These ladies went undefeated at the 2006 Olympic curling trials beating two-time Olympian and world champion Debbie McCormick’s rink. But they didn’t stop there. Representing the U.S. at the 2005 World Curling Championships, the girls shocked everyone and brought home a silver medal.

“At Worlds I think they underestimated us because we were so young and we’re new,” skip Cassie Johnson said. “Now we’re the ones to beat.”

Johnson’s rink is made up of some incredible young ladies who have been curling for the majority of their lives. Johnson’s third is her own sister, Jamie, who by the way is a year older than Cassie at the age of 24. The second is Jessica Schultz, 20, and the lead is Maureen Brunt is 22.

They all got their starts in curling like many other curlers – by their parents.

“It’s a big family sport,” Cassie said. “It’s a life long sport. Obviously, when you have kids, if you already curl, they’re going to do it too.”

Throwing a stone on ice and sweeping is addicting according to the ladies.

“Once you start learning it, it’s like you can’t stop,” Jamie said.

Johnson rink has one philosophy they play by when on the ice and that is “to have fun,” Schultz said. Before every game Brunt’s father gives the girls a little advice, which seems to have worked.

“He says, ‘Just have fun and remember winning is fun,’” Brunt said about her father.

And the ladies keep things light between the games and ends by wearing hot pink little girl hair ties, doing the YMCA between games and singing karaoke.

“We like to have a song,” Brunt said. “Usually, it changes from competition to competition or it’s for a season. This year it was ‘Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.’ So the last night, we sang it karaoke at the banquet after we won at trials. That was fun. I guess we weren’t that good.”

So how did this amazing and talented rink form…I’ll let Cassie tell you.

“Jamie and I have curled together forever,” Cassie said. “We’re sisters. Our first competition together I wanted to be skip so bad. I was really young and I was a little brat. I’m the younger sister too, which everyone always thinks is interesting. Being the younger sister everyone always like ‘I didn’t expect you to be younger because you’re the skip’ and I’m like ‘well….”

Jamie jumps in, “It’s because you were a little brat.”

Cassie agreed, “I was a little brat when I was younger. I was just like ‘I’m going to be skip and you’re going to be third’ and that’s just how it ended up.

“Everybody else on the team we met from playing against them a Junior Nationals. Maureen skipped her own team before she was on our team. So they’re all really awesome players because they’ve been skips.

“I met Maureen at a curling camp and asked her if she would be lead on the team. And just this last year, we had an open position on the team and we asked Jess to be our second.”

By now you’ve realized that these aren’t normal curlers, but they are just like any other 20-year-old.

Brunt like most college students has her own way of organizing things. She’s the team member that makes sure that everyone has their stuff, however, Brunt always forgets something

“She’s our mom,” Cassie said. “She’s organized except for herself.”

Jamie is the team member that is quite and reserved. She goes with the flow of things but makes sure her voice is heard when necessary.

“When Jamie starts to scream, you know she means business,” Cassie said.

Schultz is the goofy one. She likes to keep things light and fun.

“We’re still able to tell jokes and laugh, but we’re still focused,” Schultz said.

Cassie is the patient one who doesn’t easily become discouraged.

“I don’t get frustrated very easily, and I don’t let little or big things bother me during a competition,” Cassie said. “I try to focus on the game at hand and think about each shot at present, not about anything that happened in the past.”

With the curling season starting up again in September, these four young ladies’ lives are about to change, hopefully for the better. Schultz and Brunt are moving in August to Bemijdi, Minn., where the Johnson sisters live.

And in February…

“If we go out and play our game, I think we’ll do OK,” Cassie said.