P.E.I. curling club draws coaches from across Canada

About 21 kids have signed up for youth programs and that number is climbing. But it's not just new young curlers taking to the ice at the Cornwall Curling Club in P.E.I.

The club has added some new staff who recently relocated to the Island. Four-time world champ Craig Savill moved from Ontario and is now living on P.E.I.

He has experience coaching the Czech Republic men's national team, but this year he is going to teach young curlers in Cornwall about the sport, That will include his 10-year-old son.

"Following in my father's footsteps and coaching his son, which was me," Savill said.

"Passing on the tradition of the Savill family of coaching our kids. They've got a great setup here already. They've got a really strong membership. So I'm just going to sort of lend any advice, see if I can get these kids engaged in curling and staying in curling, too, which is really important."

Sarah Doak, from Miramichi, N.B., is also a new face at the club.

She curled in under-18 championships, provincial bonspiels and for Mount Allison University. Now she is coaching and leading junior programming at the club.

"I was always pretty competitive when I played, wanted to win, wanted to use that as a measure of success," she said.

"Coaching makes me a little more patient with the sport. And seeing a kid maybe go from having an unbalanced slide to being very smooth, very good technically, it's just to see that development, you know, see those small victories."

The club's youth programs range from ages six to 13.

Scarlett and Chase Sanderson, eight-year-old twins from Cornwall, are excited about trying the sport.

"It feels really good because when he [Savill] came over and gave us tips, I was like, 'Oh, that's what they do,'" Scarlett said.

The club is also pulling some youth members from the Charlottetown Curling Club since it closed last year.

Twelve-year-old curler Oliver MacEwen didn't want to stop curling. He and his older brother made the jump to Cornwall.

"The whole community is always the same whenever you go to any different curling club," MacEwen said. "It's always fun and everybody enjoys playing the game."