Woodbury resident Phill Drobnick arrived in Switzerland this week with a familiar routine but a different feeling.
The longtime U.S. Olympic curling coach is once again preparing his team for the Winter Games, this time with the knowledge that it will be his last behind the bench.
Drobnick, who serves as USA Curling’s head national and Olympic coach, is making his fourth Olympic appearance after more than two decades in the sport. The teams he helped assemble and guide through qualification are settling into their final training ahead of competition in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
This season, however, carries added weight. After 20 years of coaching and four Olympic cycles, Drobnick said he plans to step back into an administrative position with USA Curling.
“I’ve known this was going to be my last one,” Drobnick said. “I’ve been around for so long, I’ve developed such good relationships with our athletes, and being able to see them get to the point is exciting.”
Years of international travel, world championships and Olympic qualification events have taken him across the globe. But it all needs to end at some point. For Drobnick, that end will bring him back home to his wife and two sons, where he will begin a new chapter in life.
“I look forward to, once I’m done coaching here, to be able to give back to the community and get more involved with the community and Woodbury,” he said.
Curling has been a constant in Drobnick’s life long before Olympic credentials. He grew up in Eveleth, Minnesota, where his parents ran junior curling programs, his grandparents coached and his great-grandfather curled as well, creating a generational lineage that dates back to the early days of Minnesota curling. Drobnick began competing at a young age, won a junior national championship at 19 and represented the United States at the Junior World Championships.
After stepping away from elite competition in the early 2000s, he was asked to coach a junior team in 2006. The results were immediate. That group won three consecutive U.S. junior national titles and captured a Junior World Championship in 2008, the first for the United States in 25 years. Drobnick stayed on the coaching path, eventually rising to lead the national program.
He describes coaching curling as part strategist, part teacher and part mediator. With a few athletes per team, coaches play more of a direct role in ice reading, ice mapping, technical development and team chemistry. Away from competition, the work shifts toward preparation and repetition, refining mechanics much like a golfer fine-tuning a swing.
“Because as a curling team, it’s not like a football team or even a baseball team, where there’s 15, 20, 30 guys on a team, there’s only four players. Your coach is an integral part of team systems and team processes,” Drobnick said.
Looking ahead to the Games, Drobnick pointed to several American athletes to watch. The mixed doubles team of Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, both associated with the Duluth Curling Club, enters competition as a medal contender after winning a world championship in 2023. On the women’s side, veteran skip Tabitha Peterson of Burnsville leads an experienced team with two Olympic appearances already under her belt. The men’s team brings promising youth and energy, according to Drobnick, paired with veteran alternate Rich Ruohonen of Brooklyn Park, who at 54 will become the oldest U.S. Winter Olympian.
Phill (far left) with Korey (second on the left) and Corey (far right) during training day in Switzerland. (Courtesy photo from Jill Kerr).
As competition begins, Drobnick said the excitement feels renewed, with families and fans able to attend again after the pandemic-affected Games in 2022. For him, it is a fitting way to close a chapter.
“Very few people get an opportunity to either compete or coach in an Olympic Games,” Drobnick said. “This being my fourth, I feel very privileged and honored to be able to do it. To represent Woodbury, as well as it being such a strong, sports centered community… I get a lot of support from all the different people from across the across the city. So it’s nice for me to know that I’m going to be over there representing them.”
Curling competition begins with mixed doubles Feb. 4 and runs through Feb. 22, concluding with the women’s gold medal match. Times for the round robin matches and other scheduled games can be found on the Olympics’ official website.