Curling is a special kind of game. A game that my 13 year old son has played since before he was 5 years old. When I watch him play with the passion he has for this wonderful game, my heart swells with all kinds of things.
My heart fills with pride as I watch his junior competitive team play against U18 teams which are often 5-6 years older then they are in bonspeils, playing an amazing strategic game by winning ends and even winning some of the games. Pride for watching him become a great leader and team player while out on the ice, as he skips the game and supports his team members.
My heart fills with excitement and wonder when my son calls a “Brad Jacobs” shot and we watch him come out of the hack with a determination in his eyes that is undeterred by anything around him, and the huge smile that comes across his face when he makes that shot and my husband and I shoot out of our seats clapping for him. It fills with so much excitement for him when he meets a well known team and gets the autographs that he was asking for from an idol that he looks up to.
My heart fills with worry sometimes when he walks home from school instead of taking the school bus, because he doesn’t want to be 10 minutes late for curling during the week. I worry that him curling 5 nights a week may be pushing him to hard, but his desire to be at the club and curling, often out weighs some of these worries as a mom.
But most of all my heart fills with an abundance of love for my son who has become the young man he is today, and curling has played a significant role in this. He is committed to the game like nothing I have ever seen him do before. He is talking about his future with words like “scholarships”, “post secondary”, “essays” and “advancement”. He watches the current national level teams on TV and strives to one day be like them, curling all the time, travelling the world and aspires to go to the Olympics and represent Canada. He wants to curl. He wants to play the game. He wants to strategize. My son truly has a passion to play this game, and that is why curling is such a special sport to me.
