Ste. Rose wins grant for girls’ curling league
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/02/2021 (1885 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Ste. Rose Curling Club is on Curling Canada’s radar.
And the national organization certainly sees value in what the club is working to promote, awarding it one of five Women Curling Leaders’ Circle awards worth $2,000 to help start a girls-only league.
Steven Hopfner is the man behind the plan, which he said had a simple origin.
“We watch curling at home all the time, huge (Jennifer) Jones fans, and my daughter started to like curling, so I thought ‘let’s do something for her and the rest of the girls here,’” said Hopfner, who started a girls’ fastpitch league two years ago and has more than 60 athletes competing. “I kind of went on that mentality that if there are girls that want to play in a girls-only league for fastball, there’s got to be the same for curling as well.”
While the 2020-21 curling season wasn’t able to get off the ground before COVID-19 restrictions swept away everyone’s chance to play — aside from the country’s best in a Calgary bubble a few months from now — Hopfner is looking ahead and trying to generate interest.
Ste. Rose du Lac already has a co-ed youth league run through the town’s school, but per Curling Canada’s release, girls had limited opportunities to skip teams.
“The idea of what we’re trying to do here is have a place the girls can compete on a girls-only team and also provide some of the initial equipment, some of the brooms, sliders, so it’s not as big of a cost to start curling,” Hopfner said.
“Once you get on the ice the first time, the rest is history. They’re going to love the game and stick with it for hopefully many years. It’s just getting them on the ice the first time.”
Hopfner said Ste. Rose club, which was founded in 1937 and started operating in its current four-sheet building in 1990, typically sees action two to three nights per week. There’s definitely ample ice time available for another league.
On top of league play, one of Hopfner’s goals for the 2021-22 season is to have a high-level curler out for a full training day to teach the athletes.
While the $2,000 is a nice boost, Hopfner welcomes sponsorship of the league and those interested in signing up to support, compete or learn more information can email stevenhopfner@gmail.com.
The announcement, and Curling Canada’s support of Hopfner’s idea, mean a lot to him.
“It was really good and it was really unexpected,” Hopfner said. “I wasn’t sure how many people were applying for them or how many they were giving out, but once I got that phone call, I was really surprised. I was ecstatic.”
» tfriesen@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen