As many people by now know, Bowdoin’s own curling team won the Division IV College Curling National Championships last month. The curling team was the brainchild of Bowdoin sophomore Carl Spielvogel, who had no previous experience with the sport before founding the team earlier this year. The Biochemistry major who was born and raised in Lexington, Massachusetts was inspired to create the team after watching it being played on TV with a couple of friends, and the rest is history. Today, Carl is stranded with us at the North Pole.
If one celebrity could play you in your biopic, who would it be and why?
Probably Kobe Bryant, because of our physical similarities and because I think I’m as good of a basketball player, if not better than he is. The only difference is that I don’t like the Lakers. But I think he just being one of the best players in the league and me being the biggest player in the league it makes sense. Also, because my roommate loves Kobe Bryant and so Kobe playing me would really reflect how much more Kobe likes me than my roommate.
How would you go about training for the College Curling USA curling tournament if stranded at the North Pole?
I would have to go steal emperor penguin eggs and throw them on the ice –that sounds kind of evil actually – as practice for the stones. I could have sea lions and use their fur to sweep the ice and get it in place. Are there sea lions down there? Curling is not a one-person game so I’d have to utilize the resources of the animals around me, the other life forms.
Describe how you would you spend 24 hours at the North Pole.
I would probably go build an igloo because I tried building an igloo when I was in high school and it was really difficult and the snow on the North Pole would be really good for igloo building. I would also go look at the aurora borealis because that sounds pretty cool, and make friends with polar bears.
How do you think your curling skills would come in handy if stranded at the North Pole?
In could clean up the atmosphere around the North Pole. Also I could help Santa and his elves make curling stones to be delivered to every child in the world because everyone knows that Santa thinks that curling is the best sport ever and ought to be played in every country on every continent.
If Santa were to give you three things to make your time at the North Pole more enjoyable, what would they be and why?
Probably a James Bond watch, because that’d be pretty sweet and I could do a lot of cool things with that. I’d get a girl for my roommate Casey, maybe a blowup doll girlfriend. Wait, I can’t shit on Casey too much, I already said that thing about the Lakers… A yacht would be kind of nice, an ice-breaking yacht would be pretty nice. And a TV with CBC (the Canadian Broadcast Channel), which always has curling on.
Congrats to Carl and the rest of Bowdoin curling team on winning the championship!
From left to right: Andrew Hancock ’13, Brian Jacobel ’14, Margot Haines ’13, Matt Spring ’13, Carl Spielvogel ’13.
Photo sources:
Bowdoin Daily Sun – Carl Spielvogel competing in the championship
Bowdoin.edu – shot of members of the curling team
Editor’s note: The Student Digest and a Facebook message to the Her Campus Bowdoin group included a typo that read this week’s Stranded at the North Pole would be with the entire curling team, but the interview was changed to Carl Spielvogel.