OGDEN -- The curlers aren't coming -- they're already here.
Hundreds of them, mostly novice curlers at this point, are trying to get the "brush and stone" thing down pat before the 2002 Winter Olympics once again slides the venerable sport of curling back into the national consciousness.You'll find them every Thursday afternoon at The Ice Sheet on the Weber State University campus in Ogden, learning the fine art and strategies of the curling game.
Credit the Olympics and the formation of the Ogden Curling Club to a sudden burst of interest in the 450-year-old-plus Scottish sport among northern Utah residents.
Enough interest that more than 1,000 people have attended weekly curling clinics over the past 10 months to learn how to "stand in the hack" and "lay it up" inside the "house," a colorful 12-foot bull's-eye about 90 feet away.
The term "curling" refers to the spin or curl used in delivering a polished granite stone on its way to the target.
The point of the game is to get your club's stone to stop closest to the center of the house while thwarting your opponents who are trying to do the same thing. While the delivery of the stone toward the house is critical, the stone's momentum and direction can also be controlled by using brooms to brush the ice before its path.
The Ogden Curling Club -- one of the few such organizations in the Intermountain area -- was established last November by a group of 14 curling enthusiasts who practice at The Ice Sheet. Its membership has since expanded to more than 40 curlers.
Weekly clinics, which run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday through the end of April, offer curling instruction to beginners who can come up with $2 and enough time to learn the sport often called "chess on ice."
"We have 43 club members currently in Ogden and the surrounding areas," said Tammy Lehto of Salt Lake City, vice president of the newly formed club. "We are excited to have anyone in the community come out and learn what curling is."
Lehto, who is a Canadian citizen and learned to curl there, has been attending clinics at The Ice Sheet since they began last July.
She was one of 16 members of a Utah "curling study group" that recently returned from a week at the national curling championships in Duluth, Minn.
During the tournament, Lehto and five other club members were certified as curling officials and instructors.
"It was a great opportunity to go to the nationals and bring some experience back," she said.
That experience will come in handy over the next couple of years, Lehto added. "We are already planning to have the nationals here next year in Ogden, and the World Juniors will be held there the following year."
No specific dates are set yet for either tournament, she said.
The Ogden Curling Club is planning a "bonspiel" or curling tournament during the last week of April that will draw 24 teams, including several teams from other clubs around the country.
Spectators are welcome, Lehto said, adding she's hopeful the exposure will interest other area residents in taking up the sport.
"People of all ages and abilities can learn to curl fairly quickly," she added. "It's a gentleman's sport with a very high standard of sportsmanship."
Club officers include Iain Hueton, president; Lehto; Tim Irish, secretary; and Lynn Taggart, treasurer.