DIDSBURY - It's not every day you get to learn from an Olympian – but for more than 40 Didsbury junior curlers they got that chance on Jan. 8 when Kevin Koe and his team were in town to put on a clinic.
The clinic, which was sponsored by UFA, was part of the Farm and Ranch bonspiel.
Koe is a two-time world champion curler and three-time Canadian champion.
He was skip of the Canadian men's team that placed fourth at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Koe's teammates Ben Hebert, B.J. Neufeld and Colton Flasch were on hand as well, helping at the clinic.
Hebert is a two-time Olympian including gold in 2010 with the Kevin Martin rink, two-time world champion and three-time Canadian champion. Hebert joined Koe's team in 2014 and was part of the 2018 Olympic team. Neufeld and Flasch are newcomers to Team Koe.
Koe said he was impressed with the enthusiasm and hard work of the local curlers.
"UFA is one of our sponsors and they started this Rural Rocks program," said Koe. "They've been one of my team's sponsors for five years now. It was their idea to have a junior clinic in Didsbury. They asked us to do it and we didn't hesitate."
Koe said he and his teammates are always happy to get out to smaller areas and work with younger curlers.
"These are great to come out and give back to the junior curlers especially in small towns," he said. "It went well. We didn't have a lot of time. I think we passed on a lot of tips. Hopefully the kids here can take something from those tips and put them to good use."
Koe said it was great to see so many junior curlers out at the clinic.
"There were lots of good curlers out," he said. "It's great to see especially for a small town like Didsbury to have that many juniors."
Koe said it wasn't too long ago that he and his teammates were learning to curl.
"We started out as junior curlers just like them," he said. "We're all from small towns. If you keep at it and work hard and get some good coaching and put the time in, there's no reason it couldn't be any of these kids."
The clinic featured all four members of Team Koe working with different groups in skill development sessions followed by games, a question and answer period and autographs and photos with the curlers.
Kaleb Rauhala attended the clinic and said it was a great experience. He's had some success of his own as skip of the Didsbury U-18 rink, Team Rauhala.
"I thought it was awesome," said Rauhala. "I really liked the experience of working with professionals. If you're a mediocre singer you probably wouldn't get to meet a professional singer, but in curling you get to meet the professionals a lot more. I think it's a really cool experience."
Rauhala said Koe and his team were very approachable and really supportive.
"I really liked their take on it -- to make it fun," he said. "You can see different perspectives on how to curl. You can then make your own kind of style for delivery. There is a standard way but everyone has their own delivery. These clinics allow you to see the different ones."
