NEW KIDS IN TOWN - THE COLLEGE BOYZ
This season many new players enter the curling arena in Belgian Curling. From the Belgian Curling Cup again a few teams enjoyed this rookie event so much that they stayed on the ice. One of them is The College Boyz, they will enter the Belgian Curling League in League C1 playing with ‘stamnummer 32’.
The teamname is related to the Sint-Rombouts College where this group of best friends met each other about 35 years ago. The first contact with the sport of curling was very positive: “The combination of the competitive element as well as the friendly & respectful atmosphere in curling was a positive influence and reason to continue”.
On March 24 The College Boys made their debut in a competitive curling competition during the preliminary Group F of the Belgian Curling Cup. This is a competition where mainly rookie teams across Belgian enter and get their first Curling Experience. Rijmenammer Sven Boodts called it: “A crazy idea to start with, but it was big fun and an amazing event”. In the Cup they immediately won 3 matches and qualified for the Final Day where they lost 2-3 against Curl Harbor in a close match with amazing fan groups cheering for both rookie teams.
Of that team 5 out of 6 players stayed. Dieter Peeters moved to Brazil and was replaced by Sven’s son Jay: “The only youngster”, as they call him. Participate in the BCL is besides the attractivity of the sport: “Especially a good reason to regularly meet each other and stay in touch as good friends on the ice instead of in a pub”.
In the BCL they meet a very diverse group of opponents. Tsmerig Logsken from Gent is just like them a team that started their career in the Belgian Cup and continued curling. This will be their 2nd year. Also they meet the Women’s national team from Luxembourg and the Moroccan Men’s national team who have their home base in Viry. Viry-Châtillon teams play in the BCL for a long time already. The next two Belgian teams changed players but have already quite some experience: the ladies team The Broomies and the men’s team Sweet Child ‘o’ Mine. Last but not least the Romanians from Peliclan enter and meet TCB.
When we ask The College Boyz of their ambitions their main goals are enjoying curling, gaining a lot of experience and surprisingly: “no bone fractures”. That last ambition they will explain to you when you meet the guys at Curling Zemst. Belgian Curling is very happy that a great team like them embraces our sport and we wish them lots of success and above all we hope that they enjoy the unique Spirit of Curling!
