Welcome curlers

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Strathmore High School’s curling team is accepting new curlers to learn the game as well as to build on the success from last season.
“We always look forward to a good season, curling season is fairly short. We compete in a county playdown, then a zone, if you don’t win at any one of those stages you don’t move on,” said coach Brad Steele. “There’s no league, so quite often up until January we don’t play many games, we just practice.
“We also try to mix brand new curlers, anybody can come out to curl, mixed in we have a lot of experienced curlers.”
The boys’ teams won the zone banner a year ago and are hopeful to get back there.
“Last year our boys team went to provincials, they’re a very good team, some of them are provincial caliber players and curled since they were kids. We’ve got some young new players that curl a lot so it looks good for the curling future,” said Steele.
“We don’t decide the make-up of the teams until the beginning of February. So we come, we curl, mix up the teams and play games.”
Steele doesn’t see any problem for the boys team getting back to zones if they all come back.
“I could see those boys going back to provincials and they’re capable of winning . It’s possible that the team won’t be the same make up,” said Steele.
“Some of the kids who curl competitively outside of high school and their schedules clash. Our zone play down is the same as the Alberta provincials, so it’s possible a couple of the players we had last year won’t be available this year.”
The team also possesses some young talented lady curlers that will provide some more skill on the ice.
“We’ve got some new young ladies who are very good curlers. We’ve got lots of girls now, so we’ll put together a team no matter if they’re new curlers or experienced,” said Steele.