Marleigh Kallhood throws a stone, while Kael Kristjanson sweeps at the Kamloops Curling Club, which is adding a new way to play the game with doubles curling, beginning Thursday.

Harpreet Sidhu/KTW

Kamloops Curling Club adds new program to bring more kids to the sport

The Kamloops Curling Club was seeing a decline in teenagers at the club and decided to do something about it.

Tomorrow, the Victoria Street club will begin taking registration for doubles curling.

“We really want to build the high school program. Some of our high schools don’t have kids involved with curling,” Kamloops Curling Club’s Gayle Kallhood said.

“We’re hoping this will bring a lot of kids out so they could connect. It’s all about fun.”

The advantages of doubles curling is that only two players are needed for a team and each team throws five rocks.

The game beings with two rocks in play.

“It’s much easier to get two kids and, even if a single comes out, we can put them with someone,” Kallhood said.

The club’s Little Rocks program and junior program for kids under 12 is strong, but there are fewer teenagers hitting the ice.

“The teenage program has gotten quite a bit more competitive and the kids who aren’t that competitive have just fallen off. That’s why we’re doing this,” Kallhood said. “Curling is a sport you can participate in from five years old to 95 years old.”

Sign up will be held tomorrow at 3:45 p.m.

A training session for two-on-two open doubles with Dianne Barker will be held to teach the rules of the game.

Curling begins next week on Thursday, with warm-up at 3:45 p.m. and games starting at 4 p.m.

The games are 48 minutes in length.

Cost for the program is $20 per player, with the season continuing until mid-January.

Some brooms and sliders are available at the club.

For more information, call the Kamloops Curling Club 250 372-5432, or Gayle at 250-374-1107.