The Cochrane Curling Club has been working towards this moment for several years and now it's just weeks away before they begin play in the new Phillips Curling Centre at the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.

Monday Aug. 21 is registration night for the club's many leagues at the new curling rink and runs from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.  Only a few weeks later three of the world's best curlers will be leading advanced training and development clinics, Sept. 15-17.

Curling club's managing director Barb Gibson is thrilled with the new facility.

"For me, especially, it's been an eight-year journey," says Gibson. "I've been involved with it since we started to push the move to Spray Lake. It's awesome."

The curling club offers a wide variety of leagues to accommodate any time frame, skills level, age or physical ability.

"We have leagues for children from seven years of age all the way up to seniors," she says, noting they have players up to 90 years old. "It doesn't matter your skill level, we'll teach you if you would like to learn. You can go from a learner program into a full league or you can spare. We have all kinds of opportunity to come out and get on the ice."

"Anybody that wants to know anything about curler, just pop in during registration night and we'll have people there to answer your questions."

Olympic gold medalist Russ Howard, Grant Odishaw, national mixed champion and brier runner-up, and six time Canadian champion and one-time world champion Laine Peters, from the Academy of Curling, are heading up three sessions. Both the Saturday and Sunday sessions are already sold out, says Ken Wesiner, who's cordinating the event, and there's room for eight more on Friday night, at this publishing, in a workshop geared those those who are novice or have about three years curling experience.

"Young people can come to this too," explains Gibson. "It's not just adults. If you've been on the ice for a year or have been on the ice for a long time and just want to get some refreshers, this session is perfect."

Tickets are currently available for the Saturday evening banquet and Howard will be guest speaker.

"We were very fortunate to attract them to Cochrane for this event because they only do a few across Canada each year," says Gibson.

Weisner hopes it becomes an annual offering and it's something the club will be exploring.

"It's going to be a blast and we're really excited to have the Academy of Curling here and to be in this new facility," says Wesiner. "It's been a long time coming and I think it's going to be really great."

 The official opening of the curling rink will be on Sept. 9 along with the rest of the recreation centre expansion. They'll be an opportunity that afternoon for people to check out the ice and throw a few rocks.

League play starts in October and the bonspiel season kicks off with the Super Seniors Bonspiel in November and Junior bonspiel in December. The men's event goes January and both the sturling and women's bonspiels are in February.

To learn more about the curling club check here. For more information on the few spots open for the Friday night session or for tickets to the Saturday evening banquet contact Ken Weisner at cochranecurling@telus.net or phone 403-803-9821.

SEE MORE:

Past, Present, Future of Cochrane Curling Club