This just in....Curling is Amazing!!!
Results from March 21st showdown at the Milwaukee Curling Club:
Hanley/Knurek: 1
Adams/Christel: 3
Good curling boys!
Here is a fine editorial, Sean style, on the brilliance of the sport of curling....
Sean Knurek
Journalism 111---9:35 a.m.
4 March 2003
I’m joining a curling club.
Many mocked the sport of curling because of its inclusion in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Jokes about throwing giant stones down a sheet of ice, using brooms to furiously sweep the ice surface abounded in offices nationwide, mostly due to the ignorance and arrogance of those who acknowledge only the ‘real’ sports that require physical exertion.
That won’t stop me, not in the least. After all, I’ve been a bowler for the last eleven years of my life. Think I haven’t heard my share of jokes about throwing big heavy objects down a prescribed length? Think I haven’t been mocked about the so-called stereotypes of ‘bowlers,’ misconceptions only promoted by lascivious displays of characters in movies such as The Big Lebowski and Kingpin? Of course I have.
Few seem to ever grant me credit that I nearly had a chance to make the U.S. national junior bowling team, mostly because “bowling isn’t a sport” to them.
So when I hear the heckling about bowling, I’ve learned to tune out. I don’t care. I’ve become so numb to such statements that they glide off my skin like, well, a 42 lb. hunk of granite on ice. Maybe that makes me even more prepared to don the special buckskin shoes and handle a curler’s broom myself.
Growing up in suburban Detroit, I was exposed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Channel 9 in Windsor, Ontario. Channel 9 was offered on every cable provider in Detroit, as well as being accessible via antenna. CBC rigidly scheduled my Saturday afternoons since I was a tyke with such novelties as Championship 5-pin Bowling, a purely Canadian tradition which differs greatly from the East Coast’s duckpin bowling or Koz’s Mini-Bowl, located on the south side of Milwaukee.
CBC also broadcasted as various curling competitions held throughout the year. For nearly 15 years of my life, I watched and watched curling—amazed and enthralled for hours at a time. Maybe I was just hypnotized by the red, white, and blue bull’s-eyes located at the end of the rink.
I’ll have to admit, curling is a rather bizarre game. I understand that throwing a rock down a huge sheet of ice could be considered odd by many. However, given my years of bowling experience, I can only begin to respect the amount of finesse and talent it takes to glide an object on a nearly frictionless surface over 130 feet, only allowing it to set up in a perfectly plotted position.
Between the Brier, the Canadian national men’s curling championship, and the Scott Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian national women’s championship, there was enough competition to fill my Saturday afternoons from January to April. After seeing this alien competition for years, I’ve finally developed the itch to give it a shot. Thankfully, Milwaukee is host to the longest continually operating curling Club in the United States—the Milwaukee Curling Club, now located in Mequon. With a couple connections from Marquette, a few of my buddies and I are ready to take the plunge into this new way of life.
Of course, there’s more than the strange mystique of the game that interests me. It’s the class and tradition of curling that is so attractive. Curling originated in 16th century Scotland. Tradition states that every match must begin and end with a hearty handshake and an exchange of “Good curling” amongst both four-person teams. During a competition, rules inscribed by the Canadian Curling Association are followed by all clubs and players nationally and internationally: “Never, by word or deed, be guilty of any action that would embarrass a player who has missed a shot.”
To me, curling is a pure sport—one that allows for competition amongst all levels of players offering both camaraderie and friendship. Hatred, disdain, and childish rivalries have little or no place in the sport. It is in my nature to want to become good at any sport I play. In curling, I’ll be surrounding myself with a friendly group of older men and women who will be willing to offer a vast amount of knowledge and experience that might just allow me to grow. More importantly though, I’ll be mingling with a whole new group of people that I’ve never really come into contact with before—those who just want to say young at heart.
So no matter how well I actually learn how to set guards (defensive play), take stones (knocking an opponent’s stone out of play), or learn to blank an end to keep the hammer (allow no team to score in curling’s equivalent to baseball’s inning, so that we keep the last-stone advantage), I do believe that I am going to become a better person for meeting a group of people who are truly kind and young at heart. What other sport can offer me that?
As our trek begins into this new sport, the possibilities of the future are endless. Maybe we could win a state bonspiel (tournament). Perhaps one of my buds or I become good enough to make Team USA. More likely, we’ll just be league hacks who go out to have a good time and enjoy a whiskey or two with our opponents after all is said and done.
Whatever scenario plays out, at least I’ll know that my open-mindedness has allowed me to experience a whole new kind of fun.