RealAudio

In the curling world, Tim Somerville is known for his uncanny natural ability. As captain of the U.S. Olympic men's curling team, the Roseville resident has a good shot for a medal in Salt Lake. But Tim Somerville knows fate can be fickle.

	Tim Somerville is the skip, or leader, of the U.S. Olympic men's curling team. Somerville, of Roseville, also led the team for curling's debut at the Olympics four years ago. The U.S. finished fourth, and he predicts they'll do better this year. (MPR Photo/Euan Kerr)

To understand just how good you have to be to make the U.S. men,s Olympic curling team, it's useful to talk about playing pool. Imagine shooting the cue ball the length of the table to hit one ball onto another. Now imagine the first ball hits a second, third and fourth, which drops into the pocket. Pretty tough to do deliberately.

Now imagine making the same shot with 42 lb. stones instead of pool balls, on 125 feet of ice instead of a felt-covered table. As the U.S. team practices at the St. Paul Curling Club, Mike Schneeburger does just that.

He makes an amazing shot - perfect in fact. But his effort is barely acknowledged by his teammates. At this level of curling, every throw has to be that good. A two-hour game can be decided by one rock.

When team captain Tim Somerville prepares to throw a stone, his eyes lock in an unwavering stare on his target at the other end of the ice. It's a little spooky. It's almost as if he is in a trance.

"It takes you out of all the troubles in the world," says Somerville. "When you throw a rock and when you are focused into throwing a rock, it's like this is the only problem right now - and it's not a big problem."

	Curling is a game of inches. Learn more about how to play the game. (MPR Photo/Euan Kerr)

Tim Somerville has been described as one of the finest natural curlers in U.S. history. He just seems to know how to place a stone exactly where he wants it to go.

Some people get almost mystical about Tim Somerville's ability. Team coach Bud Somerville, Tim's dad, is a two-time world champion himself. Even he is amazed at Tim's ability to pull off crucial shots in high pressure games.

"That in itself makes him kind of uncanny. Because you wonder how he can continuously do that time after time, but he seems to be able to," says Bud Somerville.

Case in point - the Olympic trials in December. They weren't favorites. In fact they lost their first two games.

Team member John Gordon says they went for a drive in the mountains. He says they couldn't find a cliff to drive off, so they came back and focused. The team won nine games straight to take the Olympic berth.

"Pressure - that's for the other person. Make them feel pressure," says Gordon. "Hopefully that's what he and the rest of my teammates all do - just try to put pressure on the other team and be relentless."

But some might argue with Gordon on whether the Somerville team feels pressure. Somerville, Gordon, Schneeburger and Miles Brundidge have curled together on and off for 25 years. In recent years controversy has dogged the team, in part because of their reputation for being loudly and sometimes bitterly critical of each other during games.

	Olympic curler John Gordon practices with his teammates at the St. Paul Curling Club. His strategy in competition: "Just try to put pressure on the other team, and be relentless." (MPR Photo/Euan Kerr)

In the genteel world of curling, which places a premium on sporting behavior, Tim Somerville and his team make some people nervous.

"I don't think it's anger. I think it's just the emotions just come out," says Somerville. "It's hard to hold it in sometimes when you are in the big game. We like to talk and our communication might be a little loud. We might sound like we are arguing and stuff, but that's not the case."

Tim Somerville and his team have been to a lot of big games. Twice to the World Championships. In 1998, they represented the U.S. in curling's first appearance as an Olympic medal sport. But things haven't turned out the way the team members hoped. They didn't place on either trip to the Worlds.

Then in the Olympics, they came from behind to get into the medal round, only to lose to the Canadians in the semi-finals. Emotionally spent after playing five games in 30 hours, they lost the bronze medal game to Norway.

"Coming in fourth in Nagano - boy, it's been tough sleeping. The last three years have been pretty tough," says Somerville.

Tim Somerville says he's never made predictions before. But this year he likes the team's chances. He says there's some unfinished business.

This is our chance to really make things - all the old things that went bad - a lot better."

The first game of the men's Olympic curling event is Feb. 11 at the Ice Sheet in Ogden, Utah.

curlingbasics.com The how-to of curling