A champion on ice aims to sweep up overseas

A little known fact: all curling rocks come from a single mine off an island in Scotland.

"The granite there is unique to that mine and so all regulation rocks have to come from there," said Joe Purvis, sophomore finance major at Seattle University. "It's kind of weird to think that one day if the granite in Scotland runs out, there just won't be any more [curling] rocks."

Purvis would know this, though he is neither is Scottish nor a miner. He rather happens to know this because he is a Junior National Curling champion who will be representing the United States in the 2010 World Junior Championships in Flims, Switzerland.

Purvis and his teammates secured a spot representing the U.S. in January after defeating Minnesota at the Junior National Championships in Bemidji, Minn. The defeat was quite an upset, as Minnesota had won the championships every year since 2001.

"It was nuts," Purvis said of the victory. "It was just the result of a lot of time and effort."
Purvis will be going with his teammates in March to Switzerland where they will be looking out for Canada, the most established of the national teams.

"Canada's always going to be really strong because they have millions of curlers there," Purvis said.

As a native of the Seattle area, Purvis was born into the world of curling. His father earned third place at the World Junior Championships as a young man, and three of Purvis' grandparents served as presidents of curling clubs.

"It was just kind of destiny, I guess," Purvis said.

Although he has been on the ice as long as he can remember—he participated in the "Little Rocks" children's curling league—Purvis only started curling competitively six years ago.

For training, Purvis and his team of fellow curlers visit the Granite Curling Club in North Seattle—the only dedicated curling facility on the West Coast—five times a week. The club's popularity has spiked in the wake of the Winter Olympics, drawing a large number of new members expressing interest in the sport.

"We've got a 500-member club right now. It's doing pretty well," Purvis said. "After the Olympics people just come on down and like to try it and see what it's all about."

Having people try out curling dispels many misconceptions about the poorly understood sport. Purvis has seen many of these misconceptions recently while working in the Connolly Center.

"We'd have the Olympics on the TV and people would walk in and talk about how easy curling looks," Purvis said. "It's kind of funny. Once you have people out there and they fall over a couple of times, they start to realize it's not as easy as it looks."

Purvis likes to compare training for curling to training for golf.

"Obviously Tiger Woods works out and is in the gym all the time, but then there are other golfers who are good but aren't really in the gym at all," Purvis said.

Cardiovascular training and time in the gym prepares curlers for the long sessions of sweeping they have to do during competitions.

"Sometimes you'll be sweeping for five hours straight since we'll play two two-and-a-half hour games in one day," Purvis said. "You work up quite a sweat."

For all their hard work, Purvis and his teammates will be getting customized brooms for the World Championships.

"They've got our names on them, USA, and then stars and stripes," Purvis said. "We're pretty excited for that."

Kelton may be reached at ksears@su-spectator.com