Estevan Curling Club manager Pauline Ziehl Grimsrud believes the return to curling guidelines released by CurlSask in late August were a “good news story.”
The document includes the protocol for the game to resume, with an emphasis on physical distancing, efficient contact tracing in the event of an outbreak, implementing safety measures and enhanced cleaning protocols.
In addition, CurlSask will follow the gathering size guidelines as recommended by the Saskatchewan Health Authority for the 2020-21 season.
“We have been communicating with CurlSask since the pandemic started, and there were not a lot of surprises in the document that came out,” said Ziehl Grimsrud. “I really appreciate all of the work that CurlSask put into it, because there’s certainly some helpful things that we will be pulling out of that document and using in Estevan.”
There has been a lot of thought put into how to play and how to do so safely this season.
She believes the biggest change will be where people stand on the ice for four-person teams. She heard some concerns, but they were eased when they saw illustrations and videos provided by CurlSask.
Another big change is that only one person will sweep instead of two on four-person teams.
“In the past two weeks, I’ve actually had a number of members either approach me or give me a phone call, and they were just wondering where we were at, and I said ‘We’re a go. We will be curling this season.’”
The curling club will be able to have all six sheets of curling ice in use at the Power Dodge Ice Centre. And they expect to accommodate all teams who want to curl in their leagues.
Curling is a sport that is well-suited to social distancing, and the curling club is well-designed for changes that might be needed, too.
“There is adequate room out on a sheet of ice, and especially in our rink. We have adequate backboards, too, so we are very, very fortunate at our club that we have lots of room, and our sheets don’t go to the wall, so we actually have extra room there. We are fortunate that we have a lot of space out there to accommodate the curlers.”
Their youth program is also going to be back. It will be the same times as what they have had in the past, with Sunday Co-op Kids Curl and Tuesday night youth curling, but how it is rolled out will be slightly different, with changes for how many children they have per sheet, and how many sheets they use.
The way in which people register and pay will shift to a more touchless system.
“There will be changes, but we will be curling, so that’s good news for our community.”
Also, the 2021 Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s provincial curling championships and the SaskTel Tankard men’s provincial tournament, slated for late January and early February of next year, are still a go.
The curling club will be looking at their schedule to determine when the season will start. She doesn’t anticipate there will be a lot of changes to their schedule, but their plans need to be in sync with CurlSask and Curling Canada.
Ziehl Grimsrud noted there will be some upgrades in the rink before the start of the season, and they hope to have ice in place by mid-October.
