Apollo Curling

First, sign up for the curling clinic, held in late September or early October. Apollo offers a free, introductory, 2 hour session to teach you the basics. Check the News page for the timing of this year’s clinic. There is no obligation to join the league if you take the clinic.

Second, look for other learning opportunities. Search for Adult Learn to Curl programs offered throughout the city. North Hill offers one called Discover Curling. Other rinks have similar programs. These programs will have a cost associated with them.

You need to create a profile on League Buddy. Apollo Curling uses this site to manage registrations, collect fee payments, publish game schedules, maintain a contact list of league members, and so on. Just because you have a profile on League Buddy does not mean you’ve joined Apollo Curling.

Every fall, you have to register for the upcoming curling season. Having a profile and declaring an interest in Apollo Curling means you’ll be on the mailing list, and you’ll find out about the upcoming season when it’s announced. Actually joining the league and being able to curl for the season requires League Registration.

Every season we take registrations from individual curlers and usually get them placed on a team. There are no guarantees that we can successfully find you a team, but we’re usually successful. In the event there are no teams available, you can always be placed on the spare list. For a guarantee of being able to curl, get some friends together and enter your own team – but do it within a few hours of registration opening. The league usually fills up on the first day.

When you create your profile, it will ask for your name, date of birth, gender, address and contact information. You can choose if you want your email and/or phone number displayed on the contact list for other players to see, but you have to provide that information so league organizers can contact you.

Your name, date of birth, gender, email address and postal code will be provided to Curling Alberta, as they collect this information to determine the demographics of the curling community in order to better provide services and programs to the province.

You should upload a face picture to your profile. Even though our league uses name-tags, the best way to introduce yourself to other players is to have a recognizable face picture, and add some information to your league profile. Yes, there are two profiles – one for the League Buddy account (name, address, contact info), and one for Apollo Curling (how much experience do you have curling, what is the usual position you play on a curling team, an ‘about me’ section and so on).

Prior to every game, you can indicate whether or not you’re available for upcoming games. This helps your team-mates know who can play for a given game, and help determine if you’ll need a spare player or not.

After every game, you (well, technically speaking, the third from the winning team) enters the score / outcome of the game. This automatically updates the standings page.

The contact list is where you see a list of all the teams and the player names. It is also where the list of spare players appears.

The schedule will show you the upcoming games, also the most recent games played (with the outcomes of each). It also has a tab for the complete schedule for the current round. And there is a season calendar page, which shows all the dates for the season when curling is taking place. You can also download calendar reminders for upcoming games.

If fewer than 2 people registered to your team can show up for a game, sadly your team must forfeit. You need to indicate this in League Buddy. It will notify the other team that your team is forfeiting and will automatically update the standing page. Forfeits are considered bad form and should be avoided. Teams need to ensure that they can provide at least 2 players for every game on the schedule.

You can pay your league fees on League Buddy, and if you’re a spare player, you can pay your spare fees there as well.

On the main page of League Buddy, click the link called League Profile. Look for the "Usual Position" and change the dropdown to the appropriate value. Then click the Save button.

There are a few things only an administrator of the site can do:

• Change a team's name
• Adding players to a team (also removing them, or transferring them between teams)
• Canceling a spare request after it's been accepted

We use pools to group teams of similar ability together.

The season is made up of multiple round robins, where all the teams in a pool play each other. Between rounds, the top teams will move to a higher pool, and the bottom teams will move to a lower pool (unless of course it’s already the highest or lowest pool). This gives teams the opportunity to play other teams when moving to new pools, and also resets the pools a bit, meaning that perhaps each team is playing others more similar in ability.

The last 3 weeks of the season are for playoffs, and they’re optional: each team chooses whether to play, and sign-up opens at the end of the first round robin, first come, first served. Playoffs are single elimination, in brackets of 8 teams, with teams placed by their aggregate point totals — lose a game and you’re out. There is modest prize money for the winner of each bracket. Teams that don’t sign up keep playing recreational games, except on the final weekend, when only the playoff finals are scheduled.

Teams must have at least 2 regular players on their team and can play with 3 or 4 players in total. If your team is short a player or two, you can request someone from the spare list come and play with you. You need to make this request through League Buddy, to ensure that the player is a registered spare. Spares from outside the league are not allowed.

If you can’t find a spare from the spare list, you can ask that another league player fill in, assuming they’re available. There are rules about what position they can play – it’s advised that you familiarize yourself with the Spare Rules.

If fewer than 2 people registered to your team can show up for a game, sadly your team has to forfeit. You need to indicate this in League Buddy. It will notify the other team that your team is forfeiting and will automatically update the standing page. Forfeits are considered bad form and should be avoided. Teams need to ensure that they can provide at least 2 players for every game on the schedule.

Each pool will have individual points available for a Win, Tie, and Loss. There are no points for a loss due to a forfeit.

After each game, your team is awarded the appropriate number of points based on the game outcome. These points are added to your team’s aggregate point total, and this determines your standing in the league, and ultimately determines which playoff bracket your team will be seeded into.

Byes are weeks where there is no curling for your team. Sometimes the entire league is not curling, because the curling clubs are shut down or hosting another event. If the league ever has more teams than there is room for on the ice, your team may also sit out the occasional week.

Apollo Curling has 3 draw times on Saturdays at the North Hill Curling Club (6 sheets) and 1 Saturday afternoon draw at the Calgary Curling Club (8 sheets), so we can schedule up to 26 games, or 52 teams, on a given Saturday. With 52 teams or fewer, every team can play every week. If the league grows beyond 52 teams, some teams will get a weekend off here and there throughout the schedule. The round robin will still be maintained – each team will play all the others in the round, but the round will just take a bit longer to complete due to the byes in the schedule.

There are several things that are considered good curling etiquette, but the two most important ones are: (1) exhibit good behaviour on the ice; and (2) be on time

1. Exhibit good behaviour: a good curler doesn’t try to distract their opponents; a good curler doesn’t throw a temper tantrum on the ice when something doesn’t go their way; a good curler knows the rules of the game and doesn’t intentionally break any of them – if breaking a rule occurs, a good curler will be the first to admit their fault. A good curler offers to buy the opposing team a drink in the lounge after the game if your team won the match.
2. Be on time: Be on time for the game. If the game starts at 2:00 pm, the game should start at 2:00 pm. That means the players have already arrived, changed, stretched and so on before 2:00 pm. A good rule of thumb is to arrive at the rink at least 15 minutes before the scheduled game time. Also, be on time for your shot. Throughout the game, when it’s your turn to throw, you need to be ready to do so. This will help the game flow smoothly and allow you to get lots of ends in during the 2-hour allotment.

In the past, we rotated through the teams and assigned Instagram duty. When it was your team’s turn for Instagram, that meant it’s your responsibility to take lots of photos, on the ice and/or off the ice. A team from each timeslot was assigned, so you were responsible for your timeslot only. Now, we are asking all teams to take photos, whenever they want. The photos can be of your team, your opponents, other players on other sheets, or you can take photos in the lounge after the game. Have a look at Apollo Curling’s Instagram feed for inspiration or ideas of what’s been captured in the past.

When you’ve taken your photos, upload them through the Photos tile on your League Buddy dashboard, where the organizers can download them and post them to the Instagram account.

Be sure that you’ve asked permission to photograph someone before you do it. Some people aren’t comfortable having their photo on social media.

We take the total number of teams and create pools based on the overall skill level ov the team. We also create 'artificial' groups, or alliances, made up of 1 team from every pool. These placements are semi-random, ensuring a mix of teams from all levels. While the pools will change after each round, these alliances will remain the same throughout the entire regular season (not including playoffs), building a sense of unity and ongoing collaboration. If you’re familiar with a Calcutta raffle, think of it as a “group Calcutta,” where your alliance's overall success depends on the combined records of its teams.

This system adds a layer of teamwork beyond just your pool. A win from any team in your alliance, regardless of which pool they belong to, contributes equally to your alliance’s standing. More experienced teams will have the chance to mentor newer teams, creating a great opportunity for learning and growth. A win in the most competitive pool will count just as much as a win from a different, lower pool. The key is that every victory counts.

At the end of the season, the alliance with the best combined win/loss record will be rewarded with a special prize, giving everyone something extra to strive for!

Please reach out to the organizers at organizers [at] apollocurling.com with any questions you have. We’ll try to respond as soon as possible.