Curl Up and Watch a Story about Curling 

Jaime will attempt a sport that captured the imagination of the entire country during the 2022 Olympics. Dispite national popularity in Curling being low it has always been a popular pastime for Shawano and Clintonville residents in particular. Jaime visits the Clintonville Curling Club and learns how to master the sport.

transcript

– Good evening and
welcome to Shawano News,

your positive source in a crazy world.

I’m your host Jaime Lee.

Tonight, we’re visiting our neighbors

at the Clintonville Curling Club.

This episode brought to you by

Schroeder & Kabble Realty and
Timeless Touch Photography.

Let’s go on and have some fun!

(funky instrumental music playing)

(music fading out)

With all the recent Team
USA Olympic success,

we decided to find out
what curling is all about.

I’m here with Perry Schroeder,

one long-time member of the curling club.

– Yeah.
– Perry, how did curling

come to Clintonville?

– Well actually, there were
members curling in Waupaca,

and Waupaca talked us into
starting a club in Clintonville.

– Do you know the year it started?

– 1948, it started.

– And where did you guys first begin?

Did you, were you always in this building?

How did it start out?

Tell us some little history.

– Well, it was pretty
rickety when we started.

So, there’s been a lot of work
done to it over the years.

A dehumidifier system,
we put a E curtain in.

– Because there’s nothing
like this in Shawano,

so this is probably the
nearest curling club

that people can be interested in.

Do you have people from all over coming

and joining this organization,
not just from Clintonville?

– Well, we have some guys
from Green Bay that come over

and a lot of people from
Clint-, or, Shawano come over.

– And how many teams
do you have right now?

– Right now, we have 100 members.

– 100 members, and how many times a week

do you get together?

– We curl Monday, Tuesday, men’s,

Thursday, men’s, women’s is Wednesday,

and then we curl couples on the weekend.

– And tonight is a special
“Learn to Curl” event,

so-
– Correct.

– Do you have any tips
for somebody new like me?

– Well, we’ll teach you along the way.

– Okay, thanks Perry!
– You bet.

– Okay, good.

Okay, I’m about to step into the rink.

Is this called a rink?
– It’s, a-

– What is this called?
– Not exactly a rink.

– Is it slippery? Okay.

– [Chase] A little slippery, not too bad.

– Okay, Chase.
– All right.

– Show me, what is curling?
– So-

– [Jaime] Very, very basic.

– [Chase] The basics.

This is a rock, stone, these
are hacks, they’re called.

– Okay.

– This is, these are our sheets,

and he’s the guy that tells you
which way to throw the rock.

So, you aim at that broom, and then,

if you want it to curl this way,

you turn the handle this way.

If you want the rock to
curl the opposite way,

you turn the handle the opposite way.

– Okay.

Why don’t you show me first-
– Okay.

– ‘Cause this seems kinda complicated.

– [Chase] So, mine have special shoes

that have built-in sliders-
– Ooh, fancy!

– [Chase] That make it
really, really slippery.

So we’ll show you how those work later.

– Okay, I’ll give you your space.

– All right, so you always
clear off your rock first

at the bottom, so nothing picks.

You square up in the
hacks, I aim at his broom.

You’re gonna put all your
weight on your slide foot,

it’s gonna be one fluid motion.

(curling stone skidding)

(broom swishing)

So then, if it needs to go further,

or curl, or whatever, Liz is sweeping.

The skip, which would be my
dad down there right now,

would direct her to sweep or not sweep.

– Chase, does your knee hurt?

It looks like it would hurt
to be on your knee like that.

– Not too bad, I actually didn’t
go down on my knee at all,

I actually just dragged this back foot,

this stayed off the ice.

– Okay, good to know, ’cause-
– Yep.

– I’m gonna try now, so you
wanna put me in position?

– [Chase] Sure, I’m gonna,
you wanna try a slider?

– [Jaime] Yes.

– [Chase] You’re gonna feel it.

– Yes, oh no!
(Chase laughs)

I’m scared, do I have to put these on?

– Yeah, you do.
– Okay.

– [Liz] You’re gonna have
to slide out with it, yep.

– [Jaime] Okay.

