HIBBING — As the 2020 curling season was drawing to a close, Hibbing Curling Club President Tom Scott was getting ready to host the club’s biggest event — the Last Chance International Bonspiel.
Things were running along smoothly, but there was an elephant in the room — COVID-19 — and nobody, at the time, knew what was going to happen.
The rest is history.
The City of Hibbing closed down the Hibbing Memorial Arena and the curling club, which brought the Last Chance to a halt, and for two years, the club lost its biggest money-maker of the year, let alone the last curling event of the season.
It had a bigger effect than that.
“It’s our biggest event of the year, so we take a big hit when we don’t have it,” said Scott, who coordinates the bonspiel with Ben Wilson. “There’s also the bars, restaurants, hotels and other businesses in the city that take a hit when we don’t have it.
“It’s not just the curling club, but the city is also taking a hit the last couple of years, a lot of the businesses have.”
It was only a matter of time before the Last Chance International Bonspiel returned, and that time is now.
The 66th annual event is coming back today when action opens at the arena and curling club.
Needless to say, Scott is relieved to have the Last Chance back.
“The big thing for me was making sure we could get through the season,” Scott said. The Last Chance is great, but just seeing the members come back this year and have a successful season, that has been as important, if not more important,to me.”
“It's been a long two years. As a club, this is the biggest event we have. You always look forward when you start the season to finishing with the Last Chance. Not being able to do that the last two years has been tough, for sure.”
Getting through the regular season wasn’t a given.
“When we started, COVID was still a big thing, as it is now, so we weren’t sure that we would have it,” Scott said. “We had to plan as if we were going to run it. As we got through the season, as the months ticked by, we thought it was looking more and more like we were going to have it.
“That’s when the excitement built as we went along with the season.”
Even so, the club had to start promoting the event, with some stipulations.
“We were letting everybody know that everything was subject to change as we all know these last couple of years,” Scott said. “We planned as it was going to go on as normal. That’s what we did.”
The response was better than Scott expected.
“We actually had teams sign up earlier than typical,” Scott said. “That gave us the feeling that, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of teams that want to come back for this.’ After not having it for two years, you don’t know.
“Are people going to find something else to do? Maybe they don’t want to do the Last Chance anymore because they have something else to do for that weekend. It was good to see. It’ll be a good turnout.”
A total 88 teams are expected to show up to curling for the main-event title, which will payout around $6,000.
That’s a good number, according to Scott.
“A total of 128 teams fills it,” Scott said. “That’s the goal, but if you get 128, it’s a big challenge to get everybody through it. It gets to be a grind. If we get into the 80s or 90s, we’ll be happy with that, but the more the merrier.”
The only problem was getting teams from Canada. Those restrictions were lifted on April 1, but as of now, there’s only three Canadian teams signed up to play.
“That, by far, will be the lowest, because of the COVID issues,” Scott said. “There’s talk that they were going to loosen the restrictions on April 1. I’ve heard from a couple of people that maybe they will come down if they do that.
“There’s a chance we could get a couple more. COVID definitely hurt the Canadian-side of things.”
Scott not only missed the curling aspect of the Last Chance, but also the inability to see longtime friends and curlers who made the bonspiel an annual event.
“I have a friend of mine who lives in Ohio that comes in every year for this,” Scott said. “He told me the last time he was up here, which was the last time we had it (2019), he said, ‘I look forward to this weekend every year because for me it’s a curling family reunion. I get to see people I only get to see once a year.’
“When he said that, I thought, ‘Man, that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard about the Last Chance.’ It was cool. I feel the same as he does.”
Once the weekend gets under way, Scott, who will be curling with Dave Johnson, Derek Gabardi and Joe Gabardi, believes things will revert back to what it used to be.
“Once all of the teams get here Thursday, it’s going to be good,” Scott said. “Friday and Saturday, when we have the music back, it’s going to be good. I’m hoping people want to come out and do something.
“The last couple of years, we haven’t been able to do much. We’re looking forward to a good weekend.”
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