Wheelchair curlers ‘put it right on the button’ in tournament

Two years after a stroke left him partially paralyzed on one side of his body, Matt Broughton has a new favorite sport. Curling, a sport invented in medieval Scotland, is now his game of choice.

Broughton, 49, admits he didn’t know what to expect, however, when a friend suggested he head onto the ice in his wheelchair at the Charlotte Curling Association on Old Statesville Road.

But, when he tried the sport at a learn-to-curl day in March, “I loved it,” the former triathlete said. “There’s skill, and there’s strategy involved.”

On Saturday at the center, Broughton, a resident of Sherrills Ford, competed with 11 other wheelchair curlers in the Charlotte Curling Association’s first Rock-n-Roll Mixed-Doubles Bonspiel. “Bonspiel” is another word for tournament.

Wheelchair curlers came from as far away as California, Wisconsin and Massachusetts to compete in the event, one of only four in the country this year.

The event teamed each wheelchair curler with an able-bodied curler in rounds that will culminate with a championship game at on Sunday at 8 a.m.

Coaches and members of the U.S. Paralympic Curling Team assisted at the competition.

Curling involves sending a 42-pound granite stone down a strip of ice about 150-feet-long toward a circular target. The goal is to get as many “rocks” to the center of the circle as possible.

The sport is inclusive: A person in a wheelchair can compete against a person with no disability – and win.

Friday night, three members of the U.S. team knocked off a team of veteran top-flight curlers from the 140-member Charlotte Curling Association.

Broughton’s wife, Joelle, said he has skied, water-skied and played other sports, “but this is a team sport that he competes in with able-bodied athletes and wheelchair athletes,” she said. “He loves the strategy of curling and the ‘family-ness’ of the sport,” where family members of all ages can play together.

Broughton, the only wheelchair curler in the Charlotte Curling Association, will compete against other curlers at the association’s Grits ‘N’ Granite Bonspiel Oct. 1- 4.

Steve Brown, coach of the U.S. Paralympic Curling Team, held Broughton’s wheelchair steady from behind as Broughton used a pole to push the stone down the ice.

“Great shot, Matt!” Charlotte curler Doug McLaren shouted when one of Broughton’s stone’s curled past an opponent’s stone and into the center of the circle.

Or, as McLaren explained in curling lingo, “He put it right on the button in the middle of the house.”

Broughton said his goal is to make Charlotte “the heart of wheelchair curling in the Southeastern United States. My goal would be to build a team from here and take them to events.”

On Saturday, he encouraged several people in wheelchairs who were trying the sport for the first time. Some learned of it through Carolinas HealthCare System’s Adaptive Sports & Adventures Program.

Broughton complimented first-timer David Box, 30, of Charlotte, on one of his shots.

“You put it right on the button, David,” Broughton said. “Good job!”

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Wheelchair curlers ‘put it right on the button’ in tournament."