Penticton youth curlers get tips from Cotter

Okanagan curling’s Team Cotter headed up a junior curling clinic over the weekend at the Penticton Curling Club.

About 30 youth joined the 9 a.m to 4 p.m. clinic that was aimed at helping improve technique as well as having fun out on the ice.

“It’s been exciting — it was great to see the kids out here today. It’s all about having fun and teaching curling,” said Jim Cotter, team skip. “We had two divisions the beginner and the advanced.”

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Cotter was in the city in advance of the Ashley Homestore Curling Classic (part of the World Curling Tour) that takes place at the Penticton Curling Club, Nov. 23 to 26. He noted Penticton has an active junior curling league, saying he and his team were ready to modify their games for challenges such as the kids not being able to send the rocks all the way to other end of the sheet.

Nicolas King demonstrates his skills with a powerful push off the block to throw his rock. King participated in the Junior Curling Clinic hosted by the Penticton Curling Club and led by Team Cotter. Jordyn Thomson/Western News

“It’s all about teaching them the skills, but mostly it’s just for them to be kids and have fun,” said Cotter. “To be honest, these kids are a lot further along then what we’ve done in the past. It can be challenging because the rocks are heavy, trying to get them down to the other end. But we have some drills, like bocci curling, so we can put a cone halfway. We tailor it to their skill level and go from there.”

Cotter, a Vernon-native, said he was fortunate to have access to “great coaches and curling programs” when he was younger, so participating in this clinic is his team’s way of giving back.

“It’s only fair to give back to the game and grow the sport and create awareness,” said Cotter.

Team Cotter is set to participate in the upcoming Ashley Home Store Curling Classic. He said they are “heading in the right direction” in terms of coordination, noting his team is newer than the one’s they’ll be competing against.

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“We haven’t been playing much this year, but that doesn’t mean we’re not taking it seriously,” said Cotter. “We had a really good event in Kelowna, it’s about peaking and keeping that rise and getting better each time.

“The big thing with curling is communication, so as a team we’ll just continue to work on that and solidify that. Teams that have played several years together have that little bit of advantage because they get to know each other so well. So we’re happy where we’re at but there’s always room for improvement.”

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His team missed recent tournaments to compete in the pre-trials for the 2018 Winter Olympics, but they’ve been “looking forward to this event all year.”

“I heard it was the best event on tour last year, that was said by a lot of club teams that came here,” said Cotter. “So that’s exciting and I was really happy for Penticton, so we’re very excited to be apart of it.”

For more information about draw times for the Ashley Home Store Curling Classic, visit www.pentictoncurlingclub.ca.

To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.

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Jordyn Thomson | Reporter

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