USA Curling 2004-05 Athlete Biography

CURLING HIGHLIGHTS

U.S. Junior National Championships: 2005

Washington State Junior Championships: 2005 (champion), 2004 (runner-up)

Optimist International Junior Championship: 2003

2006 U.S. Olympic Team Trials/2005 World Trials: Preliminary and qualifying round

PERSONAL FILE

Curls out of: Granite Curling Club, Seattle

Nickname: Beej

Curling start: "My father is a three-time consecutive national champion in curling. I was doomed to be a curler from the very beginning."

Curling family: "In addition to my father, my grandfather was one of the founding members of the Granite Curling Club, and my grandmother, my mother, and my cousin have all spent several years curling."

Other sports: "I enjoy playing football, soccer, and golf for fun. But my favorite sport other than curling is ultimate frisbee."

Hobbies: "Well, playing sports for fun in general is a hobby of mine. Besides that I play chess, read and write fantasy adventure books, and play various computer and X-Box games."

Something unique: "I have the entire Hamlet soliloquy memorized. I create in-depth fantasy adventure stories. I have awesome hair."

Unusual facts about our team: "I have known Chris since before I can remember. I have been best friends with Jon since 3rd or 4th grade, which is about 10 years, and I have been best friends with Zach for more than five years. I brought this team together and I am so ecstatic to see it making it this far. My father and Chris's father curled together at the 1989 Worlds. Our entire team played on their varsity high school chess teams."

Offbeat experience: "This past summer Jon, Zach and I went down to California for a week. We stayed with one of Jon's uncles. The day we were scheduled to leave we went ocean kayaking with Jon's cousin, Annie. We ended up flipping them while playing around with breaking waves. Jon and Annie flipped first and the wave caught their kayak. Then Zach and I flipped and I somehow held on and ended up surfing on it as the wave started taking the kayak toward shore. Both Annie and Jon had to dive under water to avoid getting hit by the runaway kayak. I soon let go because I couldn't control where I was heading and I was afraid of running into rocks. Jon and Annie soon go to shore but Zach got caught in a rip tide near shore, barely made it to shore without drowning. We were then told by the lifeguard that there was no way to portage the kayaks and we had to take them back out through the 6-10 foot waves. Jon and Annie made it out the first time but the lifeguard mis-timed Zach and I. We got passed the first two waves but the third didn't so much tip us as it threw Zach bodily backwards into me. After that Zach was too tired to try it again so I had to take it out myself and paddle two to three miles back to where we rented the kayaks while Zach ended up getting picked up by the rental company and getting a ride to the other beach. All four of us ended up losing our eyewear."