Big shot, big celly for big trophy
Early on, it looked like the baton would skip right over Korey Dropkin.
For the past couple of years, John Shuster has been the clear top dog on the men’s curling scene in the United States—and many eyes may have been starting to look to Danny Casper’s team as the future.
With Casper going undefeated all the way through to the 2025 U.S. Men’s Nationals final—and taking an early lead in the championship match—I wouldn’t have blamed Dropkin for thinking “Why me?”
After all, it wasn’t that long ago he was in Casper’s shoes with the “Young Bucks” as the heirs-apparent to Team Shuster.
But on Sunday afternoon in Duluth, Team Dropkin never lost sight of the prize. They had to battle for it. They had to dig. They had to make fantastic shots. They had to sweep with every ounce of effort to get the rocks to where they needed them to be.
Dropkin, Thomas Howell, Andrew Stopera and Mark Fenner did just that.
While Casper started out strong with a 4-1 lead through four ends, Dropkin clawed their way back and took every inch of leeway afforded to them over the second half of the game.
They managed to take the lead in the ninth end and forced Casper to one in the 10th for a 6-6 tie heading to an extra end.
In the 11th, things were looking hairy with Team Casper having shot rock corner frozen to a Dropkin stone in the back of the four-foot.
Tom Howell came to the rescue, though, with a picture-perfect pick out of the shot stone to relieve some of the pressure.
With Dropkin sitting one, Casper had to make a decision with his rock in the eight-foot sitting as second shot.
Do you call a freeze, or do you make a precise roll to sit 2?
Do you try to force Dropkin to draw or to hit?
They elected to freeze, and I’m not sure if Casper could have made the draw any better than he did. The pressure flipped back to Korey Dropkin who now needed to run Casper’s red stone back into the frozen rocks and stick around to sit shot.
Howell and Dropkin were screaming for Andrew Stopera to hold the line, and he held it just well enough. Not only did they remove the frozen red rock and stick their shooter, they actually picked the red rock clean and scored two to win their first national championship since 2021.
The celebration was on, and it was glorious.
The Dropkin crew now holds the important task of needing a high enough finish at the upcoming world championships to get the U.S. qualified for the Olympics.
For the time being, however, they deserve to revel in their win.
Today, the focus is not on those who have sat at the pinnacle of U.S. curling for years. The focus is not on those who figure to be the contender for the throne for the next decade.
Today, the focus is on Team Dropkin, U.S. national men’s champions.