– [Chase] So you’re gonna
put this foot in this hack.

– [Jaime] Oh my goodness, okay.

– [Chase] Now squat down.

Take this in your left hand,

there you go.
– Mhm.

– And the rock in your right.
– Lay that right to the ice.

– Squat all the way down.
– Yup.

– Just to the ice?
– Yup.

– [Jaime] Okay, this is heavy.

– [Chase] Yeah, it’s 45 pounds.

– Okay, now what am I doing?

– So now what you do is,
you’ll rock back a little bit,

you put all your weight

on that sliding foot-
– Mhm.

– And you’ll push forward and try to stay

sliding on that foot with
your leg coming back.

– [Jaime] Whoa, I don’t know,
what the, knee! (Chase laughs)

How do I let go of this?

– [Chase] Don’t go face forward too fast.

– [Jaime] Okay.

– [Chase] There you go, there you go!

– Let it go?

– [Chase] Yup, then throw it, yup!

– [Jaime] Yeah, I did it!

(broom swishing)

– [Chase] There you go.

– As you could see, I wasn’t
really good at that part,

but maybe-
– The sweeper.

– I’m good with a broom.
– All right. (Chase laughs)

– Tell me, how do I sweep?

– So when the rock’s coming out,

the skip will tell us when to sweep,

you sweep right in front of the rock,

in a fast motion back and forth.

– What does that do,
why are we doing this?

– So this heats up the ice, it’s called.

– It heats it up?
– Heats it up.

– [Jaime] Okay.

– [Chase] And then it
creates a sliding surface

that’s faster so the rock will go further.

– [Jaime] Okay.

– And then if you want
it to curl or not curl,

you can also sweep that side of the stone

or the opposite side of the stone

from stopping it from doing it.

– Okay, I think this is more my jam.

– All right.
– Let’s sweep.

– [Chase] So there’s always two sweepers.

– [Liz] And we’ll just go for him.

– Okay.
– Yeah.

– [Chase] So he wants me

to aim at his broom there and curl in.

(curling stone skidding)

So then you’d keep up

with the stone.
– Keep up the pace, yep.

(Jaime laughs)

– [Chase] I know, it’s fast.

– Okay.
– Now is when you’d sweep.

So we hit it, yep.

(brooms swishing)

And then he can sweep it

once it passes this side of the line.

– We are now at the house
where we make the points.

What I’ve noticed about this game is,

it’s a lot of strategy.

So in simple man’s terms,

tell us how you score
and make points here.

– So, it’s always the closest
to the middle, which is here.

It’s called the button.

So the button counts by
scoring whoever’s first.

So if red is closest, that’s one point.

Now, the next closest would score next,

or stop the other team from scoring.

So the way this sits,
closest to the middle,

the next one would be red, is two.

Yellow would not count.

But, if it was like this,
and yellow came up here,

red would score one point,
yellow would be the next closest,

which would then stop scoring,

so red would only get one,
yellow would get zero.

– Okay, well, is there
a new beginner’s league

for people that really just wanna learn

and maybe be mentored?

– Well, tonight is our “Learn to Curl,”

which is kind of like a beginner’s league,

we’re down here to show everyone

that hasn’t curled before how to curl,

then hopefully get them
involved in our league night

on a team for men’s, women’s, or couples.

– [Jaime] And just like
anything, it is fun to learn.

– [Chase] It is.

– And to try something new right here,

in Clintonville-
– Yup.

– We can be Olympians ourselves.

– [Chase] That’s right.

– [Jaime] So thank you,
guys, for teaching me.

The first time, I really,

didn’t totally succeed at doing something,

but I had a lotta fun,
so, thank you, guys.

– All right, yes.
– Thank you.

– Okay, I am here with
Liz, the social media

marketing girl-
– Yeah.

– For the curling club.
– Yeah.

– A girl after my own heart.
– Yeah.

– Thank you for having us.
– You’re welcome.

– So, girls and women-
– Mhm.

– Have their own league here, too, right?

– Yes, we curl on
Wednesday nights at 6:00.

Currently we have, like, four teams,

and then, the best part
is, like, afterwards,

we have snacks and drinks down there,

and a little bit of
time away from the kids.

