Recently I had the pleasure of writing about a pair of Bruno students who got to spend the day at the brier as part of the Sask Energy Future Stars of the Brier.
What a tremendous idea.
The pair got to spend the day rubbing shoulders with Canada’s top curling teams, touring the TSN television production trucks, and spending some time with Northwest Territories skip Jamie Koe.
Part of the experience included meeting Team Koe, curling with them and getting pictures.
Thinking back to when I was their age I could only imagine how exciting that would be.
Not only is it awesome to see kids getting this chance, it is also great to see Curling Canada trying to grow the sport.
According to an information package released on their website from 2015, the numbers are not great for curling in this country.
According to the report 64 per cent of Canadian curlers are male, while only 3.1 per cent of all Canadian males curled.
That number is even worse for females, with only 1.7 per cent of Canadian females curling that year.
Those numbers are not great.
We need to get more women, and for that matter more men curling.
This is a great way to do that.
And hitting the young kids is perfect.
According to the same report 42.71 per cent of all curlers in Canada are between the ages of 35 and 64, while only 16.86 per cent are 12-17.
Nearly half of all curlers in this province are on the wrong side of 40.
While 40 is relatively young by most standards, it is not a very encouraging stat.
To grow sports we need more young people playing.
They provide us with the most years of active play, and at the same time can pass the love of the sport on to their children.
If we stop growing the game at the youth level the game will die.
This is a great way to ensure this will not happen.
Good on Sask Energy for sponsoring the program, and good on Curling Canada for hosting it.
