It’s 8:15 in the morning on a Thursday. Loud clapping fills the air in the hallway outside of Ann Schaefer’s, a teacher, room. Words of praise follow as the members of the City High curling club celebrate the founding of this new club.

Curling, as defined in the Webster Dictionary, is a game in which two teams of four players each slide curling stones over a stretch of ice toward a target circle to score points. The idea for this club started about two months ago by Sam Myers-Verhage ‘20, Phong Nguyen ‘20, and Sam Strathern ‘21. 

“We were sitting on a couch. Then we started watching curling videos thinking, ‘This is a really cool sport, why isn’t this city high?’” Myers-Verhage said. “That’s what sparked the entire thing.”  

After the idea was formed, the students still had a significant amount of work to make their club into a reality. 

“[We spent] a lot of time talking to people, a lot of just emailing Bacon, and the teacher, Miss Schaefer. Also the Meehan family, just because they funded it,” Myers said.

One of the biggest issues that faced the founders of Curling Club is that they needed money to buy a curling kit. A curling kit sells for $576, but high schoolers do not always have that much money to spare.

“Rachel Meehan [‘21] helped with getting us connected to her family who funded the entire thing. That really helped out a lot, and made [things] a lot easier. [The Meehan family] wanted to fund a City High club this year. Lucky for me, I was making [a] new club and I asked them to fund mine. They agreed; [that] made it a lot easier.” Myers said. 

Meetings take place on Thursday mornings, at 8:15, in Ms. Schaefer’s room–room1114. The first meeting was October 11. About 30 people attended. Members said an oath and learned about the pyramid of core values. 

“[The oath] is very integral part of curling club. It’s what distinguishes us from other clubs. In curling club, it’s a little more concrete, while still being very flexible. The oath is a part of that. We want our members to be loyal to the cause of curling,” says Myers. “We have a pyramid of core values–values that we hold dear [in] curling club. One of them is loyalty, another one is love all curling members.”

Since no other surrounding schools–West or Liberty–have a curling club, the members compete against themselves. With their curling kit, the plan is to use a gym instead of on ice.

Whoever gets the stone closest to the target wins the point for that team. To steer the stone, a player sweeps in front of it and also can spin the stone slightly on the take off. Though the club has about  20 or 30 people, they are still looking for new members. 

“Join. We want more people. We need a lot of people so we can turn it into a real sport at City High at some point,” said co-founder Elliot Tomek ‘20.

No previous experience with curling is required to join or participate. The founders say that everyone learns together, everyone practices together, and everyone gets better together. 

“I know just as much about curling as anyone else. I know about it but I don’t know how to play it. Actually, the first time I ever searched up curling was in that on that fateful day with Phong  and Sam. That was the first time I’ve ever searched it up.” says Myers.