Curling makes a cool sport for families

Not your usual familial wisdom, perhaps, but it makes sense to the Clarks. Both curled at the Grand Forks Curling Club in North Dakota before moving to Seattle, where they have won five national mixed-doubles titles as members of Granite Curling Club.

Here, at the sole U.S. curling-only rink between North Dakota and Alaska, they found a club bound by generational glue. Dads teach sons, moms compete with daughters, grandmothers slide "rocks" down the ice sheets with their grandkids. Some are serious, most are just there for recreation and friendship.

At its most basic, curling is a bit like ultra-slick shuffleboard. Competitors vie to get their stones nestled closest to the bull's-eye. Curlers must have balance and feel. They must pay attention and make adjustments. Above all, they must be part of a team, whether they are easing a 42-pound, pot-shaped stone down the ice at just the right pace and force or vigorously sweeping brooms in front of it to affect distance and direction.

It is also a sport that young and old as well as men and women can share. The Clarks, both in their 30s, are elite competitors who feel they are still improving.

"I knew this would be something I could do my whole life," says Cristin Clark, who learned the sport at 12 from her parents. "You typically don't hit your prime until you're in your late 30s or 40s.

"Have you heard about Betty?" she says, pointing to Betty Kozai, a petite woman in her 70s standing nearby. "We have T-shirts that say, 'I've been Kozai-ed.' " To be Kozai-ed means to have been robbed of what appeared to have been sure victory on your opponent's final toss.

Kozai giggles upon hearing this. She and her husband helped establish the club and buy the building with several other curlers more than 45 years ago. Her husband, Kearny, caught the curling bug first when a neighbor exposed him to the sport at a Ballard skating rink. The Kozais' three daughters became talented curlers, but Betty was too busy to play in the early days.

"I had so much to do, like being PTA president and getting the girls to Brownies, tennis and other events, that I didn't have time to curl until much later," she says. "But I think you will have a much better family life if you do the same things as your husband."

She remains a fixture around the club, whether cooking spaghetti sauce for big tournaments, like the high-level Seattle Granite Cash "Bonspiel" (Scottish for match or tournament) set for Nov. 28-30, or shuttling a grandson to and from practice.

And the family still curls together. One of the daughters, Jaynie, married James Pleasants, and introduced him into the sport. The couple won a national mixed championship about 10 years ago. He has coached both his sons and is an officer with the United States Curling Association. Betty's other daughters are still at it, too.

There are many more families curling at the club, just a block east of North 128th Street and Aurora Avenue North, like Leslie Frosch and her sister, Nancy Richard. They have won numerous national championships together and curl with their 81-year-old mother. She took up the sport first but was soon joined by her husband and daughters, who first competed on junior teams.

"Nancy has always been the skip (the leader, basically) on our team," Frosch says, "and was inducted to the USCA (US Curling Association) Hall of Fame, the first female inducted solely for curling abilities and accomplishments."

And, of course, both their husbands curled.

While families keep tradition, the club, which holds five playing "sheets," is always looking for new members through leagues, classes and tournaments from October to mid-April. While most are recreational players, the club also is home to elite curling. On any given night or weekend, the ice bustles with curlers pushing lolling tosses that take 20 seconds to reach their target and spates of furious ice brushing.

The Clarks, who have their eyes on the Winter Olympics in 2010, are on the ice for practice or games at least six, and often seven, days a week, maintaining this schedule from the middle of September through early April. They also work out off the ice about four days a week to maintain their fitness.

On Friday, they will combine competition with family. Cristin Clark's parents are coming to Seattle next week so they can form a four-member curling team for the club's annual autumn tournament. It's a family tradition: The family that curls together stays together.

Richard Seven: 206-464-2241 or rseven@seattletimes.com