By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Curling is a game of minds and manners – plus a good deal of balance. There is no beating of chests. No heckling from the competition.
“I think it’s like chess, in a strategic way,” Robert Stygles said after a team practice Saturday at the Black Swamp Curling Center, north of Bowling Green.
It was the last practice for the team of five Bowling Green High School juniors before they head to Colorado this week for the national curling championships. On the team are Mark Boyle, Joey Height, Alex Nelson, and brothers Lyndon Stygles and Robert Stygles.
The team qualified for the nationals by winning the Great Lakes Curling Association’s U18 Division competition at the Detroit Curling Club.
The feat is quite extraordinary, according to their coach Patrick Nelson, Alex’s dad.
Nelson explained it’s almost unheard of to have a full team from the same school, and in the same grade. That’s because it’s difficult to compete as youth in curling since there are only four curling centers in all of Ohio. So most young curlers have to travel great distances for sheets of ice to practice on. Typically teams consist of people of different ages, different schools and even different states.
“To have a top curling facility in our backyard has made a big difference,” Nelson said.
“Our club is known for having good ice,” the coach said.
Curling teams are named after their “skips” – the captain of the team who calls all the shots for the team to execute and throws the final two rocks of each end of curling. Team Stygles is one of 12 teams in the U.S. earning a spot in the national championships.
It will be the first time flying for four of the five players. The team has rented a big house – with room for parents of the boys.
“Their friendship off the ice has only grown over the years,” Nelson said of the team and their families.
Though young, the BG team members have years of curling experience. Mark has been at it the longest, for six or seven years. The others have been curling for five years.
The boys each bring their own strengths to the sport.
“Everybody brings their own style,” Alex said.
“You find your niche,” Joey said.
Robert is the skip – the team captain. That’s the player who directs play for the team and stands in the “house” on the scoring end of the sheet.
Joey is the vice skip – the guy who takes over the skip’s duties for the team when the skip is delivering stones.
Alex is the lead – who delivers the first two stones.
Lyndon is the alternate lead.
Mark is the second – who plays the third and fourth stones.
Each player slides 42-pound round stones, concave on the bottom and with a handle on the top, across the ice of a rink toward the button, which is a fixed mark in the center of a circle (called the house) marked with concentric bands. The object of the game is for each team to get its stones closest to the center.
To help the stones reach their destination, the players use a brush (or broom) to sweep the ice in front of the sliding stone. This is a tradition carried over from the days when curling was played outdoors on frozen lakes – when it was necessary to clear the snow to provide a path for the oncoming rock.
“With curling, the environment is everything,” Alex said.
“Ice conditions change as you go through a match,” their coach said.
Sweeping is still used today on indoor rinks because it removes stray ice particles and smooths the surface of the ice, ensuring the stone a longer ride.
Sweeping can gently warm the surface of the ice where the stone will glide across by using downward force with the broom. Good sweeping can allow a stone to travel further, and reduce the curl to make the trajectory of a stone straighter.
Team Stygles will have one day to practice on the championship ice sheets, expected to be faster ice, at the nationals before they compete.
The boys fell in love with the Scottish game of curling and its long tradition of good sportsmanship.
Some skills are key.
“You have to get your body used to being in an unsafe position,” Robert said. While sending the stone down the ice, curlers can only have one foot down on the ice, while “trailing the other foot along for the ride,” the coach added.
The camaraderie – even among competing teams – is appealing to the boys.
“It’s laid back and everyone knows each other,” Mark said.
“Everyone’s kind,” Robert said.
“It’s an unspoken rule that you sit down and talk with the other team after a meet,” Joey said.
The matches begin with a handshake and teams greeting each other by saying, “Good curling.” The matches end with the same words, Nelson said.
For adult curlers, tradition calls for the winning team to buy the first round of drinks for the losing team. Those social gatherings after and in between games are known as “broomstacking.”
Nelson’s love of curling began after the U.S. curling team won Olympic gold in 2018. He also coaches the BGSU curling team.
“Our coach is incredible,” Joey said, noting that Nelson gets them a lot of ice time and takes the team to summer camps. And once a week, Team Stygles competes against adult teams at the curling center.
And while Team Stygles appreciates the supportive nature of curling, they will approach the nationals with a competitive spirit.
“At the same time, we’re going on the ice to win,” Robert said.
