Viterra Championship

15 V I T E R R A C H A M P I O N S H I P . C A JANUARY 30 - FEBRUARY 4, 2018 | WINKLER CENTENNIAL ARENA, WINKLER STORY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 G O L D E Y E S . C O M ON SALE NOW! Goldeyes Season Tickets & 10-Game Mini Packs HURRY. . . HARD! Rylie gives Karys the credit for sparking the siblings' interest. "She and my grandpa were watching the last winter Olympics and she said, 'I want to do that when I'm older.' A couple of weeks later, we went to the Learn To Curl program and we really enjoyed it. They gave us some brooms to start us off and we haven't stopped," she said. Rylie, who curls twice a week in Curl- Manitoba's development program, skips her own team and takes turns playing all positions in the development league. Even when Karys was first starting out, she was able to heave the rocks down the ice. Well, mostly. "There was lots of sweeping, that's for sure," she said with a laugh. Most of her friends play hockey, ringette and soccer but Karys has one classmate who is a fellow curler. "When you play with your friends and family, it's a lot of fun," she said, noting her favourite shot is the take-out. Amy doesn't care what kind of shot she has to throw but during the course of a game, she prefers to be in the hack. "Sometimes I'm a good sweeper, some- times not exactly. It's tiring," she said. "I'm playing for fun and I'm getting better at it. People call me mini-Jennifer Jones so I hope to be just as good a curler as she is some day." She was a little nervous when she first stepped out on the ice. But after being encouraged to sit on one of the rocks - and riding it as it was being pushed down the ice - her apprehension quickly melted away. Soon after, she was throw- ing the 42-pound rocks, even though she weighed just three pounds more than they did. Last year, she was the Winnipeg repre- sentative in "Hit Draw Tap," a youth skills competition in Portage la Prairie. Elaine Owen, event development man- ager at CurlManitoba, the governing body for the sport in the province, said it has been making a conscious effort to attract the younger generation, and children in particular. It's crucial for the sport's future to get younger players involved as Baby Boomers are increasingly hanging up their brooms due to injuries and age. "We want to get kids to become mem- bers of clubs. If we can get them doing fun things there, we hope that will build more memberships," she said. In a perfect world, these initiatives will also pique the interest of a few parents, too. In fact, a growing number of curl- ing clubs have been organizing bonspiels where parents and their kids team up to- gether. At the start of this year's season, Curl- Manitoba organized a couple of indoor tournaments in elementary schools gym- nasiums using plastic rocks on 12 sheets of "ice," one each in the St. James and Louis Riel school divisions. Each one fea- tured three different schools, about 200 kids screaming "hurry, hard!" at the top of their lungs and only took a few hours. RYLIE, WHO CURLS TWICE A WEEK IN CURLMANITOBA'S DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, SKIPS HER OWN TEAM AND TAKES TURNS PLAYING ALL POSITIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE.

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