Phill Drobnick. Photo: Chris Emeott
Phill Drobnick takes his final bow as Team USA’s Olympic Curling coach.
Energetic. Loud. Rowdy. That’s how Shannon Drobnick describes the atmosphere of the curling competitions at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games, where, for the first time, she watched her husband, Phill Drobnick, take the rink as national team director of USA Curling. It marked Phill’s fourth and final Olympics. “The crowd was electric. There were so many people, and it was a back and forth battle,” he says. “It literally felt like a Rocky movie.”
Phill led curlers Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin to clinch the silver medal in the mixed doubles event. The Woodbury resident—who notably led the men’s team to Team USA’s first gold medal in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea—once again made history, as Thiesse was the first American woman to win a medal in curling. Moments like this have been
26 years in the making.
USA Curling athletic trainer Mike Gulenchyn and USA Curling coach Cathy Overton-Clapham and Phill Drobnick stand behind Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse as they hold up their gold medals at the 2023 Mixed Doubles World Championship in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Photo: World Curling
Pursuing His Passion
Growing up in Eveleth, Minnesota, being on the ice is simply part of life. It certainly was for a young Phill, who began skating at 2 years old. His parents were heavily involved in curling, and his grandfathers were hockey notables. Ron Drobnick was the goalie on the Eveleth High School (EHS) team that won the first Minnesota State High School League hockey tournament in 1945, while Bill McKenzie later served as the EHS hockey coach. As a young teenager, Phill had a decision to make: Would he continue his late grandfathers’ hockey legacy or follow in his parents’ footsteps and pursue curling? “I really just fell in love with [curling],” Phill says.
Phill’s decision paid off. In 2000, he earned the Junior National Championship title and represented the United States in the World Junior Curling Championships. One year later, he would qualify and tie for second place in the 2001 Olympic Trials. Then, Phill stepped away from the competitive world of curling.
Cory Thiesse, Phill Drobnick, USA Curling coach Cathy Overton-Clapham and Korey Dropkin at the rings in the Olympic Village in Cortina, Italy. Of the Olympic Village, Phill says, “You’re just surrounded by excellence. Everywhere you look, it’s the best athletes in the world in every winter sport. It’s such a cool feeling of empowerment, hard work and how hard everyone has worked to get there. It’s kind of that feeling of, ‘Wow. I’ve really made it.’” Photo: Phill Drobnick
Five years later, he received a call from Matt Perushek on behalf of the Eveleth Curling Club, now the Curl Mesabi Curling Club. They built a new team and needed a coach. “I called and asked him, and he said he was willing to do it,” Perushek says. At the time, it was rare to find a permanent coach for any team, Perushek notes. “We were lucky he said yes, frankly,” he says. Phill led the team to win the World Junior Championships in Sweden in 2008—the first U.S. win in 24 years. “[Phill is] selfless … He always put us first, and I think he put all of his teams first,” Perushek says.
Going for the Gold
In 2009, Phill received another call. USA Curling wanted him to coach the men’s team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. “It was surprising, but I was very excited for the opportunity to represent our country,” he says. “When you can wear those three letters on your back, it’s very special.” It was a learning experience. “Without that opportunity, I don’t think I would’ve been as good as a coach or as successful in 2018,” he says. Vancouver set the stage for what would be history in the making for Team USA.
At the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games, Phill Drobnick takes to the ice with the U.S. Women’s Olympic Curling Team, including Becca Hamilton, Tab Peterson and Nina Roth. Photos: USA Curling
Phill’s coaching style evolved: He began focusing on the mental and physical preparation just as much as time on the ice. Sports psychologist Carlin Anderson, Ph.D., LP, CMPC, began traveling with the team; goal setting and visual imagery became part of his coaching mantra. “You can’t control what’s happening on the ice. You can only control the preparation,” Phill says. “We use imagery to see yourself winning that game and those moments [including] the smell, the vision.”
Phill Drobnick and Korey Dropkin at the 2022 Men’s World Curling Championship in Las Vegas.
In Pyeongchang, 2018, when Phill and skip John Shuster, third Tyler George, second Matt Hamilton, lead John Landsteiner and alternate Joe Polo took to the ice, they knew a medal was within reach. However, “We got off to a terrible start. The guys were pretty bummed,” Phill recalls. “We went into the locker room and told the boys, ‘We have nothing to lose’ … We eased their mind of that pressure. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing; we’re playing for ourselves.” Team USA won 10–7, marking its first gold medal in curling.
Leaving a Legacy
Phill knew the 2026 Olympics would be his last. After years of traveling and time away from family, he was ready to lay his whistle to rest. “You’re missing basketball games, soccer games, friend’s weddings, birthday parties. You name it. You don’t have a choice,” he says.
Spectators see the competitions, the podiums and the medals—but not behind the scenes. “You’re grinding ’til late hours of the night. Doing game review, scouting reports … and sitting and talking with [athletes] through tough times,” Phill says, noting that coaches and athletes follow strict daily schedules. Meals, practice, socializing and workouts are all scheduled, and family time is limited. “I probably saw [Shannon] twice throughout the 10 days she was there [at the 2026 Games],” he says. Regardless, Shannon attended as many of Team USA’s curling events as she could, sitting directly behind the team bench. “She had more air time than me on TV,” Phill jokes. “She was in the first row with the American flag, all dressed up, with a few other family members with her.”
Cory Thiesse, Cathy Overton-Clapham, Phill Drobnick and Korey Dropkin on the ice at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games. Thiesse and Dropkin won the silver medal in the mixed doubles event. Photo: World Curling
“Chilling” is how Shannon describes the final match. “It’s an enormous accomplishment to qualify for the Olympics but to walk up on that podium and represent your country in that way, was very rewarding for me as well,” she says. “It’s seeing those efforts pay off—the late nights, early mornings.” For Phill, sharing those memories is just as special. “[Having] the support of family and friends was really important. We have a large support group. This Olympics, I was hearing from people and friends in the middle of the night,” he says.
Although Phill spent the last two decades of his life coaching, he feels this year was his best. “I thought, ‘I’m going into it, giving it my all and trying to get three teams on the medal stand,’” he says. “Only one was medal worthy. But it was the best Olympics in the history of USA Curling. Taking fifth, fourth and silver.”
The 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games marked Phill Drobnick’s fourth and final Olympics as national team director of USA Curling. It was “the best Olympics in the history of USA Curling,” he says, noting the team’s fifth and fourth placements—plus the silver medal that Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin won in the mixed doubles event. Photo: Chris Emeott
As he moves into the role of director of competitions and coaching of USA Curling, Phill says he’ll be overseeing championships, drafting procedures and working with officials on a number of tasks. Most notably, he’s creating a coaching certification to “help coaches be better coaches,” he says.
Perushek says Phill will have an everlasting legacy in the sport of curling. “He put together a program that won an Olympic gold. I remember in 2006, when Pete Fenson won bronze,” Perushek says of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. “When you’re a kid, and you’re watching it on TV, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh … It’s crazy to win a medal, but just to make it is everyone’s dream’ … Phill has put together a program that can consistently compete on the world stage.”
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