Executive Reports 2025
Coach's Report: Recreational Programs
Tricia Hynds
CanSkate
This season RSST was fortunate to offer Fall and Winter CanSkate sessions. The program ran for 10 weeks during each session and was held at the Murray Balfour Arena on Monday evenings from 6:15-7:00 PM. Both the Fall and Winter CanSkate sessions had 27 participants ranging in ages 3-12. CanSkate was coached by Tricia Hynds with the help of 8 Program Assistants.
AdultSkate
Once again, RSST offered an adult skills session this year. The program was run at the Murray Balfour Arena on Monday evenings from 7:00-7:45 PM from October to March. The program focuses on skill development in all disciplines of figure skating. There were 8 participants registered for the 20-week session this year, as well as some drop-in participants. AdultSkate was coached by Tricia Hynds.
Coach's Report: Competitive Programs
Trish Goffin & Janis Johnson
This year RSST fielded four competitive teams in the Adult 1, 2 and 3 categories as well as a youth team in the Star 4 category.
Genesis was a team made up of 12 skaters in the Adult 1 category. This season Genesis competed at Prairie Regionals in Regina where they placed first in the second skate and won the silver medal overall in a very close race for gold. They also performed in the Winter Classic Synchro Showcase. Genesis skated to music from the classic rock group, Queen.
Virtuoso was a competitive team made up of 15 skaters in the Adult 2 category. They attended Calgary Rosebowl in December and won the bronze medal at that event. Virtuoso also competed at Prairie Regionals in Regina where they won gold with two strong skates and achieved a season's best score for their second skate. They performed in the Winter Classic Synchro Showcase and the Skate Regina Ice Show. Virtuoso skated to a Beatles medley from the Across the Universe movie soundtrack.
Edge was a competitive team made up of 9 skaters in the Adult 3 category. This season Edge participated in the Calgary Rosebowl competition and won the gold medal at that event. They also participated at Prairie Regionals where they won gold with two strong skates and achieved a season's best score for their first skate. They performed in the Winter Classic Synchro Showcase and the Vibank Ice Show. Edge's program was a collection of music from the Broadway musical Jersey Boys.
Infinity was a competitive team made up of 8 skaters in the Star 4 category. This team was developed in collaboration with Skate Regina as part of the synchro/Star Skate joint program. This season Infinity competed at Winter Classic - they had a great skate and received a silver rating and placed second. They skated to a C'est la vie (That's Life) themed program.
We had several skaters skate two teams which helps the club maintain teams in all 3 Adult categories. Thanks to all our double teamers!!
Again, this season we had two 'swing' skaters who helped to fill in spots at adult team practices and exhibition skates - thanks Sierra and Ellie!
As always, our team managers and assistant managers do a bunch of literal and figurative heavy lifting to make sure that we are organized, have everything we need and get to the right place at that right time, we couldn't do it without you guys - thanks Amy, Allyson, Kristine, Brooke, Lynn and Tara!
We've also been participating in events and committees outside of RSST to help grow the sport of synchro in our province. Trish was a member of the section coach development and programs committees and facilitated synchro sessions as part of the section adult seminar. Janis worked with skaters to provide synchro choreography and mentoring in Tisdale. When Trish stopped coaching for health reasons in December, Janis took over all competitive team coaching responsibilities for the remainder of the season.
This has been a very rewarding year. Our teams have exemplified hard work, collaboration and a true team and club spirit that we are incredibly proud of.
President
Sharon Davis
I am pleased to present the President's report for the 2024/25 season of the Regina Synchronized Skating Teams (RSST). This year, we had 72 members registered with RSST which included about 35 skaters in the Canskate program. We were thrilled to have both the Fall and Winter Canskate sessions running at almost full capacity with about 27 canskaters in both the 10 week sessions. The sessions were held on Mondays from 6:15 to 7:00 pm at the Murray Balfour arena. A big thank you to Tricia Hynds who coached and managed the Canskate sessions, along with the many Program Assistants who helped make the program a huge success this year. The Adult Skills sessions, also coached by Tricia Hynds, witnessed a steady number of participants, with approximately 8 to 10 adult skaters attending the 10-week sessions. This program was held at the Murray Balfour arena on Monday evenings from 7:00 to 7:45 pm.
Our Joint Synchro Program with Skate Regina was a success, rekindling the youth synchro partnership with six skaters from Skate Regina and two from RSST. We look forward to building on this success in the coming season. Thank you to Janis Johnson for coaching this young team and sparking their interest in competitive synchro!
The competitive synchro teams thrived, with Edge (Adult III), Virtuoso (Adult II), and Genesis (Adult I) achieving notable placements in various competitions. At Rose Bowl in Calgary, Edge earned Gold while Virtuoso secured a Bronze medal. Prairie Regionals was hosted by our Section in Regina on February 1 & 2, where Edge and Virtuoso won Gold and Genesis earned a silver medal. Congratulations to all teams!
The teams also showcased their talent in numerous performances, including the Winter Classic in Regina, the Dysart Ice Show, Vibank Ice Show, our Year-End Exhibition Skate, and the Skate Regina Ice Show. These events provided valuable opportunities to display our sport to the community.
