As the clock strikes five on the old scoreboard at the Arctic Edge Arena in Edmond, Okla., members of a local youth hockey team make their way off the ice and into the locker room.
As the team exits and the zamboni begins its circling of the rink, a small crowd begins to congregate at the north end. The diverse group patiently waits for the ice to be cleaned and makes its way onto the ice, donning sweatshirts, jeans and street shoes.
It’s now five thirty. Time for practice.
The group begins to warm up, one by one taking their position kicking off the hack and throwing a stone down the ice.
The newly formed Oklahoma Curling Club has officially begun their second week of meeting.
The club was started by Jonathan Havercroft, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma.
Havercroft grew up playing the sport in Canada and when he moved down to Oklahoma he began planning what has now become the Oklahoma Curling Club.
“The most important part is finding a group of people that are interested,” Havercroft said.
Word of Oklahoma’s first curling club spread through email, Google and Facebook searches and features in the paper and on local news programs.
The club currently has about 70 paying members looking to give the sport a shot and see what it’s really about.
Curling is a sport normally associated with jokes and criticism rather than devout fans and followers. The sport is highlighted every four years when it can be seen during the Winter Olympics.
Curling is played between two teams of four. A game consists of ten ends, which are similar to innings in baseball. In each end, teams will “throw” a curling stone across a sheet of ice toward a bulls eye at the opposite end know as “the house.”
One of curling’s most famous elements are the two players that will glide alongside the rock, sweeping the ice ahead of it. The sweeping helps the team change the stone’s speed and direction in order for it to sit where they feel is most strategic.
Points are determined at the completion of an end based on which team has a stone closest to the center of the house.
Most of the members of the Oklahoma Curling Club have begun to understand the rules. It’s the technique they need to master, which many members feel they’re beginning to get a hang of.
Though Oklahoma’s club is small and still in its early stages, it certainly proves one thing: the sport is growing.
For many years, curling in the United States solely took place in select areas of the country. Wisconsin, Minnesota and upstate New York held most of the country’s clubs and interest in the sport.
Thanks to the curiosity the Olympics have stirred into those all across the country, clubs are beginning to pop up in many unconventional locations. Southern states such as Florida, Arizona and Texas are beginning to form curling clubs and local interest.
Many people will find these clubs through social media and Internet searches based on their own curiosity.
Others will try curling to answer a challenge.
“You turn on the radio anywhere in the country during the Olympics and somebody is make fun of curling,” said Rick Lemke, the president of the Wauwatosa Curling Club in Wauwatosa, Wis. “We have a lot of members who will call into those radio shows and say, ‘Hey, it’s a lot of fun. Why don’t you come give it a try?’”
One of the biggest challenges clubs face is taking people who try it one time and having them commit to a league, where the real fun begins.
Much like golf and bowling, curling will get a lot of people hooked because of its social aspect.
“My favorite part about curling are the social components,” said Erich Gross, a member of the Wauwatosa Curling Club. “There’s a little bit of competiveness and a little bit of social interaction. It’s mostly just hanging out.”
As word begins to spread and interest from the Oklahoma continues to grow, Havercroft hopes his club can continue maintain its members while attracting new ones.
He’s already planning a few Thursday night sessions on the basics of curling for community members who aren’t quite ready to commit to a league.
Though most of the state may never know the difference between a bonspiel or a slider, curling has officially begun in Oklahoma.
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