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A Martensville curler is heading to the Yukon next month in an effort to get a berth at the 2026 Montana’s Brier in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Dean Grindheim said the journey started when he received a Facebook message from Sean Eichendorf, who he curled with 25 years ago.
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“I think I curled with him for one year,” said he in a phone interview with 650 CKOM.
Eichendorf, who is originally from Waldheim, currently skips a team in the Yukon. Grindheim said Eichendorf wanted him to join the northern rink as they made a push for the provincial and national championships.
After some back-and-forth messages, Grindheim said he’s planning to make the up to Whitehorse on to play in the 2026 Yukon Men’s Curling Championship, which runs from Thursday through Sunday.
Grindheim, who will be the team’s skip, said he said he hasn’t yet met the other two curlers he’ll be playing with – second Trent Derkatch and third Tyler Williams – but he knows that Eichendorf has put together a solid group.
“He’s got a pretty strong team, and they’ve got experience together,” said Grindheim.
Even though Grindheim is not from the Yukon, he’s still eligible to play because of an import rule that Curling Canada has in place.
“You’re allowed one player that’s either born in that province or territory to come back there, or have one import player,” explained Grindheim.
He said he had to submit applications with Curl Saskatchewan, the Yukon Curling Federation and Curling Canada a month before the entry deadline to get approval from all three parties.
Grindheim said he’s pretty amazed that he might have a chance to curl in the Brier with the Yukon team if they emerge victorious.
“I never dreamed I’d be getting here,” he said. “And these guys, you know, having me come up there and skip their team, (I’m) really looking forward to it.”
This curling championship is a played in three-team double-round-robin format, he said. Every team plays each other team twice.
“If one team goes through at 4 and 0, they’re the winner. There are no playoffs,” Grindheim said.
“It works out to be almost like a triple knockout.”
He said that if he was able to play at the Brier at the same time as his son Brayden, who is also an accomplished curler, it would “absolutely be amazing, but kind of wishful thinking.”
The Montana’s Brier runs from Feb. 27 to March 8.
