Danny Casper Hackley, class of 2019, is currently representing the United States in the winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy, as the captain of the curling team.

Danny went to the University of Minnesota for college. While in college, he applied for the High Performance program that funded his curling and allowed him to excel and continue playing in college and at the next level.

Karen Casper, Danny’s mom and a math teacher at Hackley, said that the program funded the athletes to do whatever competitions they wanted as long as they were continuing to succeed.

“He was in this men’s group where they had two men’s teams that were fully funded to travel around the world to compete to try to play at the world level,” said Ms. Casper.

Up until the age of 21, all of Danny’s accomplishments were in the junior league. Which he graduated from once he turned 22. One of these major accomplishments was winning the junior national championship.

Once Danny reached the U25 level, the program connected him with four other players to form a team. This league funded three teams of similar level to compete against one another. Eventually, Danny’s team took the lead over the other two and is now ranked 6th globally.

According to Ms. Casper, Danny was first exposed to curling around the age of four. His parents wanted to take a stab at the sport and would play at the Ardsley Curling Club, and as Danny got older, he began to play more consistently.

According to Ms. Casper, Danny was a good athlete in general.

“As he went through Hackley, he played baseball, soccer, and tennis, and was just naturally good at all those sports,” said Ms. Casper.

Eventually, Danny got connected with Andrew Stopera Hackley, class of 2015, and Andrew’s dad, who was a former national champion curler.

“Andrew’s dad was a mentor for Danny and would help train him during the week,” said Ms. Casper.

In high school, Danny continued to play tennis for Hackley’s teams, but Andrew’s dad wanted Danny to focus his full attention on curling. Until 10th grade, Danny didn’t quit because he did not think it was the right thing.

“Danny’s team this year just all clicked with the right people. And now they are off to the Olympics!”