Senior Mat Holmes has been curling for three years and is heading to the Olympic preliminary trials in Seattle in January with hopes of qualifying for the 2010 Winter Olympic trials in February.

Holmes is on the DU club curling team. He is also on a curling team that is his Olympic team. If Holmes and his team make it to the Olympic qualifying round in February, they will compete against nine other teams from around the country. The winner of the qualifying trials will go to the 2010 games in Vancouver, Canada.

Holmes first became interested in curling while watching the Olympic Games.

“I was really fascinated by the sport so I decided that I would like to try it out,” he said.

Curling has become part of Holmes’ life in college. He and friends Billy Raynolds and Philip Harris started the DU curling club.

Athleticism has helped Holmes hone his skill of the game. He loves snowboarding, was a sponsored rock climber in high school, is a talented foosball player and played lacrosse when studying abroad.

The curling team won a bronze medal at the College Curling Nationals last year. He has competed at the U.S. Olympic facility in Salt Lake City and trained with former curling bronze medalist Pete Fenson from the 2006 Winter Games in Turino, Italy.

Holmes is working on stamina building because the preliminary trials consist of numerous games played back to back over a few days.

Also Holmes is practicing his delivery, timing and strategy on the ice.

Holmes and his Olympic team spend a lot of time off the ice together as a team so they can “improve team chemistry which will us handle high pressure situations effectively,” he said.