NEW SERIES! PRESENTING "CURLING AS A KID & BEYOND!": Episode #1

This is the first episode in a series where I interview current and former competitive curlers to find out how they grew to love the sport of curling as a young person. I'll also be asking these curlers about their experience coaching youth. And, in some cases, I'll ask them about what it's like having their own children in the sport.

Kerry Galusha is a longtime competitive curler and member of the famous Koe curling family. In this episode, I ask her about her early days of curling and what she found most exciting about the sport. We also discuss her involvement coaching juniors at her home club, Yellowknife CC. And we also talk about her role as a KidSport ambassador in the Northwest Territories.

Some of the topics we discuss include:
* How her family first got her involved ("forced" into?) curling (3:43)
* What made her fall in love with the sport (9:01)
* Kerry's experience at her first nationals, meeting some now-famous friends! (10:17)
* Meeting Sandra Schmirler at the '94 nationals and meeting another famous curler who she wanted to play mixed with! (15:15)
* Travel was the spark that hooked her to competitive curling! (17:07)
* How she got involved in coaching with the junior program at Yellowknife CC (19:23)
* Buying stopwatches for her girls' team (22:58)
* Why did the girls she coach stay with her for so long? (26:12)
* Advice to parents who want to introduce their kids to curling (28:57)
* In Kerry's opinion, the best part of coaching kids (29:48)
* THE BIG QUESTION: How do we get kids to fall in love with the sport of curling and stay with it for the long-term? (31:20)
* Kerry's competitive team update as of July 2021 (36:10)
* Kerry's role as a KidSport ambassador in NWT (38:02)
* What sports did she watch at the Tokyo Summer Olympics? (40:45)

Links to the resources mentioned in this episode:
Team Galusha social media accounts
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TeamGalusha/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/teamgalusha/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TeamGalusha

KidSport NWT
https://www.sportnorth.com/kidsport/kidsport-nwt
https://www.sportnorth.com/kidsport/kidsport-nwt-ambassadors (Kerry's bio)

Yellowknife CC Web site
https://yellowknifecurling.com/

Follow our podcast on Twitter: @kidscurling

Glenn Gabriel is an NCCP-certified curling coach who lives in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. He has been the coordinator of the Little Rocks (U12) program at East York Curling Club in Toronto since 2011. If you have a question or feedback on the podcast, send us an e-mail at [email protected]

The intro and outro music is "Golden Sunrise (Instrumental Version)"
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward/The_Wake_1790/JoshWoodward-TheWake-NoVox-10-GoldenSunrise

By Josh Woodward
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward

Licensed under CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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