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From USA Curling:

The USCA High Performance Program has as its sole purpose the development and preparation of athletes in the pursuit of competitive excellence on the world stage. This is a relentless pursuit that requires ongoing assessment of progress toward the end goals and strategic adjustments where and when necessary. To this end, the National Coaching staff has made a couple of line-up changes within the Men’s White (Craig Brown) and Black (Chris Plys) teams. Pete Fenson has joined the Black team while Sean Beighton has returned to the HPP and will join the White team in the same line-up that finished runner-up in the 2015 National Championships. The new line-ups will be as follows:

White – Craig Brown, Kroy Nernberger, Jared Zezel, Sean Beighton

Black – Pete Fenson, Chris Plys, Joe Polo, Ryan Brunt, Colin Hufman

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"It's a relentless pursuit..."

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I'm guessing the disappointing results from Brown & Plys in Sarnia this past weekend spurred this change.

Both teams have certainly had disappointing seasons so far, so I guess I'm not surprised to see things shaken up.

I don't really know what to make of this though. On one hand I can see the logic behind the moves...on the other hand I wonder if it's too soon to make drastic changes. There's also the fact that we don't know how much or how little of a say the players had in these moves...the press release puts the decision on the coaches, but that's not to say the players didn't have their input either.

Hopefully these guys can shake it all off and get something going for the rest of the season.

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This new lineup every 10 minutes thing is just getting so laughable I don't know where to even begin... Granted, we aren't privy to the "vast wisdom" behind the decision; I haven't noticed it yet...

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Interesting our top two teams this year are USA #3(Shuster)and the ever present Erika Brown. Both are defending national champions and play with non-HPP appointed teammates. In fact Erika is currently our top team two years in a row with totally different teams.

Putting Kroy back as Craig's vice may show the HPP is understanding the value of curlers playing with who they want to curl with vs. what the stats say.

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I don't like the program-arranged teams and hope that things move more toward self-arranged teams like Shuster's, EBrown's and the Canadian teams (and maybe the Swiss teams? not sure about the Swiss teams).

One problem with a program-arranged team is that thoughts can creep into a curler's head that they have an opportunity to "move up" if they perform better than their teammates. It can create a conflict of interest.

Regardless, hope USA figures it out and improves. The season is still young. And I hope that Shuster has some sort of agreement in place about how much/little the HPP leaders can control his team and lineup.

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Watching the HPP for the past few years, I kept mentally re-writing a line from the movie Mean Girls: Stop trying to make Plys happen.

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The press release looks like a way for the HP staff to appear and remain relevant, when the men's teams' (excluding Shuster) performances are irrelevant.

This program doesn't work in America...

Curling is NOT about putting the best four (try-out) players on the ice at the same time. Success is not going to come from having four players on the same team that "could" throw skip rocks. ugh...

We have great athletes wasting their time in a program that just doesn't work.

I can see it already... Shuster and E. Brown will go on to medal at the next Olympics and they will say that success is because of the HP program and staff! And the program will continue. (mumbles to self...)

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time now to shake up the women's teams?

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Roth and Sinclair a combined 1-6 at Morris MB this weekend. Now what?

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At this rate, I guess it's Shuster and Brown at the Continental Cup.

USCA HPP admins seem more like apparatchiks who are flying from the seat of their pants. So long as the USOC money flows it's fat city boyos.

If this goes teets up in 2018, I shudder what the USOC will do.


....can anyone say "team handball".....

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Last edited by AK267 on 11-22-15 at 12:59PM

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quote:

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Originally posted by AK267
At this rate, I guess it's Shuster and Brown at the Continental Cup.

---

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A disappointing DeKalb Superspiel for Roth and Sinclair. I would have to see how these games play out to form any opinion to what is happening but these are all curlers who are very capable and should have had a lot more success at this event.

Christensen came up just short of qualifying and has been playing very well. The continued development of this team may be the future of women's curling.

Erika Brown is still undefeated is ahead 2-0 against Allison Flaxey in the Semi-Finals. Six tournaments and they have qualified in each of them. One win, one second and now two semi-finals. Undisputed best chance we have at worlds.

Last edited by biterbar on 11-23-15 at 03:26PM

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quote:

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Originally posted by biterbar
A disappointing DeKalb Superspiel for Roth and Sinclair. I would have to see how these games play out to form any opinion to what is happening but these are all curlers who are very capable and should have had a lot more success at this event.

Christensen came up just short of qualifying and has been playing very well. The continued development of this team may be the future of women's curling.

Erika Brown is still undefeated is ahead 2-0 against Allison Flaxey in the Semi-Finals. Six tournaments and they have qualified in each of them. One win, one second and now two semi-finals. Undisputed best chance we have at worlds.

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"The System is working" - HPP Administrators

"BS" - Everyone else

That's what it means.

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The most frustrating about the HP is the lack of progress being made. These women's teams seem to be going in the wrong direction when comparing early year results to the last couple of outings. The men's team were just rearranged yet again. We are, in the opinion of this outsider, in worse shape than we were when the HP started several years ago. Thank God Shuster and Brown are holding up the American side this year.

These were the best throwers and sweepers the HP had to choose from and they are surely among the best in the country.

So that being said it has to come down to chemistry and coaching. Since these players are hand picked and put together the chemistry part also comes down to the HP's responsibility.

Maybe the shakeup should take place somewhere other than team lineups.

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Don't lose faith in the HP program. Eventually they will come up with a world team selection process that will guarantee medals. Because the selection process is what's always been keeping the US off the podium.

#sarcasm

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You misspelled meddles...

and they're already leading the league in those...

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I generally agree with the notion of focused funding and training on a relatively few number of curlers/teams. You need semi-professional players to compete at the highest level.

However, the HPP's choices in players and teams has been curious at best.

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So let's have so holiday fun. We have Shuster's team who opted into the program, and Erika Brown's team who wasn't interested. Of the players left, you pick the teams. #fantasycurling

Last edited by mr. lucky on 11-25-15 at 11:09PM

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quote:

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Originally posted by mr. lucky
So let's have so holiday fun. We have Shuster's team who opted into the program, and Erika Brown's team who wasn't interested. Of the players left, you pick the teams. #fantasycurling

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So is HPP more excited about performance of Brown and Shuster or more concerned about the continuing non-performance of their selected teams?

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The program as a whole should be excited about the performance of Brown and Shuster. Some of the individuals, and not just athletes, should be concerned about the results from some of the other teams. If an objective assessment doesn't show the expected improvement of the individual curlers and teams how long will they wait to shake up the staff instead of the teams.

I'm not saying it's time, and I think we've seen improvement in the program this year, but I don't know what the patience level is to see results.

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If they weren't excited about Shuster and Brown before this weekends results certainly didn't help their spirits.

Last edited by biterbar on 11-30-15 at 03:03PM

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I'm pretty sure that USA Curling (not just the HPP staff) gets pretty excited whenever any team from USA does well at curling.

I know what you are saying, though. They chose a coach-selected model, and then the coach-selected teams did not fare well, not even in comparison with self-selected USA teams like Shuster and EBrown. The coach-selected model is not working at the moment.

On the other hand, they are not fools, and they will adjust their ways if it means more winning. HPP seemed to change their policy and support Shuster's self-selected team this year w/o breaking it up. Maybe EBrown's recent successes will push them further in this direction. If it means wins, then USA Curling spirits will soar.

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