,” Rice said. “But we definitely have connections because many of our members at these arena clubs moved to those areas and were at dedicated curling clubs in the past. We have connections with other curling groups, and we attend their bonspiels, their tournaments. To be able to be at the national event representing Wisconsin — quite the honor.”

Last year, Rhinelander had to beat an arena curling club team from La Crosse to make it to the national tournament. This year, La Crosse decided not to take part in the playdown.

“At this point it’s just us and La Crosse,” Rice said. “Hayward just started a curling club this past year, so they will be a third arena club going forward. But the La Crosse women’s curling team within a week or so of our planned playoff match opted out. They had other commitments, life commitments coming up, and their concern was, if indeed they won at the playoff level, they would not have been able to make it to the national event.”

With no other arena curling club team in the state, Rhinelander automatically got its ticket punched to nationals.

“So they are allowing us to take that spot without actually doing the playoff by default, which, of course, is what La Crosse was allowed to do for those years prior to Rhinelander being the next, another arena club,” Rice said.

Rice, the skip, is the only returning member of last year’s national-qualifying team. New team members include Bolte, the second, Chladil, the first or lead player, and Megna, the third or vice skip.

“I am the only returning member for this team,” Rice said. “And again, it has a lot to do with just life events where the gals who helped or played on the team last year had other life events coming up said, ‘Oh, I can’t commit to that.’ So we have three gals, all of whom are relatively new to curling, I think at the most three years worth of experience. I will be the skip again.”

Between now and nationals, Rhinelander is hoping to gain more experience by participating in tournaments or bonspiels.

“We’ve been practicing just in our typical league-type play and in thinking about what position makes sense for each of the four of us,” Rice said. “We came up with this lineup and hope to maybe be able to play a couple tournaments, bonspiels, here prior to the nationals, again, just to get a little more experience with us in those four roles.”

Despite the fact that three-fourths of the team is new, Rice said she is drawing on last year’s experience in Las Vegas to help the team going forward.

“It’s very regulated during the course of a match with an opponent team,” Rice said. “Mostly enjoy the experience. Yes, we’re very new to this. Many of the teams that we will face have been part of arena clubs for decades, the majority of the arena clubs are developed in larger cities where they have, again, ice year round for large hockey/figure skating complexes. I think the big takeaway is enjoy the experience and enjoy meeting others who are kind of in the same boat.”

The national tournament will take place Nov. 11-15 at the Dallas-Fort Worth Curling Club in Irving, Texas. Rhinelander played Dallas at nationals in 2025.

“What’s interesting is, at last year’s national tournament, our women’s team faced, the Dallas-Fort Worth team and lost but did well against them,” Rice said. “I think we lost by maybe two points, and so they have been an arena team up until this year. In 2026, they’re in the process of building out kind of retrofitting a large building they’re going to use as a dedicated curling facility now and won’t be sharing ice any longer.”

A total of 24 arena curling club teams — 12 men, 12 women — will take part in the U.S. Curling Arena National Championships.

“There are just over a 100 arena-based curling clubs in the U.S.,” Rice said. “And again, through various playoffs and such throughout the country, they whittle it down to 12 men’s teams, 12 women’s teams that go to the nationals and have the opportunity to come away with gold, silver, bronze.”

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].