Curling has a strong pulse here in the Northland and it’s poised for a healthy future.
Recreational curler Mark Vaughan took up the sport some 18 years ago and has been spending time on intramural and league teams, and at the curling club at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center to improve his game. “You're always working on your game,” says Vaughan. "You'll never be able to do it perfectly every single time."
For those in need of a tutorial, curling is a two-team sport played on a long sheet of ice. Teams take turns "throwing" stones toward the same target at the opposite end of the ice. The six stones that each team is allocated have a very specific origin. “All the rocks come from... an island off of Scotland,” says Vaughan. The specific kind of stone is important due to density, weight, durability and more.
Terminology, strategy and gameplay can be rather involved even at the beginner level, but everything can be learned and there are no prerequisites for players. "Nobody would be considered, probably, athletes before they started curling," said Vaughan. "Anybody can curl."
