Learning to curl
Utah State students joined others on Monday evening at the Eccles Ice Center for a curling clinic.
Curling is a game in which two four-person teams take turns sliding 40-pound granite stones across an ice sheet towards a target called “the
house.”
Doug Jackson-Smith led a discussion about curling for first-timers, then took them onto the ice for some practice and pointers.
Jackson-Smith is the Instructor for USU’s one-credit curling course. He is also president of the Cache Valley Stone Society. The society has been around for three years and was inspired by the Salt Lake Olympics.
“We watched the Olympics in 2002 and got excited about it,” Jackson-Smith said. “We thought we could try to get curling going in Logan since
we had the new ice sheet.”
Five USU students came to the clinic, including senior accounting major Colt Miller. Miller discovered curling while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada.
“Up in Canada, in every town, there’s a curling club and a curling hall,” Miller said. “We just went one day and thought, ‘this is cool!'”
“It’s easy to learn and it’s hard enough to master that it’s fun to come out every week,” Jackson-Smith said.
There will be one more curling clinic for beginners on Monday, Sept. 19 at 7:15 p.m.
-benwalker@cc.usu.edu