The success of our competitive synchro teams would not be possible without our coaches, Janis Johnson and Tricia Goffin who put in countless hours of work and dedication coaching and choreographing our teams' programs. Thank you Janis and Trish! Promotional activities were a highlight, with our participation in the I Heart Regina day in August 2024 which generated significant interest for our Fall Canskate program. Google Ads also helped boost our Canskate registrations, and our Christmas Family Skate and Family Day Skate events fostered community engagement and enjoyment. Looking ahead, we aim to boost our recreational program registrations for the 2025/26 season and hope to host the Living Skies Invitational in March 2026.
Thank you to all members, executive, coaches and volunteers for your support and dedication. Together, we continue to build a strong and vibrant club and skating community. I'm very proud to be a member of RSST.
Vice President
Brooke Lundgren
Report coming soon
Director of Social Media
Amy Ripplinger
We had another successful year in 2024-2025! Our Facebook page remains quite active with many new page likes and interactions. Skate Canada and Skate Saskatchewan events are shared through our page as well as continuing to share posts made by Skate Regina. We hope they can do the same to try and gain some more interest through that club. I ran into some issues sharing on both Instagram and Facebook, but this should be resolved next season. Moving forward, we will share content through both Instagram and Facebook. We also continue to have a TikTok page (@reginasynchroskate) , and hope to share some more fun content through this!
As a skater, it remains a challenge to take photos/videos and post content while skating on 2 teams. I did my best to do so, but moving forward, it would be nice to have family/friends or even skaters on other teams that might be attending the event to share any pictures or videos with myself or the club so I can add them to the Facebook page. Pictures and videos remain the most popular posts and get the most interactions with both likes and comments.
Director of Registration
Cristal Wirth
Report coming soon
Director of Publicity & Communications
Bree Nokonechny
The 2024-2025 season was filled with incredible growth for our club! This year, we significantly changed our advertising strategies, allowing us to develop our recreational programs and run our CanSkate program for the first time in years! We terminated our advertising on the One Stop website, reducing publicity costs. Instead, we focused on our Google Ads campaign in July and August to correspond with our fall program registrations. Our ads were shown 80,243 times across multiple platforms and devices, resulting in 1,253 clicks to view our website. Our overall click-through rate was 1.56%, which we will aim to improve this upcoming year.
RSST also participated in the I Love Regina Day in August 2024 to engage with the community and share information about our programs. This event was incredibly successful in gaining insight into the community's interests which we will use to further develop our recreational programs.
As a result of our advertising initiatives, we ran successful fall and winter CanSkate sessions. We also saw growth in participant numbers, with 27 skaters in the winter session compared to 24 in the fall. As we head into next season, we will continue to build off this growth to further develop our recreational and competitive programs!
Director of Ice Scheduling
Michelle Statz
The process of scheduling and amending scheduling is a joint effort between the two. While any amendments are done by me through the City website, communication is also required with REAL to coordinate changes to flood times when required. I believe this was a smooth process this season with only one instance of a missed flood for which REAL ensured we received a credit against the ice fees. Sufficient notice was always given to the City regarding changes or cancellations in order to avoid unnecessary fees.
Our 2025 off-season application was submitted in October as required and we have confirmed September 2025 ice as per our request for choreography weekends, namely September 6 and 7, and September 13 and 14. All sessions are booked at the DWA which is much cheaper than the Co-operators Centre. We also have our first session booked for back on the ice on Thursday, September 4 at the Cooperators. as well as ice on Thursday, September 25. Our 2025/26 winter season application was submitted as required in March, including our request for ice for the Living Skies competition. While we do not have confirmation of our requests at the date of writing this report, preliminary communication from the City indicates our request for March 21 and 22 dates for Living Skies is likely to be approved. The venue is unconfirmed at this point. We expect to hear from the City in June with our winter ice schedule and permit, as well as the Living Skies permit.
Director at Large
Allyson Carroll
The 2024-25 season was another year where I was fortunate to wear many hats and help out with many different aspects of the club! Some of my highlights from the year include assisting with preparations for I Love Regina day, submission of our club's Membership Assistance Program Grant (a grant funded by SaskLotteries), and the movement of the club's belongings to a new storage facility.
While moving to our new storage location we took the opportunity to properly inventory everything the club owns which includes equipment needed to host our Living Skies competition, club merchandise, and over 40 sets of dresses/costumes used by our synchronized skating teams in the past. Now that we have a better record of everything we own we look forward to selling or renting any costumes we no longer need or that other clubs may have a better use for - this process will begin over the summer of 2025!
Director of Technical Expertise
Marissa Steindel
RSST's website underwent a major refresh in preparation for the 2024-2025 season. An explainer was developed to inform interested viewers what synchro skating is all about. Photos and videos from recent seasons were added to the gallery, including a special highlight of the successful RSST/Skate Regina Joint Partnership that offers singles figure skaters an introduction to synchro. The club description and coach bios received updates as well.
Throughout the season, club events were featured on the main page of the website, like CanSkate information, links to registration, free skate days, the Seminar with Olympic Medalist Elizabeth Manley, and year end showcase details, keeping skaters and their families informed and excited about club offerings. A link to an up-to-date calendar with choreo, competition, and exhibition skate dates was made available on the website. The executive board gained improved access to resources by shifting to a cloud based model. Provisions have been put in place to utilize Google Analytics in conjunction with Google Ads to augment the club's marketing strategy.