Muyres clan back at the Brier
Family last had members representing Saskatchewan in 1986 championships
The hair’s changed, and there are fewer moustaches, different ice, brooms and wardrobes.
The Muyres family never stopped loving curling, though, even as the decades rolled past. Thirty-three years after Team Muyres represented Saskatchewan at a Brier, that family name helms a new team at the same event.
“I never thought about it until Christmas,” Kirk Muyres related this week while talking about family bloodlines: His dad, Lyle, skipped three brothers on an allmuyres team at the 1986 Brier, and now in 2019, Kirk is skipping a quartet that also includes sibling Dallan.
“My grandpa was having a smoke outside, and I went and sat with him,” Kirk says. “He said, ‘You know, it’s pretty cool to see that Team Muyres on the TV again, and to see Team Muyres on the website.’ He said it’s been a lot of years since he’s seen that, going back to when my dad and his brothers played. I’d never thought about it once until he said that, and I thought ‘For the family, it’s really, really neat to get that nostalgia back.’
“Our family has been so supportive our whole life, and to give them a little bit of extra excitement while they watch us, that’s a special part of it for me.”
Lyle Muyres, with a team that included brothers Warren, Craig and Garth, went 7-4 at the 1986 Brier. They lost a tiebreaker to B.C.’S Barry Mcphee.
Craig died of cancer 10 years after that Brier appearance, at age 32, after a lengthy battle that Lyle once said “took the fire out of us.”
But you can’t keep a good love down, and his boys inherited that deep family affection for the game. Lyle is now the team’s coach.
Dallan curled at the 2011 Brier with Pat Simmons, and both brothers have appeared in four Briers with Steve Laycock.
Kirk, 28, hadn’t skipped a team since leading his high school foursome in Muenster to a provincial silver medal at age 17. Third is his lifelong position, for the most part.
This past off-season, he pondered a switch to skip, and twins Kevin and Daniel Marsh contacted him to ask if he’d be willing to join them. The Muyres and Marsh brothers had played plenty of games against each other in the past, liked each other, and shared a mutual respect — Kirk calls them “two of the best throwers in the game.”
They set the Brier as their immediate goal, with this first-time skip calling the shots.
“It’s what I signed up for,” Kirk says. “When I knew I wanted to go down this skipping route, I knew I needed to revitalize myself; to feel that pressure again in a curling game, because that’s the fun part. In skipping, you get it every shot. And now that I’m the skip for Team Saskatchewan at the Brier ... either I’m the hero or the dog, you know? Either people are going to love me, or they’re going to question my calls. That’s what I signed up for, and it’s pretty cool to have people that care about what you’re doing. I’m going to enjoy it, relish it.”
Team Muyres put some strong performances together on the World Curling Tour, and sits 18th in the overall rankings. The freshly minted skip drew the fourfoot in the 10th end against Matt Dunstone to win 6-5 in the Saskatchewan final, and now they’re in the Brier in Brandon — Kirk at skip, Kevin Marsh at third, Daniel Marsh at second and Dallan at lead.
Kirk says the team was fully aware of the sibling dynamic heading into their first season together. They know brothers can be quick to fight, to “beak” each other, and they chose to adopt a different mindset.
“We try to keep that brotherly love, or brotherly unlove, off the ice, and try to be four business partners on the ice,” Kirk says.
The whole idea of being a skip got easier when he grasped the concept of being the team’s leader and decision-maker — an idea his teammates back, he adds.
“It really (clicked) when I understood I was no longer in a support role,” Kirk says. “I was no longer the caddy on the team; I was the leader. I was the one taking control of the team, and I was the one making decisions. That’s what my team wanted me to do anyways, and once we realized that’s what we wanted as a group, and I took the bull by the horns, good things started to happen. That was the biggest transition for me, was realizing I was the No. 1 guy now, that had to make the decisions. I was no longer supporting someone else in that progression.”
Which takes them to the Brier, and that Saturday-afternoon opening draw against Manitoba’s Mike Mcewen. In 1986, his dad made his own Brier debut against Newfoundland’s Fred Durant, and lost 8-7.
Kirk wasn’t yet born when his gregarious father became a media darling in the national spotlight, but he’s seen photos.
“I hadn’t seen (video) at all, and then last year, they did a story on us at the Brier and they got some old footage,” Kirk says. “My goodness — they looked like little puppies out there. And it’s pretty crazy how the game has changed; it’s just totally different,” he said, laughing.
“I would like to sit down and watch one of their Brier games from ’86, kind of take it all in, but I haven’t had much time.”
And now that I’m the skip for Team Saskatchewan at the Brier ... either I’m the hero or the dog, you know?