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Younger faces help grow the game

Gibsons Curling Club

During the past few months through these curling stories, Coast Reporter readers have been learning of the game of curling.

Throughout I’ve told you that curling is a game for everyone, and 16-year-old Sam Goss is proof of that.

He’s presently in Grade 11 at Elphinstone Secondary School. Sam took his first curling lesson in 2009 when he was a Grade 6 student at Langdale Elementary School.

The Gibsons Curling Club has an active curling program for students in cooperation with School District No. 46, and many kids are introduced to this wonderful game by coming to the curling club with their elementary school classmates. Sam, at age 11, was taken with the game immediately and hasn’t stopped curling since.

He now is the youngest member of the Gibsons Curling Club Men’s League. He earned that position by his diligence, practice and sheer love of the game.

Sam plays soccer too, but curling offers something different than other team sports. “Along with the hard work of sweeping and the demands of throwing accurately, the strategy of the game is what really interests me,” he said.

In his second year in the men’s league, Sam has become a student of the game determined to improve his curling skills. One day he hopes to skip, or lead a team, but in the meantime, he knows there’s a lot to learn in this complex game of curling.

“Most kids think it’s boring, but it’s far from boring,” he adds. “The physical demands of the game, the focus that’s required and the fact that every player on the team is a part of every shot make the game very interesting and demanding. It really is a team sport for every shot.”

He points out that watching curling on TV makes the game look easy.

“It’s not easy at all, but every so often you make a shot just like they do on TV and that keeps bringing me back to the game,” Sam said.

Some might wonder what it’s like for a 16-year-old to be curling with men double or triple his age.

“I find it inspirational to curl with the men,” he said. “I’m amazed at how consistent they are with their shots and they’re always willing to help and teach with their advice. My game gets better by curling with the men.”

As a senior curler more than four times Sam’s age, I can testify to the fact that Sam is “just one of the guys.”

His youthful energy, growing curling skills, teenage enthusiasm and never-ending sweeping endurance are the envy of many a team. We are the benefactors of having Sam out on the ice with us. If we are helping and teaching him, his youthful passion is likewise energizing to us. Our only hope is that more young curlers find their way to our wonderful game of curling as Sam has.

For more information about youth curling, please feel free to contact the Gibsons Curling Club at 604-886-7512 or email
gibsonscc@dccnet.com.