Above: From left to right, Stephen Dropkin, Korey Dropkin, Thomas Howell, Derek Corbett, Cameron Ross
Unless it’s an Olympic year, curling isn’t a sport you hear much about. So you may not realize the MetroWest is home to a small but vibrant curling community. Some of those curlers — my husband among them — hail from Southborough. Two Southborough curlers, brothers Stephen and Korey Dropkin, will compete in the U.S. Junior National Curling Championship starting this weekend in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Stephen, 20, and Korey, 15, have both been curling since they were five years old. This will be Stephen’s seventh trip to the junior nationals and Korey’s second. Stephen is a junior at Merrimack College and Korey is a sophomore at Algonquin. Coaching the brothers at the championship will be dad Keith Dropkin. Mom Shelley also curls.
The Dropkin brothers will be joined on the ice by teammates Thomas Howell of Plainfield, NJ, Derek Corbett of Rochester, NY, and Cameron Ross of Princeton Junction, NJ. Stephen is the team’s skip, which means he’s the one who calls the shots during the game. Korey is vice skip.
Team Dropkin placed fourth at last year’s junior national competition, so they have high hopes of bringing home a medal this year.
The competition starts tomorrow and runs through February 5. You can get live scoring for Team Dropkin on the Fairbanks Curling Club website (www.curlfairbanks.org). To support Team Dropkin, visit their Facebook page. You can make a donation to help offset the cost of the trip by clicking the Fundrazr tab on Facebook.
The Dropkin family normally curls at Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland. Find out more about curling and local events on their website (www.broomstones.com).
