Long Island Weekly

Editor: unknown
Date: 2017-01-19

Calling All Curlers

By Joseph Catrone

Curling may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about sports, but the Long Island Curling Club thinks very highly of the upstart sport. Formed in 2008, the club is dedicated to providing Long Island residents an enjoyable curling experience which, according to Dave Tumminello, the club’s president, is meant to contribute to the sport’s growth.

“We try to make more people aware of the sport,” Tumminello said. “People tend to think curling is cool or interesting or odd, but they don’t know that it’s in their own backyard.”

Any one of Tumminello’s adjectives could conceivably describe the objective in a curling match. Each team has a skip, whose job it is to call all of the shots. Upon receiving the skip’s instruction, a thrower will then release a “stone” down the ice. Two sweepers aid the stone’s trajectory by sweeping the ice, and typically more sweeping equals a greater distance traveled. Each team’s points are tallied based on the number of stones that remain in the large circle, or house, at the conclusion of a round, or end. A highly strategic game, curling does not enjoy popularity in the United States on the order of football or baseball. But it is growing, Tumminello points out, even though many may still see it as a niche sport.

“It is [a niche sport],” Tumminello said. “But it’s huge in other places like Canada and it’s growing very rapidly in the United States. There’s always a surge around the Olympics. I think it’s a sport that’s open to everyone. It’s a very friendly and cordial sport. It’s competitive, but not ruthless. Sportsmanship is a huge part of it.”

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