Hat High Mixed Curling Team

By Lisa Parent

Hat High mixed curling team hopes to ‘pave the way’ for more students to try the sport

Feb 9, 2024 | 5:11 PM

Without a curling rink in Medicine Hat, it’s challenging for the sport to attract and keep participants.

However, at Medicine Hat High School, the sport of curling has actually gained more recognition this year with the introduction of a new mixed curling team.

Cyton Corsie, Caysh Corsie and Addisyn Helmle are all long-time curlers and wanted to represent their school this year. However, they needed one more player to start a competitive team.

Grade 12 student Kylee Shuler was someone willing to give it a try.

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“We were sitting at the table one day, and they were like, ‘does anybody want to curl with us?’ And I was like, ‘yeah, sure, sign me up,'” Shuler said.

“[I] kind of just went with it and ran with it and I actually really like the sport. We’ve really grown as a friend group together.”

Shuler’s teammate Addisyn Helmle said Shuler did really well for it being her first year.

“It was always fun to just be able to bring the joy of curling to somebody else,” Helmle said.

After the team was formed, Shuler played in 10 practice games before they headed to zones in Lethbridge, a competition for southern high school curlers.

The team didn’t win a game, but were just happy they had the chance to play at all.

“I’ve always wanted to play with the high school team and I thought that without ice in Medicine Hat, we wouldn’t be able to,” Cyton Corsie said.

“But Irvine Sports Complex has been really, really helpful in letting us play out there,” he added.

“I’m just glad to be able to create a team and hopefully pave the way for others in the future and grow the sport, so that’s the main thing for me.”

Principal Dean Brown, a past curler himself, was one of many school staff supportive of getting the curling team going.

Brown said he hopes this team is the start of a bigger curling movement in high schools across Medicine Hat.

“Getting to know them at a different level was fun and to see the passion that they had for the game excited me,” Brown said.

“I wanted to make sure that they could go as far as they could in this sport,” he added.

Everyone on the team but Caysh Corsie will be graduating this year. He hopes to continue the team’s legacy over the next two years.

Though he hasn’t identified potential teammates, he’s optimistic that friends might develop an interest, similar to how Shuler did.

“You get a bunch of different ranges of people. [It] doesn’t really matter gender, doesn’t really matter size or anything like that. Anyone can come out and give it a shot,” Corsie said.

Competitive season is over for the mixed curling team and for now, they will continue playing for fun in league together.