The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Twenty years ago, Sheena Reed started helping out as a coach for the gymnastics held at McIsaac School Ecole McIsaac. With no formal training beforehand, Reed took a coaching clinic and has been out on the mats ever since. "The parents were advertising they needed help and I said okay," she says. With no previous experience, Reed started off slow with a group of girls who had been in gymnastics before. "After the first year we took beginners, but I wanted to have some experience,"says the volunteer coach. Reed had never participated in gymnastics as a child or teen, but after becoming a coach, she says she just "enjoys the kids and seeing them happy and healthy." Gymnasts who go through the program are encouraged to help out and teach kids as well, but there are some things that get in the way. "They go off to school," she says with a laugh, "but sometimes they come back to help." The gymnastics program is open to everyone at lest six years of age. "We start our classes at night and it's just too much for five-year-olds," she says, "but they can stay in it as long as they want." Aside from teaching gymnastics, Reed has also taken on the role of coaching a coaches clinic. "I'm a level 1 course conductor," she notes. Some girls in the program also have the opportunity to go into competitions. The gymnastics program is classified as a regional stream. "All through Manitoba there are different regional streams, so we compete against them," says Reed. "And there are seven regions we compete against." Regional Streams compete in the Manitoba Gymnastics Association. Some of the local girls will be heading to the Swan River in February to compete. Four girls are chosen to go to provincials, which follows the Olympics schedule. The next provincials will be held in Selkirk in April of 2010.
