By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
For nearly 50 years, Bowling Green Curling Club has been hurling stones at the BGSU Ice Arena. But the relationship between the ice arena and the curlers has cooled enough that the club is moving out.
“There’s a really long history there,” said Shannon Orr, president of the BG Curling Club. For years, the sheet of ice on the south end of the ice arena was dedicated to curling. But recently, the curlers have had to share their ice with expanding hockey and skating programs. And though all the sports are played on sheets of ice, the surface is very different for curlers than for skating.
So the curling club, with its more than 100 members, is packing up its brooms and stones and is preparing to set up shop in a new site the group plans to buy or lease north of Bowling Green.
“This is a pretty exciting adventure,” Orr said.
The new site is the former Perry House furniture building at 19901 Ohio 25. “It’s perfect. It’s huge,” Orr said.
The site will have room for four sheets of ice that the club won’t have to share with skaters or hockey. Because of reduced ice time at the BGSU ice arena, the club had lost its weekend curling and time for its youth program.
Dave Kielmeyer, spokesman for BGSU, said the university was faced with more demand for limited ice space at the arena.
“We’re sad to see them go, but we understand their decision,” Kielmeyer said. “We certainly do our best to meet the ice needs of the community, but we have limited resources.”
The problem isn’t just ice time, but also ice preparation time, Orr explained. Once the curling ice is converted for playing hockey, it takes about two hours to make it suitable for curling. Ice with ruts made by skates, or ridges caused by Zambonis, are incompatable with curling, she said.
Roger Mazzarella, a member of the curling club, said his team has to relearn how to compete on real curling ice when they travel to other places to play.
Like many of the local curlers, he is frustrated by the lack of commitment by BGSU to the 50-year-old club. But he is also excited about the opportunities the new facility will offer.
“It was the vision with the guys who created this that there should be recreation opportunities,” for curlers at the ice arena, Mazzarella said. “It’s sad, but it is exciting, too.”
As they gathered for practice in the ice arena last week, many of the club members agreed.
“Yea, I am sad,” said Ed Glowacki, who has been playing at the arena about 30 years. “This is where I learned to curl. There’s a lot of tradition in these buildings.”
But the move is necessary if the club hopes to continue.
“We’re hoping to get a better surface,” Glowacki said.
Curler Paul Haas agreed. “I’m ecstatic. It will be good ice because we’ll take care of it,” he said.
The new facility will have many advantages, Orr said. Curling ice is very limited, with Detroit being the next closest location. “We serve the whole Northwest Ohio region,” so this will give the group room to expand, she said.
The facility will give the club a chance to once again offer youth and high school programs.
“It’s a great sport for kids,” Orr said.
The group also hopes to offer curling ice that is wheelchair accessible, and get back to offering weekend ice time.
“People would love to be able to curl on the weekends,” she said.
The new facility, which the club hopes to open by this fall, will have locker rooms and a bar.
“Socializing is very important for curling,” Orr explained.
Orr, who grew up in Canada, didn’t curl much until she came to teach at BGSU.
“It’s sort of a way to connect with home.”
The sport is a game of precision, sometimes referred to as “chess on ice,” Orr said.
“It’s not about being the biggest and the strongest. It’s more about strategy and finesse.”
And unlike other sports, like football or hockey, aging does not disqualify.
“Almost anyone can do it,” she said, adding the club has members in their 80s.
Etiquette is very important. There is no trash talk. No celebratory handsprings. The competitors shake hands, raise brooms in honor of good shots, then sit down for a drink after a game.
Some of the members, like Martha Mazzarella, travel all over the nation for tournaments called bonspiels. So the thought of quality ice that is always accessible for curling is a dream for the club.
“I can’t wait. I’m so excited,” Martha Mazzarella said.
The curling club has raised about $100,000 for the new site, with donations coming from curlers across the country. “We’ve been overwhelmed with support,” Orr said. Anyone wanting to help the group can find out how at www.IceIceBG.com.
