The 100 Mile House Curling Club youth league has a new coach and direction this season.
Longtime curler Michele Spence has taken the lead in organizing Learn to Curl and Junior Development Programs this year. Spence plans to make the programs more streamlined and fun for the children and youth of 100 Mile House.
"This is about the longevity of the club as well. We forget that sometimes, that we have to have a feeder system and youth and juniors are our feeder system," Spence said. "They may disappear for a while and may not ever curl at this club again but chances are they will curl at another club as they become adults, so it supports the sport in the long term."
This isn't Spence's first time running a curling program for youth. When she still lived in Abbotsford she helped put together and run the Abbotsford Curling Club's youth curling programs working with a wide range of youth and children. Spence said they started with nine kids and within three years they had 104 kids in the program.
"We had six competitive teams and about 40 kids in the junior development (program)," Spence said. "We watched kids who came into the program who didn't fit in anywhere else."
Spence said over the course of six years she helped her athletes nourish a competitive and tactical attitude. She remarked her youth curlers would regularly beat older teams by simply out-thinking them and playing a more tactical game.
After moving to the South Cariboo in 2021, Spence said she didn't join the 100 Mile Curling Club immediately due to an autoimmune disease she was dealing with. This year, however, she decided to join the club and after looking over her notes from Abbotsford decided to take on running the youth program.
"Ever since I've been here one of the threads that keeps going through Rant and Rave and all the social media is that the youth in this community are bad. They're out of control, not respectful, all of these different things," Spence said, noting she believes curling could give them a place to learn proper etiquette.
Last year Spence said the Youth Curling League attracted about 24 kids, though this was partially because it was free last year. So far this season registration has been slow which is why she had decided to split the season up into chunks.
Learn to Curl will be divided up into four six-week sessions this winter which Spence said will give youth a chance to come in and do some fun drills while learning the basics of the sport. These will include teaching kids how to slide down low to the ice, conducting games where they pick things off the ice while moving to practice their balance and other fun activities.
"Asking children to sign up for an entire season is very difficult. Parents don't want to invest the time and it's very hard on the coaching staff and the club in general to try to organize when three kids decide they don't like it and don't show up," Spence explained.
In that same spirit, the Junior Development Program will be split into two seasons, October to December and January to March. This will once again allow youth to try out curling without committing for a full six months.
Next year Spence said she would like to have a shadow house added to the rink halfway between the two regular houses. This will allow small kids to practice with adult-weighted rocks and still feel a sense of accomplishment. She also hopes to start taking children to bonspiels around the region to inspire her curlers to stick with the sport.
Anyone looking to sign their children up for either the Learn to Curl or Junior Development Program can do so via 100milecurlingclub.ca or by reaching out to Spence directly. She expects fees to be $25 for the Learn to Curl sessions and $50 for the Junior Development Program sessions. Learn to Curl takes place Tuesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. while the Junior Development Program runs Thursdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
"It's going to give the kids an opportunity to learn what they are capable of doing. It's organized, I have lesson plans and I know what I'm looking for," Spence said.