If you're looking for a way to beat the heat this summer, then join us for summer curling at Baxter Arena! We're coordinating three Summer Leagues in 2026:

• Monday Doubles at 5:45 PM: 9 weeks starting June 1
• Monday 7:30 PM: 9 weeks starting June 1
• Tuesday 7:00 PM: 8 weeks starting June 2

Registration opens on Saturday, May 2 at 10:00 AM.

Registration will be first-come, first-serve. You don't have to have a full team — our league coordinators will help form teams!

Pictured: Adrian Allard, Julia Castle, Buffy Linke, Randy Brodner

On April 24-26, Aksarben Curling hosted its Season Championship Bonspiel at Baxter Arena. 

The event featured sixteen teams including the champions of our 12 fall and winter leagues, our top college league team, the 2023-2024 defending champs, and two wild card lottery teams.

Teams competed for the Katie Beck Championship Cup, our annual trophy honoring the legacy of Katie Beck, one of Aksarben Curling's most accomplished curlers. Read more about Katie Beck's legacy and curlers' memories of Katie Beck.

Teams played in 4-team groups that broke into semi-finals and finals. Participating teams included:

Pool A
Cobra Kai Curling (Wild Card #1)
Stone Cold (Fall Sunday 2:15pm champ)
Holy Sheet! (Fall Sunday 12pm champ)
Leave No Stone Unturned (Fall Sunday 4:30pm champ)

Pool B
Attack of the Stones (Wild Card #2)
Good in the Hack (Fall Friday 7pm champ)
Hit the Broom (Fall Sunday 2:15pm champ)
Team Grindstaff (Winter Sunday 12pm champ)

Pool C
The Ice Is Right (Winter Tuesday 8pm runner-up)
The Bitter End (Winter Friday 7pm champ)
Spice Curls (Team Aksarben—Defending Champion)
Naughty or Ice (Fall Sunday 6:45pm champ)

Pool D
Little Raise of Sunshine (Fall Tuesday 8pm champ)
3 Men & A Little Lady (Winter Sunday 6:45pm champ)
UNL Curling Club (College League champ)
Cult of Cornbread (Winter Sunday 4:30pm champ)

Team Stone Cold (3-0) advanced out of Group A to play Hit the Broom (3-0) from Group B in the semi-finals, with Hit the Broom defeating Stone Cold to advance to the finals. The Bitter End (2-1) advanced from Group C in a DSC tiebreaker (by 5 cm!) over Naughty or Ice (2-1) and The Ice Is Right (2-1) to play the Group D winners Little Raise of Sunshine (3-0). The Bitter End defeated Little Raise of Sunshine to reach the finals.

In the Bronze match, Little Raise of Sunshine defeated Stone Cold. In the Championship match, Hit the Broom defeated The Bitter End to secure the championship and the Katie Beck Cup. Team Hit the Brooms skip Buffy Linke is the first member to win the Katie Beck Cup more than once!

Congratulation to our season champions and all participating teams!

2025-2026 Season Champion
Hit the Broom
Adrian Allard, Julia Castle, Buffy Linke, Randy Brodner

2025-2026 Season Championship Runner-Up and Silver Medalists
The Bitter End
Angie Price, Sally Ashmore, Frazer Heinis, Jason Price

2025-2026 Season Championship Bronze Medalist
Little Raise of Sunshine
Nic Swiercek, Kaeli Samson, Lisa Truesdell, Matthew Truesdell

2023-2024 Season Championship Fourth Place
Stone Cold
Francesco Sangalli, Ralph Roza, Nate Wendel, Kali Odd, Katie Fennelly

Rob Latimer, also known as “Canada Rob”, is Aksarben’s latest member feature!  

Rob is originally from Saskatchewan, Canada and lived in Alberta for many years before moving to the USA in 2001. He has three kids with his wife of 36 years, Tammy. One of his children even did Junior Curling in Canada in 2000! 

Today, Rob operates a small consulting business that provides services to a variety of energy companies that deal with landowners for easements, leases, and agreements. 

As far as curling goes, you’ll usually see him at Baxter on Tuesday nights and Sundays at 4:30. Rob is the skip for his Tuesday team. He’ll play any position, but tends to throw lead or second on Sundays. 

