Local youth getting introduced to the sport of curling

Entz says she and a group of volunteers from the Pidherney Centre bring two bags of “Floor Curl” rocks to the schools and 10 brooms from the broom room at the rink. She says since they can’t take the granite ones from the rink, they take two bags of rubber rocks with three bearings on the bottom so they wheel across the gym floors.

Some students at St. Elizabeth Seton School in Red Deer had to Hurry Hard!, on Monday. (rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

“We’re just spreading our love of the game and showing the kids that it’s fun, it’s something to do with friends, it’s a way to come and meet new people, it’s something different,” says Entz. “It’s important to reach out to our youth because with most sports and COVID, we lost a lot of those kids and some of them grew up and they’re older than 18, so we’re trying to get back out to the community and try to build our program up.”

Entz says they have 14 schools signed up, with four visited so far and 10 more to go. She says it is her goal to have these floor rocks touch the hands of about 5,000 kids in the community.

“I hope they see that it’s a lot of fun. I hope they see that they can join by themselves and meet new people or if they have a buddy that wants to join a smaller team, if they just want to go do something on a Monday night and hang out, go to the curling rink. Dinner is included this year,” adds Entz.

She further points out that curling is one of the more affordable sports you can play.

“To join the program this year, it was about $220 to curl from October until March,” explains Entz. “We had Olymel step up and sponsor. They have sponsored the food side of things for dinner after. But we also had the Red Deer Optimist Club step up and donate money and that covered shoe rental and broom rental for the kids, so the fees were just to cover the ice.”

Entz encourages anyone who hasn’t curled before, to give it a try.

“You never know if you’ll love it,” she points out. “I started when I was a kid and I still play today. We have all ages of volunteers and it’s honestly a sport that anybody can play.”

Entz says interested kids can sign up on their own or bring friends to play with them. The time commitment is one night a week.

Registration for next year will start in the summer.

by Sheldon Spackman

Local youth getting introduced to the sport of curling

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