The road is long and busy for local curlers Kirk and Dallan Muyres.
Finishing off the Grand Slam of Curling in Paradise, Nfld. at the beginning of the month with one win and three losses, they will be playing in the Point Optical Curling Classic in Saskatoon on Sept. 25 and 26.
If the St. Gregor curlers could say one thing about their curling careers, they can say they’ve come by it honestly.
“We were always around the rink watching games,” Dallan said. “When (our dad) was on the road, we called the curling clubs to check the scores, always staying in tune with curling.”
Kirk and Dallan’s dad, Lyle, competed in the 1986 Brier along with his brothers, Warren, Craig, and Garth. The love of curling rubbed off on Kirk and Dallan.
One special memory for Dallan is when a player couldn’t make the Humboldt Super League game. Lyle took Dallan along to fill in.
“I was incredibly nervous. I was a short little kid amongst giants on the ice,” Dallan said. “I am not sure if we won the game or not, but it was certainly a memorable experience at the local curling club with all the great local curlers of that time.”
Humboldt and area has since been a great home base for Kirk and Dallan. Getting their start at the A&W junior program, Dallan says maybe it was the burgers and root beers after lessons that made him continue curling for so long. No matter the reason, those opportunities were special.
“You can recall all the faces of people you meet and the ones that help you develop as an athlete…you travel home for the weekend and run into some of those familiar faces at the grocery store or at the coffee shop. You always say hi and chat about curling for a couple minutes,” Dallan said.
Kevin Kalthoff of the Humboldt Curling Club remembers Kirk’s excitement joining the junior program because his older brother was playing. The program was the start of something better for Humboldt curlers.
“We really didn’t have a good program in Humboldt so we got the program together,” he said.
Kalthoff said that seeing the junior teams that came out of the program, made the proud because they knew they were doing something right.
The provincials in February saw three out of eight curlers from Humboldt. It was pretty exciting to watch, Kalthoff said.
They met current teammates - Steve Laycock from Yorkton and Colton Flasch from Biggar - in the hack. Dallan and Laycock have been playing together for the past six seasons starting with the 2011 Brier in London. Kirk and Flasch have been playing together since 2011 when they won Canadian Juniors.
They all live in Saskatoon so they can practice and train together. The goal for them is the 2018 Olympics.
“We’re treating our team as a professional team,” Kirk said. “We spend most of our days curling and training and less time working. I think this is what it’s going to take to get to the Olympics.”
They’ve branded their team as “Saskatchewan’s Farm Team” with many of their sponsors being local farming businesses. Local sponsors from back when they were younger players helped them get to where they are now, said Dallan.
“Those sponsors helped us go out and compete more than if we didn’t have sponsors; so you can say that they have a lot to do with our grassroots development,” he said.
Michel’s Industries in St. Gregor has been a big one for them, Kirk said.
“They’ve been with Dallan and (me) since we were 12 years old but they’ve been part of our team the last four years,” Kirk said. “It’s pretty neat to have local guys support us like that and give us a chance to do what we do.”
Laycock’s rink will start off next weekend with a bye into the second round and will be playing their first game Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. at the Nutana Curling Club.
