Leading Team USA is rookie Todd Birr (Mankato, Minn.), who helped his team to the national title last month defeating the Craig Disher (Rolla, N.D.) team in Utica, N.Y. Joining Birr is vice skip Bill Todhunter (Menasha, Wis.), who represented the U.S. in 2004 as part of Jason Larway's Seattle team that finished ninth. In the front end are worlds rookies Greg Johnson (Appleton, Wis.) and Kevin Birr (St. Peter, Minn.). Joining the team for the world championships as the alternate is 22-year-old Zach Jacobson (Langdon, N.D.) of the Disher team.

The U.S. men will play in a 12-team round robin along with Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Korea, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland to advance to the playoffs. The Page Playoff format will then be used.

The opening ceremony will take place at 10:30 am Saturday morning, prior to the first draw at 12:30 pm MT. The U.S. men will open up play against Australia in that draw.

Live scoring will be available via the Canadian Curling Association's website at http://www.curling.ca/ or through the World Curling Federation's website at www.worldcurling.org.

The U.S. men have not won a medal at the World Championships since 1992 when both semifinal losers received the bronze medal. The last time a U.S. team won the bronze outright was in 1986. Overall, the U.S. men have won four gold, five silver and 10 bronze medals in the championship's 48-year history.

Canadian networks TSN and CBC will provide coverage during the event. NBCSports.com will provide webstreaming throughout the event as well. Go to www.mediazone.com or www.nbcsports.com to sign up or learn more. College Sports TV (CSTV) will air a one-hour highlight show from the event on April 26 at 9 p.m. ET.

Here's a look at Team USA's schedule (all times are Mountain Time):
March 31: 12:30 p.m. v. Australia; 6 p.m. v. Switzerland
April 1: 1 p.m. v. Norway
April 2: 8:30 a.m. v. Denmark; 1 p.m. v. France
April 3: 1 p.m. v. Finland; 6 p.m. v. Scotland
April 4: 8:30 a.m. v. Germany; 7:30 p.m. v. Canada
April 5: 8:30 a.m. v. Korea; 1 p.m. v. Sweden
The Page Playoffs are scheduled April 6 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The Page Playoff semifinal will take place April 7 at 10:30 a.m. The gold medal game is set for 11:30 a.m. on April 8.

USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust Technologies and Nike as well as by AT&T, General Motors, The Home Depot, and Bank of America through a joint marketing program with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

For more information: Terry Luder, USA Curling, terry.luder@usacurl.org, 715-344-1199