Saskatoon’s Rylan Kleiter hopes to follow in father’s footsteps at Brier

Saskatoon’s Rylan Kleiter is looking to carry on a family tradition by earning a spot in the 2025 Brier in Kelowna next month.

The 26-year-old curler and his team are set to battle for a spot next week at the men’s provincial curling championship in Kindersley, one year after falling short against Mike McEwen’s rink in the championship final.

Read More:

• Stryker Zablocki helps lead Canada to gold at U18 Women’s World Championships
• Riders release schedule, opening and closing 2025 CFL season at home
• Big commitment: 6’8″ Davin Berry commits to U of R Rams

Kleiter said he got into curling at the age of 11 thanks to his father Dean.

Dean Kleiter represented Saskatchewan at the Brier in 2001 and 2003 as an alternate.

“I got into curling through my dad,” Kleiter explained.

“I grew up watching him play, and then he had taken me to the rink quite a few times and eventually asked me to just grab a few of my buddies and go out and try curling, and I’ve stuck with it ever since.”

Up until that point, Kleiter didn’t really follow the sport or play it, but once he started playing he said he quickly got more and more interested.

But while curling drew his interest, it wasn’t the only sport he dialed in on. When he got to high school, he started playing football and excelled, eventually becoming a receiver and kicker.

After his high school football career was over, Kleiter opted to play four seasons for the Saskatoon Hilltops of the Canadian Junior Football League. He won four league championships with the Toppers from 2016-2019, which led him to a spot on the University of Regina Rams in 2021.

“I kind of started off as a receiver. I did have some soccer background growing up as well, so even throughout high school I started kicking and just I enjoyed that role as well,” he explained.

“I always kind of took pride in that role and knew it was an important one, and it was enjoyable.”

Although football took up a lot of time in the fall, Kleiter was still committed to curling and was also excelling on the ice.

In 2019, he represented Saskatchewan at the 2019 Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Prince Albert.

His rink lost in the semi-final to J.T. Ryan and Manitoba, but Kleiter’s play caught the eye of others in the tournament. British Columbia’s Tyler Tardi won junior nationals that year, and picked Kleiter to be an alternate on Team Canada at the world championships in Liverpool, N.S. Tardi’s rink went on to win the national championship.

“I sort of had a passion for both sports, and in the fall time it was tricky, but once football season was over I kind of shifted gears to curling season,” Kleiter said.

After he stopped playing football in 2021, Kleiter said he decided to focus solely on curling.

He helps run Team Kleiter, which also includes Joshua Mattern, Matt Hall and Trevor Johnson. All of the players are still in their 20s, and all have had success on the national stage.

“All four of us have been to many nationals,” Kleiter said. “Matthew Hall also won the world juniors back in 2019, so there’s a wealth of knowledge and lots of experience on this team for being a younger team.”

Kleiter said he’s been playing with Mattern and Johnson for the last 12 years.

In the last month, the Saskatoon team was promoted to play on the Grand Slam of Curling tour, competing with some of the top teams in the world.

“It’s been a big step for us just being able to have more opportunities to compete against these teams,” Kleiter stated.

“You always take away a few things just to sort of tweak and get better, and I think that’s that’s going to be important for us heading into the into provincials.”

Kleiter also just missed out on qualifying for mixed curling doubles at the 2026 Olympics in Milan with his partner Brittany Tran.

Over the last several years, Team Kleiter has been continuing to learn how to take that next step the skip said he’s hoping that this will be the year they can get to the Brier.

Last year, Team Kleiter lost 7-3 to Team Mike McEwen in the provincial championship to narrowly miss out on qualifying.

The odds were stacked against Team Kleiter last year, largely due to the experience of McEwen’s rink, but this year they won’t have to worry about another showdown in the qualifying stages as Team McEwen has automatically qualified for the Brier because of its world ranking.

That means one more spot to represent Saskatchewan at the Brier is up for grabs at the provincial championship in Kindersley next week.

“This is definitely an event that we sort of have circled on our calendars for the year, and we’re just excited to get out there and compete,” Kleiter said.

“Saskatchewan always has great teams out there and we’re looking forward to it. Kindersley should be a great host, too. And we’re just excited to see the people out there and really enjoy it.”

The men’s and women’s provincial curling championships are both being played in Kindersley. The tournament runs from Tuesday to January 26.