He learned to curl in a small town in Alberta in 1990/91 and curled there for two years before moving to a different Alberta community. He took a break between 2001-2008 and then found Aksarben Curling in Omaha. If you ask Rob about his favorite memory from curling, two come to mind. He had a great time being involved in a game where all 16 rocks were in the house at once (I bet that made for an interesting time when it came to scoring!). He also recalled being on the losing side of an 8-ender (ouch!). 

He loves to broomstack at Kinkaider here in Omaha and has fond memories of broomstacking on the road as well. Rob has travelled to several bonspiels and really liked playing in the Bourbon Spiel in Louisville, Kentucky. While the ice might have been lacking, broomstacking was super fun! He also described the St. Paul Men’s International Bonspiel as “...a riot for broomstacking”. His team didn’t play well, but they had a great time regardless.  

Rob is always working to grow the sport. Whether directly or indirectly, he’s probably encouraged at least 5 people to try it out and some have even gone on to build their own team! If you’re asking him for curling advice, he’d say that rocks up front will rule the day. 

When he’s not on the ice, you’ll find Rob doing handyman stuff that doesn’t require a strict schedule. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, Tammy, and traveling together to see their adult kids.

Pictured: Isaiah Jacobsen, David Hill, Julia Castle, Nic Swiercek, Nic Ridder, Kali Odd, Doug Michel, 'Elvis,' Lois Imig, Buffy Linke, Meredith Daniels

In October 2025, Aksarben Curling had two teams compete in the 2025 USA Curling Arena National Championship at CurlVegas in Las Vegas, NV: Team Ridder on the men's side and Team Linke on the women's side. We're proud to have had Aksarben represented in both divisions at this year's championship!

Team Ridder
Doug Michel (lead), David Hill (skip, second), Nic Swiercek (third), Nic Ridder (vice, fourth), and Isaiah Jacobsen (alternate)

Team Linke
Ralph Roza (coach), Buffy Linke (skip), Kali Odd (alternate), Meredith Daniels (vice), Lois Imig (lead), and Julia Castle (second)

In August 2025, Team Ridder finished in the semi-finals at MACA Regional Playdowns and later qualified for nationals through the Last Chance Bonspiel at LaCrosse Curling in September 2025. In 2024, Team Ridder won the silver medal at the Arena National Championship in Wausau, WI and was looking to capture another medal in 2025. Team Ridder won all five of their pool matches (two in extra ends!) to finish pool play undefeated and secure a bye into the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, they defeated Grand Rapids Curling's Team Shlimovitz to face DFW Curling's Team Myers in the gold/silver game. After a close game tied after 6 ends, Team Myers pulled ahead with a 2-point lead after 7 ends to ultimately prevail with handshakes in the 8th end, securing the gold for DFW (their 6th!) and a back-to-back silver medal for Team Ridder and Aksarben Curling!

Congratulations to Team Ridder's Nic Ridder, David Hill, Doug Michel, Nic Swiercek, and Isaiah Jacobsen!

Aksarben's Team Linke finished third overall in the MACA Regional Playdowns and later qualified for nationals at the Last Chance Bonspiel at LaCrosse Curling in September 2025, going undefeated in their double round robin. While Team Linke did not advance from pool play at natioanls, Team Linke finished with the top DSC scores across all 24 teams in the women's and men's fields!

We're really proud of Aksarben Curling's curlers and all of the work they did to make it to the national stage and represent our club and community! Read more about this year's event at Stones and Stripes.

Special thank you to all of the Aksarben Curling members back home who cheered on Team Ridder and Team Linke remotely from Omaha at home and at our livestream watch parties! We continue to have the gold medalists of cheering back home!

Congratulation to all of the 2025 USA Curling Arena National Champions:

Men's division
Gold: Team Myers (DFW Curling, Mid-America Curling Association)
Silver: Team Ridder (Aksarben Curling, Mid-America Curling Association)
Bronze: Team Spangler (Mountain Pacific Curling Association)

Women's Division
Gold: Team Weber (Sioux Falls Curling, Dakota Curling Association)
Silver: Team Robertsons (DFW Curling, Mid-America Curling Association)
Bronze: Team Asis (Silicon Valley Curling, Mountain Pacific Curling Association)

Thank you to all of the amazing hosts at CurlVegas, all of the ice technicians who made the ice amazing all week, and all of the staff and officials at USA Curling for running such a great event!

New to curling? We got you covered with what you need to know!

Check out this handy Curling Basics 101  from our friends at Cedar Rapids Curling. It provides everything you need to know about the history of curling, game play, scoring, sportsmanship, and key terms.

Two-minute Video Explainer: