STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WHTM) – “Curling is Cool Day” is observed every year on Feb. 23, but the members of the Nittany Valley Curling Club celebrate and promote the sport year-round.

“It’s every bit as fun as it looks like it should be,” said the founder of the Nittany Valley Curling Club (NVCC) Mark Lachendro.

Lachendro’s interest in curling was piqued after watching it in the Olympics. He was on the waiting list for the ‘Learn to Curl’ program with the Pittsburgh club for over 10 years before he decided to journey to Columbus, Pennsylvania and try it.

Lachendo loved it but didn’t become heavily involved in the sport until his son Jack, who was an active member of the Penn State curling club, volunteered his father to start a community club as part of the club’s effort to grow the sport.

The Nittany Valley Curling Club, with Lachendo at the helm, officially began serving the State College area and Central Pennsylvania in March of 2019. They curl at the Pegula Ice Arena on Penn State’s campus.

“We try to curl about once a week,” said NVCC president Matt Coleman. “There are some days throughout the year we’ll have what we call ‘Learn to Curls’ which we’ll open up to the community to just teach them the basics of the game.”

The NVCC has about seven members who compete in curling competitions, which are called bonspiels. They have other members who choose to just curl for fun at their weekly sessions. In total, the NVCC currently has 21 active members.

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Lachendro, Coleman and NVCC Vice President Ben Hallman are three of the competitors for the club. The NVCC travel to bonspiels throughout the year, which typically last three or four days, and compete in bracket-style contests.

Each of them has special memories from bonspiels.

“We were in our first Francis Dykes Memorial Tournament . . . and we gave up a seven,” Lachendo said. “There’s only eight stones on each team. But we came back in the match; all the way back to the point where the final stone being thrown was to win the match.”

The NVCC did not win the match, but it showcased one of Lachendo’s favorite things about curling.

“The fact that even when it looks like you’re out, you’re still in it,” Lachendo said. “You look like you have no path to salvation. . . and there’s still a way to do that.”

Coleman’s favorite memory was from his first bonspiel experience in Utica, New York where he traveled as an alternate last February. In curling, each team member throws a stone to the house, which is the target at the end of the ice, to use as a tiebreaker.

The NVCC members struggled at this event and four attempts went by where no members got one in the house. Coleman was called up to try and he got it to stick.

“(The crowd) gave a mock cheer that we finally got one in the house, but I was proud,” Coleman said. “I was happy.”

Hallman’s favorite memory from a bonspiel came from a difficult moment on the ice as well. Hallman and his teammate were both struggling because they kept falling during their turn.

“Even if you’ve done it for years and years, ice is slippery,” said Hallman.

Hallman and the teammate created a tradition out of what was otherwise an unfortunate situation. They now wear custom name tags that say ‘Fall Guys’ whenever they play together. The connections like that with teammates are what all three curlers highlight as the best part of curling.

“It’s the friends we’ve made along the way,” Hallman said. “When you find a shared interest, especially a niche interest like this, it really just forms these bonds even stronger.”

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There are opportunities for these relationships because curling is for everyone. Curling is a physically demanding sport and requires leg, core and upper body strength when played traditionally, but many adaptations make it accessible to people of all ability levels and ages.

“It’s an engaging game, it’s a strategic game and yet it’s at a level that everybody can participate,” Lachendro said. “There are adaptations available that the sport can adapt and grow with you as you age or as your health declines.”

Lachendro himself uses a delivery stick, which allows you to push the stone out instead of bending down and pushing the stone.

“Very similar, does the same, still has the same characteristics,” Lachendo said. “It still curls, you still have to have the proper weight.”

All ages can curl as well.

“It’s not a game that you have to be in peak physical shape or you have to be in your 20s, in your prime,” Coleman said. “It’s a life-long game that you never have to necessarily give up. There are ways that you could still play it so you could carry on the love of the game for your whole life.”

The NVCC’s youngest member to join was eight years old and their oldest was 74.

2024 marks the fifth year the Nittany Valley Curling Club has offered members of Pennsylvania the opportunity to learn and play curling. They continue to introduce people to the unique sport and share their love of the game.

“I think there’s a real interest in the community and I think. . . what I’d maybe call a niche sport, is just capturing people’s attention,” Coleman said.

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