The Huntsville Curling Club hosted its second annual High School Bonspiel on Thursday, December 19 with six teams from Huntsville High School, Gravenhurst High School, and Bracebridge Muskoka Lakes Secondary School participating.
The bonspiel is a fun opportunity for high school students to practice their curling skills in a day of competition. Many of the young curlers are very new to the sport and the event allows them to develop their skills while being supported by teachers and curling volunteers.
In their teams, the students could play positions that were new to them, like being the skip. “Being a skip means that you call the shots for your team,” said Kristen Hamilton, youth program and club coordinator for the Huntsville Curling Club. “This position can be challenging. Thankfully we had volunteers that helped the students. We had students that did amazing draws and take outs. Lots of great sweeping to get the stone over the hog line, too.”
Each team of played two games and although it was a fun competition, they did record scores to learn how the game works.
“A typical curling game is eight ends and takes about two hours to complete,” said Hamilton. “For many of the students, this was the first time they played eight ends of curling.”
The bonspiel is also a great opportunity for the students to practice as a team before they compete in the MPS (Muskoka Parry Sound) championships in late February 2020.
The students played all day with a hot lunch served between games. The Huntsville Curling Club would like to thank the many volunteers who cooked, set up, and served the lunch, as well as those who helped with registration and being draw master.
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