– Right, so.

Speaking of kids, can children
also be a part of this?

– We currently don’t have,
like, a children’s league,

and I’m not sure the specific age that,

where they should start, I
would think maybe 10 and up.

– Because it does take a lot of muscle.

– Yeah, mhm.
– And skill.

It was a lot harder than I thought.

– Yeah.

– So, if you had some advice
for somebody that wanted

to get into this, what would you say?

How can people get into the
league? What do they need to do?

– Come to Learn to Curl.

We do usually host one in the fall, too,

so that would be a good time to see

if there’s openings on a team, and then,

if you did get on a team or
wanted to meet people down here,

they’d be happy to mentor you
prior to league starting, and.

– And how do people contact you?

– Basically through
Facebook, or our website.

We have, like, a “Contact” section

and I’ll probably be the
one e-mailing you, so.

– Okay, well, thanks so much, Liz.

– Yeah, thank you.

– You guys saw, I tried to
curl, and I had some snacks,

and now I’m down in the
entertainment section,

ran into Jody who’s gonna
curl for the first time.

Tell me, are you nervous?

What are you, what are you
thinking about curling?

– Well, I’ve never curled,
and I’ve always wanted to try.

I’ve lived in this area for all my life,

and I’ve never curled,
never been down here,

this is an amazing place.

I’m a little worried about
pulling my first muscle here,

so I’m not sure, not sure.

– It’s a lot, it’s a lot harder
than I thought it would be,

but if you just keep an open
mind and listen to directions,

I wanna hear what your
experience was after, okay?

– Okay, I have a little bit of problem

listening to directions,

but I’m really gonna try hard, okay?

– Good luck, Jody!

(energetic instrumental music playing)

– I am here with Bob, the curling Meister,

the grand champion of the
tournament last night.

Bob, tell us, how did you
become champion of this league?

– It takes a lot of practice.

It may look easy, I know with
the Olympics and everything,

those guys make it look effortless,

but, as you can see from
the people behind us,

the ice, believe or not, is slippery,

it takes a lot of balance.
– It was scary.

– It takes a lot of balance, a
lot of effort, a lot of time,

and it’s a very strategic
sport, it’s a lot like chess.

It’s constantly moving,
you’re talking back and forth

about what you wanna do right
in front of your opponent,

so they know what you’re gonna do,

so they’re countering in
their mind what they wanna do,

so it’s not like a huddle in football

where you can hide behind
things and come out

and they get surprised.

Everything’s wide open and
you just gotta make your shot,

you can’t miss.

– So it’s a sport for
the mind and the body.

– Yes, extreme.

– And how long have you been curling?

– Since I’ve been about eight years old.

– Eight years old.
– Yeah.

I used to come down here,

my dad was the president of this club,

so I had to come down
here when I was eight

and I’d help him make ice

and get everything ready
and I was small enough

that I had to put both feet in the hack.

The hack is what you put
your foot in to slide

and I’d have to put both feet
in, grab ahold of the stone,

and push off as hard
as I could on my belly

and just send the rock.

Sometimes I’d make it down
and sometimes I wouldn’t,

but that’s when I started.

– Well, congratulations to the Meister.

What beautiful memories, and
I’m sure your dad is proud.

– Yes, thank you.

– Yeah!

– You know they say blondes
have more fun, how was that?

– That was amazing.

– You did such a good job, I’m
so proud of you. Was it hard?

– You know, it’s not
hard, but it’s different.

I’m very excited, but we have
great coaches here tonight,

so this is amazing, I’m so glad

that the curling club put
this on, it’s amazing.

– Thanks for being on the news.

– Yeah, thanks Jaime, love you.

– Oh, thank you so much.

Whoo, that was a lot of
fun, but also a lot of work.

It is time to relax, kick
back at the curling club bar

where you can get some tap beer,

but you know, Jaime Lee, I’m
always up for some Sundrop.

So much fun, spreading
the love in the 5-4-9-2-9,

but this is Jaime Lee,
reminding you to keep living

and loving in the 5-4-1-6-6.

(perky instrumental music playing)