BRANDON, MAN. — Curling is in the blood of the Muyres family.

Saskatoon’s Kirk Muyres is skipping Saskatchewan this week at the Tim Hortons Brier with his older brother, Dallan, throwing lead stones.  Their father and coach, Lyles, skipped the prairie province with his three brothers over three decades ago in 1986 from Kitchener, Ont.

The 28-year-old Kirk says his family is lucky to have something they can share as a group.

“Not everyone gets to spend as much time all year and every winter with the people that are closest to them,” Muyres told TSN.ca after his opening loss to Manitoba Saturday afternoon at Westoba Place. “We’re pretty fortunate to be able to do that and share something that’s so special to our family.

“We love curling and we talk about it at the dinner table every night.”

Lyle, who missed the playoffs by a hair back in ’86 after losing to British Columbia in a tiebreaker, says the Muyres clan “live and die” with the sport.

“Our family has grown up with it, we’ve lived with it, we talk it. Kirk often says we do it too much,” said the 59-year-old. “We do it away from ​the rink too. I know the whole family is coming up here again, so it becomes part of our lives.”

The rink out of the Nutana Curling Club battled hard in Draw 1, but eventually fell to the hometown team led by Mike McEwen after the Brandon native made a draw for two to capture the 7-6 victory.  

The skip admitted the loss Saturday was tough to take (Saskatchewan never trailed until the very end), but knows the event is just getting started.

“We got nine days left of competing. You’re going to win games, you’re going to lose game and it’s going to be a battle,” he said “These guys can beat you on any given day. It would have been a nice one to get in the win column, but we’ll learn lots from it.”

Kirk has played in four previous Canadian championships as a third for Steve Laycock. He’s making his debut as a skip this year however after forming a brand-new foursome. Kirk and Dallan remained together following the breakup of Team Laycock at the end of last season. They added twin brothers Kevin and Daniel Marsh to play third and second respectively after their skip Colton Flasch left to play for Kevin Koe in Alberta.

The mortgage broker says he was excited for the challenge when the opportunity presented itself and was ready to experience both the highs and lows of the position.

“I was looking for something to re-excite me and get me excited for the game again. When you lose one like that your heart breaks, but that’s why we do it,” said the skip. “We do it because we care so much. I wanted to get that back and this opportunity came so I thought ‘what the hell?’ I’m going to run with it.”

Lyle has coached his sons for most of their lives, including their previous Brier experiences, and says it’s a more nerve-wracking watching his youngest son as the captain of the team.

“It’s fun, but also hard to watch. I’ve always had a passion when I watch curling for the game itself and it’s even more so when your son is throwing the last stone,” explained Lyle.

The transition from third to skip has been relatively smooth for Kirk this season. Team Muyres is 44-28 on the season, having qualified for the playoffs in five of 12 events. And in each of those playoff appearances, they were able to make the finals, going 2-3 with their victories coming against Ontario’s Scott McDonald at the Grand Slam’s Tour Challenge Tier 2 and Matt Dunstone in the provincial final.

“It is a real pleasure to see him developing,” said his father. “This is six months into this process and I thought him and his team have done the right things to be good.”

Kirk says the new responsibilities have been a learning curve for him.

“In curling we learn every day. Just [learning] what’s it like to throw that last stone, knowing what it’s like to be the leader on the team and make the decisions, that’s been the biggest learning curve for me, but I’m kind of settling into it nicely,” he said.

Papa Muyres says the supportive nature of this group has been key to their successful early returns, namely their slight upset victory over Regina’s Matt Dunstone in the Saskatchewan final last month.

“During difficult times, you often see teams eat up their skip, but this team supports their skip,” said Lyle. “I think that’s why they’ve had a really good transition.”

Saskatchewan’s Brier Drought

Rick Folk was the last Saskatchewan skip to bring the Brier Tankard back to the province as a Canadian champion, winning the title 39 years ago after beating Al Hackner in the final at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.

That championship run probably seems like a distant memory for many Saskatchewan curling fans that were around to see it.

Lyle says there was a time in the past when the province didn’t do a very good job of feeding young players through the system. Times have changed for the better recently with a plethora of young teams competing at the playdowns this year, he says.

“Now there’s a real good group of young curlers coming out of Saskatchewan and this drought is just a matter of time now,” said Lyle on the Brier drought. “We see that time, it will be very soon.”

Folk, Harvey Mazinke, Garnet Campbell and of course the great Ernie Richardson (with four) are the only Saskatchewan skips to win the Canadian championship.

Muyres says the only way the province is going to get back to the top is if they gain more experience like they had Saturday afternoon.

“Getting big games, big buildings and big scenarios on TV. That’s where you learn, that’s where you get experience. You can’t teach experience, you can’t go to the rink everyday and pretend it’s a big game because it’s just not the same,” said Kirk.

“Experience some of the heartbreaking losses, but also experience some of the big wins too and they all come together.”

Saskatchewan is back in action Sunday morning against Yukon.