Fenson and father eyeing gold medal

Pete Fenson, 37, comes from a curling family, and his father is his coach.
BEMIDJI, Minn. (AP) -- As a boy, Pete Fenson tagged along when his parents went to the local curling club. Sometimes, after league play was over, he'd sneak down on the ice and throw a few rocks of his own.
But his interest in the sport really took off after his father, Bob Fenson, won the national championships in 1979.
"That's always been something for me to chase," Pete Fenson said. "Once I started to play competitively, it was a whole new experience."
Now, 37-year-old Pete Fenson and his team are chasing something bigger -- an Olympic gold medal. And his father will be right there, as the team's coach.
"My family was, and is, a curling family," Pete Fenson said.
In a city where winter takes solid hold every year, curling is a family affair for many. Children who grow up curling have years to hone their skills, perhaps one reason that both the men's and women's U.S. Olympic curling teams are based here and packed with natives of Bemidji and points nearby.
Family was into curling
Like Fenson, Olympians Cassie and Jamie Johnson got the curling bug early, watching their parents and grandparents on the ice.
"I tried other sports and it wasn't as fun," said Jamie Johnson, 25. "It must be in the blood, I guess."
Sports like curling are popular in Bemidji partly because of the weather. Ruth Howe, a former physical education teacher at Bemidji State University who wrote a dissertation on curling, says people here look for something to do to stay active during the long winters.
But while anyone can take up curling -- it's offered as an elective at Bemidji High School and community education classes are available for older students -- the top players often come from a long line of curlers, Howe said.
"The instruction has been so good," Howe said. "The encouragement came from the families and the people around them. I think it's a holistic approach to the sport and the people."
Fourth-generation curlers
Take the Johnson sisters, for example. They're fourth-generation curlers who started the sport because it gave them a chance to hang out with their friends, and meet new ones. After a while, they got hooked on the strategy of the game, where teammates work together to send 42-pound stones gliding across the ice toward a target.
"Now we're here, going for the Olympics," Jamie Johnson said. "This year, we finally made it and it's a dream come true for us."
Most of the members on both teams are from northern Minnesota.
For the men, coach Bob Fenson, skip Pete Fenson, and alternate Scott Baird are all from Bemidji. Second Joe Polo is from nearby Cass Lake, while lead John Shuster and vice-skip Shawn Rojeski both live in Chisholm.
On the women's team, the Johnson sisters are both from Bemidji, and alternate Courtney George is from Duluth.
Several national and world champions have come from the Bemidji area. In 2002, a women's team from Bemidji placed fourth in the Salt Lake City Olympics, the second Olympics to feature curling as a medal sport. The Bemidji Curling Club, which has about 300 members, will be hosting the U.S. World Team Trials in March.
Something unique
But having two Bemidji teams in the Olympics is something unique.
"A lot of people think it's really something special," Bob Fenson said. "You kind of dream of going to the Olympics, but you never think you're going to make it."
While the city of more than 12,000 people is hardly decked out in red, white and blue, small "good luck" signs and pictures of the Olympians have popped up around town and well-wishers often stop the curlers on the street to offer support. Team members have made some public appearances, signing a few autographs and showing school-age kids how to curl.
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