This year, Skate Martensville added two synchro teams to the club, with Coaches Danny James and Nicole Gryba, who were both previously synchro skaters themselves, having always dreamed of having this option available in the local club.
“When skaters and parents were asked if they were interested in synchronized skating, our Club was surprised by their enthusiasm to form both a STAR and Adult team,” Coach Nicole Gryba said.
The STAR Synchro team will be competing at the STAR 4 Level, and currently consists of 11 skaters, ranging from 9-15 years old and is coached by Danny James on Thursdays.
The Adult Synchro team consists of 13 adults ranging in age from 18-45 and is coached by Nicole Gryba during Adult Skate time on Fridays.
The two Martensville teams will be competing in the Living Skies SynchroSkate Invitational in Regina from March 11-12. The competition consists of synchronized skating teams of all ages and experience from across the province, with teams consisting of as few as six skaters, to as many as 20, depending on the category.
“Teams in the STAR 3 & 4 categories are assessed to a national standard set by Skate Canada. Teams in the Juvenile category, up to Adult are given a CPC (Cumulative Points Calculation) score and ranked in order of placement,” Gryba explained.
The Martensville Skate STAR Sychro team will be skating to “The Greatest Show” from the movie ‘the Greatest Showman, and the Adult Synchro team will be skating to a mixed rendition of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” at the Adult SYS Class I Level.
“The skaters and the coaches are very excited to enter into the world of synchronized skating with our very first competition in March. Our club is optimistic that with the success of these teams, we can continue both synchro programs again next season,” Gryba stated.
Recently, the local skating club had Holly Inverarity, a skating coach from the Outlook Skating Club who is a local expert in synchronized skating, out to help prepare the teams for their upcoming competition, as Gryba explained that synchronized skating is a very technical sport with rules constantly changing as the sport evolves.
“Being that it is our club’s first year competing in this new discipline, our club invited Holly out to a couple practices to share her knowledge of the synchro world with our skaters and to help fine tune the teams’ elements and choreography so that our skaters and coaches could go into competition with a greater understanding of today’s expectations and technical requirements.”
ABOVE: Coach Holly Inverarity visited the Martensville rink to work with the synchro teams to help prepare them for their first competition in March.
