PETERSHAM — Rebecca Rodgers returned to where it all began this holiday season.
Rodgers, a Leyden native who graduated from Pioneer Valley Regional School, is currently living in Minneapolis, Minn., training and competing for Team Strouse, the No. 2 ranked women’s curling team in the country. The team is also ranked No. 16th in the world according to the World Curling Rankings.
While back in Leyden last week for the holidays, Rodgers traveled to the Petersham Curling Club to practice, the place she first took to the sport that has turned into a major part of her life.
“It’s cool being back here,” Rodgers said last week at the club. “There’s a lot of nostalgic memories associated with it. It’s where I started out. I have a lot of support and feel so welcome here. It’s super cool that everyone cares and wants to know how I’m doing. They’re my biggest fans which is super cool.”
Rodgers, 23, was just nine years old when her dad brought she and her sister to Petersham to try curling. It wasn’t Rodgers, the younger of the siblings, that was initially interested in the sport. Once she tried it and saw the competitive side of it however, she was hooked.
“It was my dad and my older sister who were interested in it,” Rodgers said. “They liked the strategy and the finesse of the game. They decided to see if there was a place nearby to try and this was the closest place. I just tagged along as the younger sister because what else was I supposed to do? I ended up falling in love with it. It started by coming here every Saturday afternoon and hanging out with the other kids who were also doing it. It wasn’t a super big time commitment. I got introduced to the competitive side of the sport and I latched on right then.”
That was a long time ago. Curling is a full time commitment now for Rodgers, who said she and Team Strouse train together four days a week along with doing strength and conditioning training. They travel to tournaments around the country and world two or three times a month on weekends.
She does all this while working a full time job as a plant health care technician.
“Curling is unique” Rodgers said. “It doesn’t have all the resources and the popularity in order for us to be full time professional athletes. We’re all working and one of my teammates is in school. We’ve been student athletes our whole lives and now we’re working athletes. It’s a grind for sure but I’m happy to do it every day.”
All that hard work has paid off. Rodgers and her teammates — Delaney Strouse, Anne O’Hara and Sydney Mullaney — earned a bronze medal at the World University Games. In February, Rodgers and Team Strouse competed in the 2023 USA National Curling Championships, where the squad earned a second place finish.
It was the first year Team Strouse competed in women’s curling rather than the junior division. The success they had only gives them confidence for what they can accomplish in the future.
The thing Rodgers and Team Strouse have their eyes on? The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, which is a realistic goal as the current No. 2 ranked team in the country.
“It’s a big year,” Rodgers said. “Last year was our big breakthrough into the women’s curling field. Before that we were playing juniors together. We got silver at women’s nationals. The goal is gold next year then the Olympics in 2026. Big things coming.”
While still a few years away — the team trials for the Olympics won’t be until the fall of 2025 — the motivation of knowing a childhood goal is in the realm of possibility is what drives Rodgers each day while practicing.
“It’s crazy and wild to think about,” Rodgers said. “It’s been the natural path but it’s seeing my dreams start to come true. You’re playing a sport and say you want to go to the Olympics one day. Now that vision is in sight. It makes you hungry to keep going. It’s closer and closer. You have to keep going to make it happen.
“The goal leading up to the team trials, we’re the second ranked team right now,” Rodgers added. “The goal is to surpass that as we’re doing well at these tournaments. We want to win women’s nationals. As we’re getting better and better, the goal is to surpass that. When you go to the team trials you have to win it to go. There is a competition we have to win to go.”
Has it set in for Rodgers, who hails from a town of under 1,000 people, that she’s on an Olympic path? Not totally yet, but she is thankful for everyone who has helped turn her dream into a reality, especially her parents who spent many weekends bringing her to different tournaments while she was still in high school.
“Coming from Leyden, I’m very proud,” Rodgers said. “I wouldn’t have been here without my parents. They’ve supported me 100 percent of the way. Curling is a unique sport where you have to travel everywhere. That’s hard when you’re in high school. My parents were driving me all around the state and up to Canada some weekends for tournaments. That’s how they helped me get here. I’m so thankful for them and thankful for this community. Everyone is so supportive. I’m just so thankful for that.”
The next tournament Rodgers and Team Straus will compete in is in Japan, a place she has never been.
“The tournaments all vary in importance,” Rodgers said. “This one is a super cool opportunity. A lot of the Japanese and Korean teams will be there. We’ll be going up against different international competition who we don’t usually get to play. It’s a funded trip as well. They’re paying for our flights, our lodging. If not, we couldn’t afford to take a trip like that.”
The sport of curling has opened up so many opportunities for Rodgers, like getting to travel the world playing the sport she loves.
“I don’t think I even knew it was an opportunity that existed,” Rodgers said. “Even the first couple years I was curling I thought it was super fun but I didn’t know about the competitive realm of the sport until I started in high school. Then you get more and more involved and now here we are. My team is like my second family. They’re my best friends. I get to travel the world while playing the sport I love with my best friends. It’s the dream.”