SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Syracuse University senior Will Scott has called games for a number of sports including basketball, lacrosse and volleyball during his time as a student broadcaster. However, on March 7th, he got to call a curling match at the Tennity Ice Rink for the first time ever.
The rink is home to Syracuse University’s NCAA women’s ice hockey team and men’s club hockey team. It is also a popular place for students to go ice skating with friends. Curling is a far less popular use of the facility, but that could be changing very soon.
Robert Snow, the assistant director of e-sports for the Barnes Center, said the pandemic led to the e-esports program creating a livestream gaming channel Twitch. For the first time ever, it will be used to livestream curling.
Snow said he hopes to get more students involved in the broadcast and soon branch out to other sports.
Scott is a Texas native, but learned how to play curling when he became a student at SU. He has developed a passion for the sport and jumped at the chance to announce the games.
Juniors Chris and Dave Harvey formed the Dunder Mifflin curling team during the 2020 fall semester because they said it was one of the only intramural sports the school was running during the pandemic.
“We went 0-9 last semester,” Chris said.
“Still looking for that first win,” David said.
The brothers took a crash course on how to curl and have been playing ever since. Their record is 0-2 this semester, but the boys remain optimistic. They wear their custom-designed Dunder Mifflin curling jerseys to every game.
Scott said that curling is a unique sport and requires thinking and strategy with every play.
“It’s catch and shoot with buddy Boeheim,” he said. “With curling you’re looking at the ice, at the angle you want to take with pretty much every shot you attempt.”
Scott ultimately hopes the livestream will bring more awareness to the sport on campus.
“Curling is such a unique sport whenever I post about curling on my twitter or Instagram people are always excited about it and if we could promote a game of the week I think it is something that could become very popular,” he said.
Students interested in watching the games can tune in at www.twitch.tv/barnescenteresports.
