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FLATHEADBEACON.COM SPORTS JANUARY 8, 2014 | 61

Jack Minnich, president of the Whiteish Curling Club, demonstrates the delivery of a curling stone at the Stumptown Ice Den. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON

CURLING
tice or learn to curl for free. The league
fee is $20, which covers insurance to use
Continued from back page
the ice.
“There’s always room for people
ada, where the country’s men’s team is a to show up and substitute on teams or
beloved icon and back-to-back winner of come out and practice,” Minnich says.
Olympic gold.
Thanks to fundraising over the
Yet curling has a distinct pulse in years, the club has obtained enough
America, especially when the Winter 45-pound stones for eight teams to play

Games pushes the sport to the forefront at once. The stones are genuine curl-
of global competition.
ing stones made of granite from spe-
In Whiteish, the sport has become ciic quarries in Scotland. The club has
a mainstay with well-established roots, an “Adopt a Stone” program that allows
and the arrival of the Olympics only people or companies to have their name
means an added boost in excitement and etched into the granite rock.
activity surrounding curling. Five years The club has become a lively source
after being founded as the irst formal of friendly competition, says Minnich.

organization in Montana, the Whiteish For those who don’t know how to play,
Curling Club remains a fun source of the club hosts “Learn to Curl” nights.
sliding stones at Stumptown Ice Den.
The next events are during the Olym-
“It is such a fun sport. I see a lot of pics, Feb. 27 and March 4.
people smiling,” says John Hoepfer, The sport combines a fun mixture
who manages the ice at Stumptown and of strategy and skill. Like bowling, one Jack Minnich, president of the Whiteish Curling Club, shows of a stone at the Stumptown Ice Den.
founded the club in 2009. “It’s like so player at a time sends the heavy gran- GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON

many things at the rink, it’s like family.”
ite stones down a marked-of corridor
The local curling club is kicking of that’s 145 feet long. The goal is to land the bulls-eye, communicating with the The club is always welcoming new
its new season Jan. 10. Six teams are the stone inside a set of concentric cir- sweepers in an efort to get the stone as players to take part in the action or learn
currently signed up to play in the Fri- cles, with the best shot settling into close to the middle of the target as pos- to curl on Friday nights inside White-
day night league, with room for more, the large bulls-eye. While one player sible. After the shot, the next team can ish’s Stumptown Ice Den at 725 Wis-
according to club president Jack Minn- shoots a stone, two teammates, called try to do the same, or try to push the op- consin Ave. For more information, visit
ich. The teams will play on three sheets sweepers, shule alongside the stone, ponent’s stone out of scoring position.
whiteishcurling.com.
of ice inside Stumptown and the fourth scrubbing the ice with brooms to alter “It’s fascinating to watch, it really [email protected]

sheet will remain open for teams or the speed and path of the shot as nec- is,” Hoepfer says. “It’s deinitely a sport
players who want to show up and prac-
essary. A fourth teammate stands near
for all ages.”