Once things began to fall in place, the launching of the Fort Wayne Curling Club was as smooth as a rock gliding into the house.

With interest in curling rising thanks to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Fort Wayne residents Craig Fischer, Greg Eigner, Dan McCoy and Jerri Mead were able to come together and take advantage of more ice surfaces in the city created by the opening of the Canlan Ice Facility.

“Without any one of those three, I don’t think we would have succeeded,” said Fischer, the club’s president.

Fischer and his wife and club secretary, Mead, had already experienced the disappointment of not succeeding in forming a curling club.

The two began curling after the 2006 Olympics because their son, Grayson, 15, who has autism,could participate. The family played with a club in Bowling Green, Ohio, but when that club stopped having Sunday sessions, they had to stop.

The couple tried to get a curling facility set up at Glenbrook Square, but there was not enough space. They also looked into McMillen Ice Arena, but that didn’t work and they stopped trying.

But after this year’s Olympics, they contacted Canlan and found out others were interested in starting a curling club in Fort Wayne.

“I went on the Internet, found that there was a Fort Wayne Curling Club website and Facebook page, that I had no idea about,” Fischer said. “I contacted Dan McCoy, who had just set that up in hopes of gaining enough interest. I hooked up with him, and he hooked us up with Greg.”

And with that the club was rolling.

The group worked out a deal to get the 64 stones required to have four sheets for curling at a discount from the $3,200 cost, and they acquired additional equipment from a club in Minneapolis that disbanded. The club is also working to get wheelchair and deaf curling programs and senior citizens involved in the sport.

“I was surprised at how much interest there has been out there and how anxious people are to do this,” Fischer said.

McCoy, who is in charge of club membership and promotion, is excited to learn more about curling. While he is one of the club’s founding members, he had never curled before.

“Just watching it is how I got involved,” McCoy said. “Since they started showing it on the Olympics, my wife and I have watched it. We got into it.”

A one-year membership costs $100 per person and $250 for a family of four (two adults, two children). There were 30 members as of Tuesday and the number could reach 50 by the end of the summer, according to Fischer. There are also about 100 people signed up for various activities or expressed interest in joining, Fischer said in an e-mail.

The club has five teaching sessions set up, starting with a session Saturday. There is a beginners league from July 12 to Aug. 16, a tournament Aug. 21 to 22, a fall league from Sept. 13 to Dec. 6, a winter league from Jan. 10 to March 28 and six four-week leagues and open curling sessions that will run from Sept. 11 to Dec. 4 and from Jan. 8 to March 26.

“Once you get out there and see what it is like, a lot of people stick with it,” said Eigner, who was a member of a team that finished seventh out of 10 finalists to represent the United States in the 2006 Olympics and in charge of competition, equipment and training.

“There are challenges and as you achieve those, it is very satisfying.”

tkrausz@jg.net