You may have seen curling on TV, but more than likely never experienced it for yourself. Teams of four people sliding large pucks with handles on an ice rink, lots of yelling and frantic sweeping at the ice, all sliding along like some kind of frozen, human-sized shuffleboard with the thrown pieces careening off each other and towards a large bullseye target.
The curling sightings and references are likely to be bumped up this month as the Winter Olympics get underway in Milan, Italy from Feb. 6 through Feb. 22.
One South Jersey group has been ahead of the curve on curling for many years. They’re the Jersey Pinelands Curling Club, and they’re the folks to know if you’d like to learn more about the sport in our area.
The group started in 2014 in Medford when married couple Jane and Frank Sharp, who had been involved in curling at a facility up in Plainfield, started looking to start a league in South Jersey.
“They moved down to Medford and wanted to start a club,” said Debbie Kingsland, the club’s vice president. “They went over to the Igloo in Mt.Laurel.”
Kingsland said she’s been involved with the club almost right from the beginning and immediately fell in love with the sport.
“They got the club started and I think I was one of the first ones to go to an open house, and I kind of got hooked on it,” she said.
Ironically, Kingsland said that when she first became interested in curling after seeing it during the Olympics, she tried to attend an open house event for a club at the same facility in Plainfield where the Sharps previously played. But the event was so packed she couldn’t get in.
“Could not get near the place,” she said. “So we turned around and came home and then one of my co-workers showed me an article that they were starting this club in Mt. Laurel.”
Kingsland has been with the club ever since, through those years in Mt. Laurel and with their move to their current home at the Virtua Health Flyers Skate Zone in Pennsauken.
Over those years, the club has now grown to about 70 members engaging in regular league play, pick-up matches and in tournaments called bonspiels.
“Everybody is so friendly,” Kingsland said. “The sport’s great, you shake hands before, you shake hands after. It’s a very courteous sport. It’s just a lot of fun.”
The friendship and camaraderie she’s found through the league is what has mostly kept her coming back year after year, Kingsland said.
“I’ve met a lot of people,” she said. “I’ve curled in a lot of different places. I even got out to Iceland a couple years ago.”
With the Olympics set to begin, Kingsland said the club will definitely be excited to watch. They’re even holding a watch party event at Magnify Brewing in Medford on Sat., Feb. 14 at 1 p.m., which the public is more than welcome to attend if anyone would like to meet other curling enthusiasts.
Kingsland said they’ll especially be pulling for the women’s team’s Taylor Anderson-Heide, who is from the Delaware Valley and curls with the Philadelphia Curling Club.
February is going to be a busy month for the club as along with all the Olympic action, they’ll be hosting two “Learn to Curl” events, on Feb 7 and Feb. 22, where those interested in learning the sport can come out and give it a try.
”First we give them a safety talk, and then get them out on the ice, explain the sport, teach them how to slide, and then eventually throw the rocks and teach them how to sweep,” Kingsland said. “And then we let them play like a little mini game so they get the whole experience.”
For anyone who enjoys the learning session and decides they’d like to go further with the club, the next step is a beginners-level intro league, where new prospective players get teamed with current members so they can learn more about the sport.
“Experienced people will play with them and just kind of get them going,” she said. “Then if they want to join the club, then they can become members.
“I would encourage people to come out and watch or try it. We’’ll show them how to curl and hopefully they take an interest and want to join the club.”
To learn more about the club, visit them online at www.jerseycurling.org.
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