While winter sports and Houston’s sweltering climate rarely mix, freshman Samuel Samson-Williams is breaking boundaries as the founder of Curling Club.

Curling Club focuses on curling, which consists of two teams of four pushing granite stones down a sheet of ice towards a target.

“The inspiration was the Sochi 2014 Olympics. I had a lot of downtime during the week, so I was watching curling and talking to a lot of other people who were too,” Samson-Williams said. “We live in Houston, so nobody plays curling, right? Nobody’s ever heard of curling.”

The Curling Club is sponsored by Spanish teacher Isabella Maldonado. The club held its first meeting in her classroom, March 6.

“For our first club meeting, I didn’t expect a lot since we only had a poster down by freshman hallway and a morning announcement, but we had over 40 people turn out,” Samson-Williams said.

Curling Club plans to hold its next and final meeting of the year in early May.

“This year we are trying to get proof of concept going,” Samson-Williams said. “We are going to try to increase the frequency of our meetings next year.”

In addition to hosting periodic club meetings, Samson-Williams aims to release a line of curling-related clothing.

“We’re planning on releasing a line of sweatshirts, and, if that’s successful, t-shirts as well.

Samson-Williams intends to provide curling experience for members of the club at the Houston Ice Center on Gulf Freeway.

“Every Saturday they hold a learn-to-curl session,” Samson-Williams said. “We were thinking of hosting an intramural curling tournament there starting next year.”