ATHABASCA — The ice is fresh and crisp and expertly pebbled, ready for the rocks to curl into the house, where they belong, as close to the button as possible. at the other end of the rink.
The Athabasca Curling Club’s season is underway with several opportunities still available for people to join, said president Gord Tebbenham in an Oct. 20 interview.
“Monday night (is) our ladies league, we have nine teams with the ladies,” he said. “On Tuesday night is men's, Wednesday night is the fun league.”
Thursday afternoons at 1 p.m. drop-in curling is open to anyone, and the evening is for the mixed league. Every second Friday is doubles. The mixed league has seven teams and doubles is full with eight.
“We would certainly like more,” said Tebbenham. “We're at odd numbers with a couple of the leagues so it incurs byes. Even numbered teams are the best.”
The youth league will also be starting the first week of November.
“We encourage all the juniors that curled last year to come out again and bring some friends," he said. “It was successful (with) a small group last year but we're hoping that will get better. They had a lot of fun.”
The best part is the youth don’t need to have experience to learn how to curl.
“One of our executive members, Cheryl Gorski, runs the program and she does a lot of cool things with them,” said Tebbenham. "Good skill development and they learn how to curl the proper way and still have a lot of fun.”
Every curler pays a $25 membership fee and teams are $400. Tebbenham added there’s room for a few more teams in select leagues and if someone doesn’t have a team but still wants to curl, there will be opportunities to pick up a game here or there.
"(Sometimes) we have teams that are down or people looking to get on teams so they can contact Darlene (Day) at 780-213-0512 or they could e-mail [email protected] or check out our Facebook page,” he said.
This season's bonspiels take place Nov. 12, with the Anything Goes Bonspiel, which is one-day event; a modified mixed bonspiel Jan. 13-15; Ladies Bonspiel Mar. 10-12; and Men's Bonspiel will go March 17-19 to wrap the season.
“Anything Goes is you just bring four curlers, it doesn't matter gender, who they are — friends, family members, just get four people,” he said. "We're guarantee three games, they’re only six end games, which is nice for a one-day spiel. It's $100 a team and will (include) dinner and small cash prizes. It's just to get out and have some fun.”
If you can’t join the club now, the second half of the season starts in January.
“There's a place for everybody to play so if people are thinking about coming out, we really encourage them to contact us and we'll find a spot for them,” said Tebbenham. "We'll teach them and make sure they have a good time.”
