The Humboldt Curling Club was full of school kids on Feb. 8 as they learned from the best team in Saskatchewan.
Team Laycock made their fourth of five-stops on their Decisive Farming CurlingTown tour in Humboldt, after earlier stops in Livelong, Whitewood, and Virden, Man.
The Humboldt stop saw a large crowd of approximately 50 students from six different communities including Humboldt, LeRoy, Muenster, Bruno, Annaheim, and Englefeld, which was great to see, says Team Laycock third Kirk Muyres.
“It’s really good to know that there is kids excited, there is kids involved in the game and it shows that there’s going to be that future in the club in Humboldt and hopefully Saskatchewan for a lot of years to come.”
Making a stop in Humboldt was especially important to Kirk, as well as his brother, Dallan, because they grew up not far from Humboldt in St. Gregor, attended school in Muenster and called the Humboldt Curling Club home for ten years.
The Humboldt club has given the brothers so much over the years, says Muyres
“This is where we practiced every day for ten years and so to come back and get other kids excited about it and give back a little bit to really what the club’s given us over the years s just, is awesome.”
The clinic saw Team Laycock teach the students a number of activities including learning how to sweep, learning how to slide, and learning how to deliver the rocks, among others.
After being on the ice, the curlers moved inside the curling club lobby where Team Laycock told stories about their experiences, answered questions from the students, gave away some memorabilia including one of Colton Flasch’s 2016 Brier jersey’s and finished off the event with a hot dog supper and an autograph session.
Although they taught the students drills while on the ice, Muyres says the biggest thing to hoped to teach them was confidence and the importance of work ethic.
“To know that they have the ability to do anything they set their mind to and to really give them that little bit of a leg up when they go to whatever they are doing next.”
Having fun is the most important part of the tour, says Muyres, who notes that if they can instill that curling is fun into the students at a young age they will continue to curl down the road.
Rylan Hoppe, a second year curler, said it was a lot of fun having Team Laycock come out because it is very helpful learning from them and because he was able to learn a lot.
“It was really good to curl with a really good team.”
For Humboldt Curling Club Manager Bev Kaip having Team Laycock come to town was really important because it helps grow the game at the grass roots level.
“Youth curling is so important that (Brian Wempe) and I believe that we need to push it more here in town.”
Having the Muyres brothers back in Humboldt, Kaip sees that kickback for the club because it will give the students added motivation knowing that Dallan and Kirk both got their start in the same club they are in.
“The kids now think, ‘oh, I can do this.’ These people came from here, they curled out of here and they made it so why couldn’t I? So that’s great for them.”
For Hoppe this experience was a real positive one and leaves him looking forward to continuing curling in the future.
“It’s definitely something to look up to and I’ll bet you my team learned too.”
Overall Muyres was really pleased with how the event turned out, noting it was a lot of work and very tiring, but it was all worth it.
“It’s fun to come out and see the smiles on their faces and everyone having fun it was just a great day.”
Muyres would like to thank Humboldt for welcoming Team Laycock to the community and the curling club.
Team Laycock wrapped up their five-stop tour the following afternoon when they stopped in Cudworth.
