Curling Underway

It has been a little while since I posted here, I have kind of been swamped with schoolwork, and, of course, curling. There have been a few major things that have happened since I last posted, so I will go ahead and start on those.

First, as we were driving up last Wednesday, the 27th, we discovered that Zack's dad is disallowing him to participate in the Wednesday night curling league with the rest of us, which added a disappointing note to the trip up there but did little to keep down our spirits. He is instead participating in the Friday night curling league, without any of the other members of On The Rocks. While we are sad to miss him for this first curling league in our young history, we know that he will dominate that league in our name.

The Learn to Curl itself was very exciting and informational. We showed up to the Marietta Ice Center full of not hopes, but dreams. We traveled past the full-size hockey rink with the local youth hockey team practicing and into a smaller, more cozy rink. We grabbed some brooms and stepped tentatively onto the ice, learning quickly how to maneuver on it to keep balance. Then the curling started. We first learned the proper ending position of a curling throw, and looked a tad bit silly doing it. Then we learned the correct way to sweep and all about what it does. We were grouped together, the four of us, with our instructor Maria Eswine. Maria taught us how to leave the hack, how to throw some shots, and was very kind and patient with us. Then we played a mini-match against some of the other learners, which we won 3-0 in our first ever "match" as a full team.

After the match, Maria asked us if we wanted to be on her team in the Wednesday night curling league, and as we had already hit it off with her, we enthusiastically obliged. So later in the week when rosters and schedules were emailed home, the three On The Rocks curlers in the Wednesday night league were kept together along with our temporary skip, Maria.

Wednesday the 5th of March, we once again piled into the car and headed on up to Marietta for our first match in the league. We were one person lighter this week, as Zack went on Friday for his first match. We met up with Maria, shook hands with our opponents, who were skipped by Maria's husband, and started curling. We led off with one in the first, because we had the hammer, from a clutch draw from Maria. The opponents tore into us in the next ends though, taking two and then one in the second and third ends. We bounced back with some good shots from Jonathan in the fourth, and pulled level at 3 heading into what would be the final end, because we were limited on time. Sadly, we could not defend well enough, and the other team took two to win the match.

So that's the story that has been missing from my time off of blogging, tomorrow we can hope for redemption and to find our winning ways in league play. We don't yet know who we will play, but personally I am hoping to shore up some issues I had with my shot strength. Phil also struggled a tad last Wednesday, but Jonathan really brought it, and hopefully he has the same skill tomorrow night.

I'll write a summary after the match tomorrow night.

-Connor