Northwoods Experience: Brainerd Curling Club Hosts 2025 MN Senior Men’s Bonspiel

Curling teams from all over Minnesota flocked to the Brainerd Club Club at the Crow Wing County Fairgrounds earlier this month for the 2025 Minnesota Senior Men’s Bonspiel.

Every year, the bonspiel brings together 20 of the state’s finest teams – many of which have players with decades worth of curling experience – for a weekend spent fully immersed in the sport.

“The traditional game is a six-end game or eight-end game, which that means you go back and forth on the ice a complete eight times,” explained Mike Liapis, former president of the Bemidji Curling Club. “Each players throws two rocks. You have 16 rocks, eight on each team, then once you’ve completed throwing all the rocks, whoever’s closest to the center will score and will ultimately be the winner if you do it enough times.”

The bonspiel is broken down into three classes: Seniors who are 50 years of age or older, Super Seniors at age 65 and older, and the Masters for those 70 and older.

“One of the big features of the game is I’m 76 years old and I’m still able to play the game,” Liapis said. “Can I play baseball anymore? Not so much. Would I want to be wearing a football uniform? Not so much. But this game? We can play it now until you can’t walk anymore. Every club will open up and have you come and play, no question about it.”

Like any tournament, every team in attendance has its eyes on first place.

“It’s just the nature. I’m very competitive and played many, many years,” said World Senior Curling Champion Paul Pustovar. “We’ve won the early bonspiel quite a few years. Most of the games are competitive, they are close. We lost in the finals last year of this tournament in Bemidji. Hopefully, we can win this year and not end up second again.”

The Senior Men’s Bonspiel is an annual tradition for the curlers, and even though the competitive juices are always flowing, the main takeaway is the camaraderie the fellow curlers exhibit both before and after the games.

“Curling is a friendly game,” Pustovar said. “You shake the hand of the person you’re playing before the game and you shake hands after the game also.”

“At the senior level, no question it’s about the camaraderie,” Liapis added. “And at the end of this, everyone will go back home, back to their respective clubs, and then we’ll all wait to do again next year.”

Many of the teams from the Minnesota Senior Men’s Bonspiel will also be competing in the Senior Men’s National Bonspiel in Wisconsin next month.