Like many a lad, Michael Goodfellow had a guilty secret when he was a teenager, but his was a wee bit unusual.

The 25-year-old from Stirling knew he was a bit different in developing a fondness for granite and brushes while still at primary school and embarrassment at how he was spending his spare time meant he even contemplated quitting.

"I was playing football and kept it quiet because football was seen as the cool sport and other sports weren't promoted as much," said the regular lead in the Scotland rink that will compete at the forthcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi.

"I don't know if it was just my school, where there wasn't even rugby. Maybe it was the image with the sweeping as well. I thought about giving it up because I was playing more football and I would have to miss games to go away for curling competitions. Then I kind of realised I do enjoy this."

His dilemma sums up the difficulty that has been created for many minority sports in a culture that is so dominated by football. However, you wonder what his peers would make of it now. Just how cool is it that, in recent years, someone else has paid for Goodfellow to visit China, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and Turkey.

A first trip to the USA next month and then Russia for the Olympics will follow the current European Championship campaign which gets underway for the Scottish/British rink that is skipped alternately by Dave Murdoch and Tom Brewster, in Stavangar today.

The rules of the sport, changed not that long before he started playing in order to encourage more attacking play, have helped to provide an opportunity for a player who does not come from one of the dynasties that have dominated Scottish curling down the years.

The creation of the free guard zone, where the first four stones cannot be removed if they are in the zone between the blue line, some three-quarters of the way down the rink and the house (the target rings) has turned leading into a specialist role at which he excels.

In a couple of months' time, of course, all regular sports watchers will be fully up to pace with all of that, as we are every four years.

However, just as telling as Goodfellow's candidness about his early agonising, is the way the Scottish curling authorities appear incapable of seizing upon the chance to popularise the sport having made an astounding decision to put their own national championships up against the Olympics, leaving the players bemused.

"It is very bizarre and pretty disappointing," said Goodfellow. "We don't understand it because, pretty much once every four years, curling gets a big show on the BBC and everyone is interested."

In killing two opportunities with one stone that decision could even be seen as going against natural justice since it means that Eve Muirhead's rink, the current women's world champions, cannot defend that title later this winter because teams have to win the Scottish title to qualify.

"We tried to do something about it," said Goodfellow. "Eve kicked up quite a lot of fuss about it because she's not getting to defend her title and so did Dave, who was the players' rep until the summer.

A cynic might almost suspect that some of those making those decisions are designed to keep the opportunities for a chosen few.

Yet Goodfellow's experience demonstrates just what can happen for those prepared to be uncool on the ice.