How early is too early?

Last night I played my first curling game of the year. Sept. 27th. That’s early for me and probably about the earliest I’ve ever thrown a rock.

I was sparing in the last round of the Oakville CC’s summer league, which, to my surprise, is jammed to the rafters.

Of course the competitive players are three or four spiels into the season already, a season which seems to start earlier and earlier. Most have been on the ice through the summer months as well, either for a week or two at a camp or in a league such as the one they run in Oakville.

I’m not sure about you, but I think that a good break in the summer is needed, not only for knee-sliders such as me, but just about everyone. I remember my son playing hockey 12 months – a regular league in the winter and then three-on-three in the summer – and it led to burnout. Same thing in golf. I did a feature for TSN this year on a school in Orlando that allows Canadian kids to come down, go to school, either on-line or in the local community, and work on their games while it’s snowing up north.

Too much, but that’s just me. I enjoyed last night’s contest because it’s close enough to the start of the season that it felt like the beginning of the year (we begin for real just after Thanksgiving), but I’m not sure I’d want to play all summer.