Kamloops Curling Club will open this season after they decided to close the doors due to COVID-19 (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

HURRY HARD!

Kamloops Curling Club set to re-open Sept. 20 after one-season hiatus

Sep 3, 2021 | 4:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — The first layers of ice are being put in at the Kamloops Curling Club. It’s been more than a year and a half since there was ice at the downtown club.

“Last year we didn’t open. COVID was really strong, [but] this year was kind of a no-brainer,” said club GM Rob Nordin. “We thought there’s a lot of pent-up demand for curling. Curling’s such a social game and that’s probably 90 per cent of us. Ninety per cent of it here is the social part. A lot of people for their mental health need to get back at it.”

Some of the club members played at the McArthur Island Curling Club when they could last winter. With both clubs now opening, it should take pressure off McArthur Island.

The biggest change for this curling season will be showing proof of vaccination to play, but the 50-person capacity, as restrictions are now, could pose a challenge for the club.

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“When we’re full in the arena, it’s for 64 people and we can only have [50],” noted Nordin. “So that means we either have to go to three-person teams, which is not a big attraction. People want to stay with a four-person team.”

Nordin says the most likely scenario will be dropping down to six sheets, as opposed to the usual eight, with fewer teams. He hopes given everyone in the building will have to be vaccinated, the province will loosen up the 50-person rule.

The plan is to open the club for curling Sept. 20. It will be the start of an exciting season for the club, which is co-hosting the 2022 Men’s and Women’s B.C. Curling Championships.

“We are really hoping to have the fans in the stands, now that they have this new vaccine passport in place,” said the tournament’s co-chair Brenda Nordin. “We are hoping that we can have people there watching because ultimately that’s what the athletes want — people watching them.”

That’s the best scenario of three plans laid out. The worst-case scenario would be just to have the curlers there, which wouldn’t be terrible given the same event scheduled for Kamloops was cancelled last year.

“We would have, not testing of them, but they would have to provide their vaccine passports and we would have probably the same as you do going to a retirement facility where you have your temperature taken,” said Nordin.

Corryn Brown’s Kamloops rink will be there, although they don’t have a guaranteed spot. They will have to earn their way into championship after being given an automatic berth into the 2021 Scotties.