Sask Sports Hall of Fame inducts mother and son

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Klara Kesmarky Miller and Noah Miller are about to share an individual accomplishment together.

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The mother and son from Regina will soon become the first parent and child to be inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame as individuals in a single year, as they were recently announced as part of the Class of 2025, set to be formally inducted on Sept. 20.

They will also become the first mother and son to be inducted as individuals into the hall of fame at any time.

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“It’s quite an honour,” said Klara. “It brings tears to my eyes. I’m so happy for my son and really proud of what we’ve accomplished as a family in my sport and his sport.”

During the induction announcement last week in Regina, Noah and Klara were introduced as members of the Class of 2025 alongside Julie Foster (athlete; rugby), Jon Ryan (athlete; football), Brad Hornung (builder; hockey), the 1997 and 1998 Regina Rams football clubs and the 1978 and 1980 Saskatoon Harmony Centre women’s softball teams.

Leading up to the induction announcement, Noah said he learned of his induction from the hall’s executive director Erin Stankewich, who briefly paused before telling Noah about his mom’s induction.

“She told me about my induction, and I felt honoured, and then she said it’s going to be really special because your mom’s going in too,” recalled Noah. “It’s pretty cool to go in with your mom.

“We can celebrate together at the same time.”

While Klara is being inducted as a builder in gymnastics, Noah is being inducted as a water polo athlete.

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And while they are being inducted in different sports, their roads obviously intertwined throughout their lives and Noah can’t help but thank his mom for the support he was given as he pursued his passion, while she was busy with hers.

“We each had our own kind of sport and what we were doing,” said Noah, the first water polo athlete to be inducted into the hall. “And each of us have had amazing accomplishments in what we’ve done in sport.

“And I think the special part is that I had that support system of parents that were encouraging and supportive of any time that I said I wanted to do something that was sport related; they made it happen.

“To know I’m going in with my mom is amazing because she was there along for the ride the whole time. I certainly wasn’t around for all of her stuff but it’s quite special and what she’s done is quite amazing in itself.”

After first getting into gymnastics at a young age, Klara’s involvement in the sport has spanned more than 60 years.

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From 1994 until her retirement in 2024, she held the role of CEO with Gymnastics Saskatchewan. However, her involvement in giving back to the sport goes further back as she first started assisting gymnastics classes when she was 11 before going on to coach the Regina Girls Gym Club competitive program out of Regina’s YWCA at age 16.

That year, she also judged her first gymnastics competition; the first of 27 years judging competitions, while becoming a National 4 level judge.

When she was 17, Miller founded the YWCA’s Limberettes Gym Club. After growing out of the space, Miller and other coaches established the Queen City Kinsmen Gymnastics Club in 1978, with Klara holding many roles with the club.

Today, she’s proud of all of the others that she’s had a chance to mentor along the way who are still involved in the sport.

“Many of the young girls that I used to coach way back when are still involved in gymnastics,” said Klara, who also chaired national competitions in 2007 and 2012. “They’re coaching and they’re judging, and their kids are now going to gymnastics. And so that really honours me that I instilled something in them.”

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And while gymnastics has always been her passion, Klara has also been involved in water polo as she served as CEO of Water Polo Saskatchewan from 1986-94 and vice president of Water Polo Canada from 1994 to 2006.

Klara has also been a board member and president of the Regina Optimist Dolphins Swim Club; a group her kids were also involved in growing up.

In fact, it was that introduction into the water eventually led Noah to water polo.

“It started out when I was five, and my mom was taking me to the pool because my older brother was swimming,” recalled Noah. “And my mom one day said, ‘While we’re here, why don’t you jump in?’

“And so that led to seven or eight years of swimming with the Regina Optimist Dolphins. But during that time, I was also playing soccer, I was also playing touch football, I was also playing some basketball in the footsteps of my dad (who played for the University of Regina Cougars).

“And that team sport was what I was after. And so, I when I was about 13, I went to my mom and I said I wanted to play water polo and not swim. I think it was a little bit of a shock to my mom because I was so involved in swimming, but I knew it was my calling.

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“And so we made the transition.”

And it paid off as Noah would eventually move to Calgary following graduation from Sheldon Williams Collegiate to play with the men’s national water polo team from 2000-08, captaining the squad from 2002-06.

With the national team, Noah competed at six FINA World Championships, three FISU World University Games, while also winning bronze medals at the 2003 and 2007 Pan Am Games.

At the club level, Noah also had tremendous success as he won six Canadian national championships with three clubs over his career, tying Kent Hardisty for most by a Saskatchewan athlete.

Following a Tier 1 Canadian National League championship with the Regina Squids in 2006 — Saskatchewan’s only men’s senior national title — Noah founded the Bowness Monster Water Polo Club in Calgary in 2009, while playing, coaching and managing the team to three more national championships, which is something he’s most proud of looking back at his career.

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“After I retired from the national team, I kind of took time away from the sport,” said Noah. “I left the national team not on the best circumstances, and I took a year off of water polo.

“Then I came back and I actually founded my own water polo club and brought my old buddies that told me they would never play water polo again.

“I kind of was up to prove something. And to be able to accomplish that feat of winning nationals, the highest level of play in men’s water polo in Canada, I felt that I solidified my mark.”

tshire@postmedia.com

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