Amidst a workshop, competition curling stones are hand-crafted using granite from an uninhabited Scottish island. These stones, upon examination, will be used by the World Curling Federation, the governing body for the Olympic sport of curling.
Junior Tanner Grigoli of Ocean, who describes curling as a “massive shuffleboard,” says that curling is on his bucket list of sports to participate in.
Many students at Communications High School have watched curling games on television during the Olympics but have not had much other exposure to the sport.
According to NBC, the game is played on ice in which two teams take turns pushing 42-pound stones toward a series of concentric circles. The object is to get the stones as close as possible to the center, known as the “tee” or “button.” A team scores a point for each stone closer to the button than the opponent’s best stone in an area known as the “house.” Whichever team has the most points after all the rounds or “ends” wins the game.
Junior Sam Kovach of Avon-by-the-Sea is rather familiar with the sport.
“When I was seven years old, my mother actually introduced me to curling via the Olympics on television,” Kovach said. “I mean, a lot of people like to [invalidate] curling; like, it’s almost sort of cool too… because it’s not a very popular sport when it comes to the Olympics. A lot of the other sports are more well-known, but I think it’s actually pretty entertaining.”
