Welcome to the virtual warm room đ»
We're still celebrating the spirit through #zoomstacking and various hobbies
Pretty much everything is closed. We wonât be curling for the summer, and at this rate weâll be lucky to be golfing. Weâre probably curling in the fall, if we make it. And like I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I wouldnât mind if handshakes were a relic of the past.
We werenât completely ready to close up shop and therefore with the paused denouement to the season, weâre still remembering old games and shots and puttering around the living room looking for something to do or someone to discuss the news.
Because there is still news. A bunch of teams made some changes, notably Rachel Homan onboarding Sarah Wilkes in favor of Lisa Weagle (who is now Jennifer Jonesâs fifth ⊠thatâll take some time to digest). Kevin Koe replaced Colton Flasch with John Morris at second, proving nobody ever retires. Chelsea Careyâs frontend Dana Ferguson and Rachelle Brown are now brushing for Kelsey Rocque, if youâre looking for who to root for in next yearâs Alberta playdowns. And Jamie Sinclair is looking for a team. Hey, sheâs a dual citizen. Who knows, maybe sheâll curl out of Newfoundland.
So we can all unpack that. At least for a little while. But news just means nothing else is happening, and with many states and provinces starting to lock down (Ohio and Michigan did so overnight on Monday), we definitely have nothing better to do. Thus:
âąÂ John Cullen has been livestreaming commentary of classic Brier/Scotties games with some of their participants.
âą CurlingZone ran a digital bonspiel, won by Matt Dunstone, who in true dramatic fashion won a big shot where fist pumps were abound.
âą Colin Hodgson is basically food blogging at this point.
âąÂ Virtual broomstacking is finally putting a good use to videoconferencing software:
Beyond all the podcasts and livestreams, at some point itâs just going to be another offseason. This one just happens to be one where itâs still cold. Hats off to everybody keeping the spirit alive through posts and pixels.
On a more serious note, thoughts are going out to Sara Shuster and any other competitors who contracted COVID-19 while at curling club nationals. According to Shusterâs post, about 20 competitors were infected. Thatâs just about one-fourth of the field, and the post was days ago so no doubt the number went up. You might remember they were one of the last American sporting events to take place, which wrapped up on March 14, before spectator sports went on hiatus.
They started on March 7, and perhaps by the time they realized there was danger in the air, they adhered to a sunk cost fallacy and decided to play it out. In hindsight, they probably should have halted the tournament and sent everybody home. You didnât need to crown a champion when lives were at stake, especially with curling being an innately social exercise.
I say that, and yet wonder what I would have done if I was in that situation. Letâs say it was March 12, and I somehow skipped my team into the playoffs ⊠and back home I found out they were closing schools and people were getting sick. I would like to think I would talk with our team, then the official, and either withdraw or beg them to simply stop the event. In the moment I would probably be too focused within the event, coming up with game strategy. I would probably hunker down within the bonspiel, perhaps knowing that once it ends Iâd have to grapple with whatever the hell was going to happen next. Maybe thatâs what they did. But maybe somebody shouldâve stepped in before it was too late. Because lives were at stake.
Iâm hoping by next week I can start getting back into extremely curling-related topics, maybe look at some old games and do some rock-by-rock analysis. Thatâs the good stuff.
Hopefully all of you are staying safe in your places of residences and showering on the reg and not ready to disown your immediate family members. Iâm not but Iâm only speaking for myself.