Traverse City Curling Club

About Traverse City Curling Club

Traverse City Curling Club: From Old Kmart to National Host

Traverse City Curling Club began with an open house. Inspired by the 2014 Winter Olympics, local chiropractor Don Piche and his sister Cara Colburn invited the public to try curling at the Centre Ice arena that spring, and more than 500 people turned up. The club was founded in April 2014, played on arena ice at Centre Ice for its first eight years, and launched its Cherry Bombspiel in April 2015.

Under Colburn, president from 2017, the club pursued a home of its own. In June 2022 it acquired the former Kmart at the Cherryland Center on Garfield Avenue, and in January 2023 the Traverse City Curling Center opened in the old store: 28,000 square feet with five sheets of dedicated curling ice and a broomstacking room decorated with memorabilia donated by 2018 Olympic gold medalist John Landsteiner. Membership jumped from under 100 to more than 350 within a year, with a junior league of over 50 children, learn-to-curl classes, novice leagues and wheelchair curlers on the ice.

The new building quickly put Traverse City on the national calendar. It hosted the USA Curling Mixed Doubles National Championship in spring 2024 and the USA Curling Senior Championships in 2025, and world-ranked curler Delaney Strouse is a club member.