‘New normal’ of curling coming to Saskatchewan in September

Saskatchewan’s provincial sport has the green light to start back up next month.

For the first time since the novel coronavirus pandemic forced all curling rinks to close in mid-March, curlers are expected to throw rocks again in the province next week.

“It was mid-March when the pandemic brought our season to a halt. We ended up cancelling five events, one of them a provincial championship that was in progress, so something that was completely unprecedented for us,” CURLSASK executive director Ashley Howard said.

“But looking back, glad that we made that difficult decision to protect our players and we really spent the summer fighting back and trying to find a way to get our players back on the ice safely and be prepared for this season.”

CURLSASK released its return-to-curling guidelines on Thursday following months of planning.

“We got the green light in early July for the rinks to actually open and so that came from the provincial government and since then we’ve been working with the business response team to make sure we’re interpreting the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan correctly … and we’ve been able to be methodical in getting our plan together,” she said.

“I think (our guidelines are) going to be a great resource for our volunteers, our athletes and the curling clubs as we get back to the new normal of curling this fall.” 

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Howard said CURLSASK’s member survey showed roughly 90 per cent of curlers in the province were willing to come back and play the 2020-21 season.

“We’re the provincial sport of Saskatchewan. We have about 18,000 members and 126 curling clubs that are affiliated with CURLSASK so we really have a broad reach from every corner of the province and a real strong sense of community,” Howard said.

“And that means a whole bunch of people who are really excited to get back on the ice and get back to the sport that we all love.”

CURLSASK said the underlying principles of its guidelines are physical distancing, contact tracing and enhanced cleaning protocols.

“I think the most controversial thing that has been discussed is sweeping and we do want to make sure that opposition team members stay a minimum of six feet away from each other to prevent the spread of COVID-19. And we also have given a little bit of guidance around teammates and sweeping together because we know that one sweeper is going to be the safest,” Howard said.

“But with any rule, there are kind of exceptions and different scenarios in which people may feel it doesn’t add an extra layer of safety to avoid sweeping together. And that might be you come from the same household or it’s your spouse or it’s your team that’s on the road travelling … so, basically, we are recommending that one sweeper be used in recreational play.

“We’ve also given discretion to the clubs and the teams depending on their current environment or their local environment as it relates through the year so definitely a little bit of flexibility.”

Overall, Howard said the sport of curling is well-positioned to return safely this fall with a few modifications.

“We have 2,000 square feet of ice per sheet, which is about 250 square feet per person, so we have a lot of space for people to spread out and stay away,” she said.

“You’re really only touching your own rock handles, which would be sanitized. You’re bringing your own equipment the majority of times. So we are fortunate and we are going to take advantage of some of those aspects of our sport to keep people safe and we all we’re just really looking forward to getting back out there and testing things out.”

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The guinea pigs for the new guidelines will be some of the province’s more competitive players who are expected to be participating in CURLSask’s high-performance program at Sutherland Curling Club.

The club’s general manager, Dwayne Yachiw, said it’s the first time the program will be held in Saskatoon and it’s been a busy time installing the ice.

“I don’t know if we’re going to get it Sept. 1st, we’ll be close. Everything was kind of a rush this year because nobody really knew for sure whether we were even going to be able to curl until the (provincial) government kind of gave us the go-ahead … we’re gearing up for the 1st, but realistically, it’ll probably going to be closer to the 4th of September,” Yachiw said.

“It’s just going to be a good chance to see how things go and make sure we can do what we love to do and go forward. And, hopefully, by the end of the season we’ll get back to some sort of normal.”

Yachiw said league play at the club is expected to start on Sept. 24.

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