Rock stars: Siblings hope to get curling club started, grow the sport at UK

By Nick Craddock

People in Lexington, the self-proclaimed horse capital of the world, probably know “Curlin” as the 2007 Preakness Stakes winner.

Siblings Matthew and Meredith Brown know “curling” as the team sport reminiscent of an icy version of shuffleboard.

Matthew Brown, a history freshman, and  Meredith Brown, an English junior, are attempting to start a curling club at UK in the near future, in hopes of building curling’s popularity in the South.

“The challenge of (curling) is it’s a finesse sport,” Meredith said.

In curling, two teams of four play a match that lasts 10 ends, which is similar to 10 innings. The teams alternately slide circular granite stones, or rocks, down a sheet of ice to a target, known as the “house.”

After teams have delivered all eight of their rocks in an end, the team with the rock closest to the center of the house scores a point and receives additional points for every rock in the house that is closer to the center than their opponents’ rocks.

Matthew and Meredith are Chicago natives who grew up in a family with deep connections to curling. Much of the reason Matthew and Meredith took to the ice to curl as kids can be attributed to their grandmother Ann Brown, who the siblings consider their curling “mentor.” She was the first female president of the United States Curling Association and was a head line official at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the summit of competitive curling.

Curling was made an official Olympic sport for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. Since then, Nordic nations and Canada have fielded the most successful curling teams in international competition., and Canada leads the medal count for curling with six.

Matthew wants to start a curling club soon to capitalize on the exposure curling will receive in February during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

“My goal is to compete in the Olympics one day,” Matthew said. “I hope to make it at least to the Junior Olympics.”

Unlike Meredith, who curls for leisure now, Matthew still curls competitively and will represent the U.S. over the weekend in the London Junior Cash Bonspiel held in London, Ontario.

Matthew’s three teammates come from various parts of the country, including New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The four teammates meet in Chicago, home to three curling-specific facilities, on the weekend before a major tournament to get in as much practice time as possible.

Matthew said the curling world is “close-knit,” despite the long distances.

“The lifelong connections you make are amazing,” Matthew said. “After a match, you sit with guys for an hour or an hour and a half and just (hang out). Most teams are created through these kinds of relationships.”

Creating a curling team may be the easy part, but creating a curling club at UK, which does not have a curling-specific facility, may pose more of a challenge for the Brown siblings.

However, Meredith and Matthew need not look any further than their older brother Ryan for inspiration. While at Indiana University, Ryan successfully started a curling club, in an area not traditionally known for curling.

“We’re fourth generation curlers,” Meredith said. “We honestly started to curl as soon as we could walk.”