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Juniors rock with curling's best

Okotoks curling’s future got to rub shoulders with the roaring game’s best in the world on some first-class ice last weekend.
Geoff Walker from Team Gushue discusses strategy with Team Knopp’ s skip Cailen Knopp and the third Michael Steele on Oct. 30 at the Rock Stars for Curling at the Pason
Geoff Walker from Team Gushue discusses strategy with Team Knopp’ s skip Cailen Knopp and the third Michael Steele on Oct. 30 at the Rock Stars for Curling at the Pason Centennial Arena.

Okotoks curling’s future got to rub shoulders with the roaring game’s best in the world on some first-class ice last weekend.

Approximately 50 young curlers from the Okotoks Junior Curling Academy program received tips at the Rock Stars of Curling Sunday morning at the Pason Centennial Arena.

“We were with (Team Smith coach) Victor Kjell and Geoff Walker (of the Brad Gushue rink),” said Okotoks skip Cailen Knopp, a student at Foothills Comp. “The ice was really good. It curled a lot more and finished really hard. It was very forgiving.”

Michael Steele, third for the Knopp rink, said it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Just to meet those curlers… and nobody gets to curl on arena ice because it so hard to prepare,” Steele said. “I thought it was awesome we got to do it.”

He admitted that at first he was a bit intimidated stepping on the ice with the best on the planet.

But the masters let their guard down.

“I thought it was going to be (intimidating), but they were all down-to-earth guys,” Steele said.

The Giovanni Wright juvenile rink received instruction from Fredrik Lindberg, coach of Niklas Edin’s Swedish team.

“The experience on that ice, it’s not like club ice, it is something,” Wright said. “It’s keen. You barely slide out of the hack and the rock will slide forever.

“It’s mind-blowing.”

Another mind-blowing experience was having the help of Lindberg, who as coach of the Edin squad, would be busy just a few hours later when they downed Brad Jacobs in the WFG Masters men’s final.

“I loved soaking up the knowledge I could from him,” Wright said.

Garrett Johnston, Wright’s third, said he was nervous, but curled fine.

“I didn’t know the ice, but I was able to put one in the house and set up a guard,” he said. “I learned some sweeping techniques – push your chest into it.”

Wright’s lead, Hunter Kish, said the WFG Masters will promote the sport among the youth.

“A lot of the kids will wake up and see the highlights on TV and it will get them interested in the game,” he said.

He said the game is growing at his school, the Foothills Comp.

“We have a curling program and we have curling teams now, we’re starting to get people who want to play the game as a sport,” he said.

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