Nestled between the stately evergreens at the very back end of this pristine northern railway town, the Capreol Curling Club warmly welcomed participants to men’s night on Tuesday of this past week.

It’s a scene that is replayed several times over, each and every week, right through until some time in April – and a scene which had almost zero degree of certainty of ever reoccurring again as members and club officials looked to the future this time last year.

On October 23rd (2023), with the ice set in place and play about to start days later, the brine tank blew, spilling everywhere in the side room and rendering essentially the entire refrigeration unit in-operational.

“We thought then that we were doomed,” recalled club president Susanne Aylward, the woman largely credited with the massive undertaking of phone calls and enquiries that not only allowed the century old facility to come out the other side of this challenge, but to do so as a beacon to other curling clubs, right across the country.

First came the necessity to tackle the financial realities, with “bills still to pay”, as Aylward noted. “We were fundraising all of last year: craft shows, dances, so many events. It never ended.”

For as much as that energy has flowed directly through to the 2024-2025 season, the Capreol Curling Club hosting a boatload of events in their refurbished adjacent hall (complete with a gorgeous new gas fireplace), the real breakthrough came in replacing the compressor unit and such.

About to sign on the dotted line to flip the former ammonia-based system to a newer model, Aylward caught a break, steered in the direction of Oxford Energy Sources by a contact she had with Save On Energy. Subsequent conversations with both Mark Phillips (Aylmer Curling Club) and Don Bourque (Sarnia Curling Club) offered a different and more efficient option.

With Co-Operators Insurance stepping up big time, the winter-time tradition in Capreol would forge ahead.

“After talking to the two curling clubs, they sold us on this system,” said Aylward. “It’s different; the refrigerant is different. We had used ammonia forever. We’re saving thousands of gallons of water – and we’re more environmentally friendly.”

“These concepts kind of started with the refrigeration units in the fish plants in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.”

At a glance, the unit is an impressive one, to say the least, very much state of the art.

“I can monitor it all day on my phone, ice temperature, glycol temperature,” noted Capreol ice technician Bob Paquette, the man who has handled those duties for the past five years. “I can see everything on my phone – and they are monitoring in Woodstock (home of Oxford Energy) as well.”

Aylward believes the technology can be a game-changer – and she clearly wants to ensure that others are equally aware. “I would just like to share this so that curling clubs can save money and move forward for the next 40-50 years,” stated the woman who owes her passion for the sport from spending her developmental years in the hotbed of curling that is northwestern Ontario.

Now thirty years into his involvement on the ice, Bob Paquette crossed over from a summer athletic pastime that the long-time resident of Hanmer enjoyed. “I played slo-pitch with a couple of guys who wanted to curl and have been here since then,” said the 57 year old who attended courses in Sudbury and North Bay in order to absorb a degree of knowledge to get started in his role.

Still, there are those eye-opening moments.

“I never realized that it was so time consuming,” said Paquette. “I am here about 12 hours a week, just shaving the ice and making sure its maintained. Some clubs do it more than I do – but I still work full-time.”

While Aylward was typically the Capreol rep making phone contact throughout the process that did not result in a final decision until April of 2024, Paquette was right at her side as their new acquisition was unveiled.

“We met with a lot of the companies and learned as we go,” he said. “I knew how it worked, generally, but I really did not know the process.”

A curler for some twenty years now, life-long Capreolite Wayne Kennedy cannot be blamed for believing that there must have been some sort of divine intervention at play with the manner that the 2023-2024 season played out.

“It worked out so good for me,” laughed the now avid rock thrower. “I had double knee replacement with my second surgery in October, so I wasn’t going to play last year. I was just going to come out and watch the boys and drink beer.”

It’s that kind of devotion to the group that the Capreol Curling Club finds a way to foster. A very average club curler by his own admission, the team skip is hooked in a very big way.

“A friend started a league years ago, very casual, Mondays and Fridays – throw your broom in and we make up teams that way,” explained Kennedy. “I got addicted, just like golf. Curling was the same way.”

Truth is that the components of the game that can be constantly improved are the lure that Kennedy – and countless others – are chasing.

“It’s the challenge of the game,” he explained. “It’s not just a matter of throwing a rock down the ice; there are so many things to learn. Knowing how much weight to throw, knowing how much curl it will have.”

“I started to skip in my first few years and everybody taught me.”

And lest he think that he has finally mastered the art, another curve ball comes his way.

“They (ice technicians Bob Paquette and Clayton Paul) will be flooding between Christmas and New Year’s and everything will change,” Kennedy said with a smile.

Based on where things stood 12 months ago, that’s a change that all those involved with the Capreol Curling Club will most gladly deal with.