After a year of planning and preparation, Carleton officially has a competitive curling club, confirmed Bob Rumscheidt, manager of interuniversity programs at Carleton.
Carleton’s department of recreation and athletics approved both men’s and women’s curling for this year thanks to students coming forward indicating their interest in starting a team, and from a change in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) curling rules, he said.
“The OUA has changed their sports model for some particular sports,” Rumscheidt said. “To compete in curling, there is no longer any regular season in the lead-up to the championships. Now, it is just a matter of university athletic departments saying that they are entering a team.”
The competitive curling club’s new season structure now consists of two main tournaments.
The first bonspiel is the OUA championships, which will be held in Guelph, Ont. in mid-February. If successful, teams would advance to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships in Welland, Ont. in mid-March, Rumscheidt said.
The teams will also enter other competitive bonspiels held across the province in the weekends leading up to the OUA championships.
One of the biggest issues for the new curling team is their financial situation, Rumscheidt said.
Being a brand new club, they won’t receive any money from the athletics department. Rumscheidt said the athletics department doesn’t want to take any money away from their tight budget already used on Carleton’s many varsity teams and competitive clubs. Carleton already has 13 varsity teams and 10 other competitive clubs.
“It is 100 per cent student paid for or fundraised by themselves,” Rumscheidt said. “We don’t have any extra money for them.”
“The team members will be expected to contribute to their own travel and entry costs, as well as hold fundraising raffles,” said Kevin Goheen, who is currently leading and coaching the club.
The teams will be provided with free ice time at the Rideau Curling Club for tryouts and practices throughout the season, according to Lynn Kreviazuk, who is currently assisting with the administration of the club.
“[The team has] really worked well because of the work between Kreviazuk and Goheen,” Rumscheidt said. “And without the Rideau Curling Club, this probably would not have happened.”
Last year, the athletics department had their first risk management audit done in at least three years, according to Rumscheidt.
He said it changed the way they did business, meaning the department had to look at things from more of a financial perspective.
“It is the financial reality,” Rumscheidt said. “They must find external places to get time to practice. Our facilities internally here are all either taken up with varsity sports, intramurals, or rentals. So there is literally just no more time available,” Rumscheidt continued.
“We just don’t have the human resources, the financial resources, or the facility resources to offer every activity.”
Despite the financial challenges, the club’s organizers said they’re confident in Carleton’s chances this season.
“A number of Carleton students have extensive experience curling at the provincial level,” Goheen said. “We have every expectation that they will be among the top university teams in the country.”
