Campolindo has a wide array of athletic options for students, however there is a distinct lack of sports that can be played on ice at the school. The ice sport that seems to be in the highest demand for students on campus is curling.

The question is, why hasn’t curling become a part of the Campolindo community? The answer, according to senior Alex Thomasson, can be found in California’s warm climate. “The warmth that we have here prevents ice from becoming part of our cultural norms. Ice should be represented in our norms and views,” he said. In order to ensure that curling becomes a part of Campolindo, we have to embrace the cold and all of the wonderful gifts that it brings.

Curling would undoubtedly be beneficial for student athletic and intellectual development. It is a strategic game that requires precision, athleticism, and fundamental understanding of physics. According to Senior Tyler Ngo, “curling would allow students to work on their skating skills and teach them to work together as a team while fulfilling different roles. He also “would like to see our school have a competitive team that can play against other schools in the district.”

Curling’s four roles consist of a lead, a second, a third, and a skip. While each role is quite different in terms of their impact on the game, each requires students to have an understanding of the relationship between weight and velocity, along with strong sweeping and skating skills. Curling can help high school students develop these useful skills in an engaging and collaborative way.

Brandon Pena who has “dabbled in curling viewership” and “intends to partake in the sport if the option becomes available” noted that curling “takes elements from multiple other sports such as bowling and combines them into one very unique sport.” Providing this niche sport to Campolindo students will certainly lead to the development of distinctive athletic skills and give students who enjoy ice sports a chance to express their skills in an otherwise warm state of California.

Pena sees a strong future for curling on campus: “I feel like if the sport gets enough bass support, it could at the very least lead to the development of a competitive team. People would definitely be interested.” Certainly fans of ice sports would be exhilarated by the prospect of curling at the high school level. “If we cultivated a good community or culture around the sport and had a good team, curling would be the number one sport I’d do,” Ngo said.

Thomasson hopes to see curling become an integral part of high school athletics: “I think the CIF should sanction the sport and make it part of the various sports in the CIF. That way we could have a place to compete and have it be greater than just a small club,” he said. Giving students a well-supported space to partake in curling would undoubtedly be beneficial for high school students across the country.

The sport not only has athletic advantage, but also academic benefits as well. The sport relies heavily on a strong understanding of physics. Having a good grasp on the relationship between weight and velocity is critical for determining the amount of force should be administered on the curling stone, and how much traction should be created by the sweepers. Thomasson believes that “the physics department could use the act of curling as a physical lesson and a way to help the curriculum grow.”

Drumming up interest for the sport certainly isn’t the problem when it comes to establishing a strong curling team and community on campus. Rather, it’s the logistics of getting an ice rink on campus that will make curling a complicated activity to include at Campolindo. “Because we don’t have much ice, it will be difficult to incorporate curling onto campus. There is a strong need for ice,” Thomasson noted. However, both Ngo and Pena believe that this addition is extremely possible. Ngo believes that the school could “carve out a section of the lower or upper fields or replace the baseball fields with an ice rink.” Pena echoes Ngo’s fervor for curling and ice sports and agrees that we could “put an ice rink on the lower field to accommodate curling and other sports like hockey.”

Thomasson believes that social roles and cliques will be altered by the implementation of curling. “Curlers are going to be the new jocks on campus,” he said. While this may be overly exaggerated, there is certainly something to be said for the potential communal aspect of curling. Students will certainly gain unique and useful socialization opportunities with the addition of curling, as they will bond over a very niche and unique passion.
Furthermore, there may be exciting scholarship opportunities for curling. When the college circuit sees the development of the sport throughout high schools across the nation, students may see financial gain when they develop proficiency in the sport. Due to a lack of competition, it will be easy for students to separate themselves from the curling competition and receive financial benefits. Whether these opportunities lead to tangible financial gain for students remains to be seen, but the possibility certainly cannot be ruled out.
Whether curling will become a mainstay at Campolindo remains to be seen. But what we do know is that students are ready to curl, they just need the space and community to do so. It’s time for Campolindo to lead the US high school curling charge and ensure that this sport becomes prominent at the high school level. Thomasson believes curling will be so popular that, “There would have to be a limit for how many people can join because everyone would want to join. I’ve been on track for four years. If they were to tell me that next season there would be a curling team, I would instantly join it and never look back.