March Athlete of the Month – Evening – Kiana Amoroso

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Kiana_Amoroso1Kiana, age 10, started synchro at age 8 with York Synchro Club’s recreational program with her sister Zenya. Then she came to OSSC and swam one year in the 10 & Under pre-provincial level and now is on the 11-12 provincial team. She loves that synchro is fun and like “dancing in the water.” Outside of synchro, she really enjoys drawing.

 
Coach Anne-Sophie says, “Kiana is a ray of sunshine. Always smiling, positive, supportive of her teammates and dedicated to her training. Since September, she has improved tremendously on a variety of skills and with all her efforts, her transition to the provincial level has been seamless. She is very strong in routine with excellent knowledge of counts and patterns, her level of fitness has reached new heights, and her figures scores are continually increasing. She far exceeded my expectations at the Regionals in March with a solid performance in the figure meet. Kiana has a very soft demeanor, wonderful people’s skills and a superb work ethic. It’s an absolute pleasure to be her coach this year. I know her teammates are just as fond of her as I am.”

Evening Athlete of the Month Rachel Dietrich

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Rachel_DRachel began synchro at age 7 after completed all of her levels of swim lessons. She started in the rec program where she met Clare Morrell and they became great teammates.  She did two years of rec then moved to provincial for 10 & Under.  She has progressed up to 13-15 Provincial with this being her 7th year swimming with the club.
 
Rachel likes synchro as it is fun and she’s met great people.  Synchro has taught her the importance of learning to work with others to accomplish a common goal.  She loves working on routines and she is always eager to attend practices. Her only dislike is getting up early to gel her hair for competitions.
 
Synchro has made Rachel very disciplined when it comes to meeting deadlines.  With numerous practices throughout the week, Rachel has learned how to time manage school and her extra-curricular activities.  She has also learned how to deal with the stress of competition and being able to perform under pressure.  Her other interests include Robotics (her school has made it to the Provincial Championships), downhill skiing, soccer and being a member of multiple school sports teams.  
 
One of her team coaches, Lola Shnayder-Mazour, pointed out Rachel’s exemplary behaviour and positive attitude when it comes to working with the 13-15 provincial team. She says “I appreciate the effort she makes to achieve her goals.”

Christopher Swimmer of the Month Evening

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Evening – Christopher Niehaus

Christopher’s interest in synchro started when his big sister, Sophie, signed up for summer camp two years ago. He kept asking when he would get to join, so in September 2015, at age 6, he signed up for Kids in synch. After one session, Christopher moved to Vanessa’s 8 and under novice team where he is really enjoying “learning how to go upside down”. Christopher also enjoys playing hockey, doing swimming lessons and has his orange stripe belt in karate.

Christopher comes to every practice prepared and focused. He is always putting forth is best effort. He has worked hard at home, stretching daily as flexibility is something that he has struggled with. He has made huge progress in this past month and is very close to getting his middle splits flat. He attended his very first synchro competition on April 9, unsure of what to expect. He placed 13th out of 46 swimmers! This has only motivated him to work harder at practice and has made significant improvement in the next few weeks. I’m very proud of Christopher and all that he has achieved in his short time in this sport. I look forward to seeing him grow and accomplish all of his goals!

Karina and Kristina Evening Swimmers of the Month

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Evening – Karina and Kristina Strelets

Karina and Kristina started swimming with OSSC, Recreational program at the age of 9. After the course Kids in Synchro the girls moved to Novice Stream, where they got a chance to participate in Burlington Novice and Recreational Extravaganza and won the 1st place for Memorable Moment. Karina and Kristina enjoy being a part of a wonderful trio coached by Diana Selemeneva.

Outside the Synchro Karina and Kristina are fond of other sport activities, such as cheerleading, gymnastic, canoeing, skyline. They are always trying something new and are never scared to face new challenges.

At school, the girls founded a Bookmark Forest Club, crafting and attracting peers to create handmade bookends.

Coach Diana says:

Both Karina and Kristina have been showing great improvement while stretching, especially when doing splits. In addition, girls always land drill at home and it is evident during practices. When they came back from March break the girls blew me away with their nearly perfect land drill, which transferred into the water. The improved run through even caught the eye of our head coach Julie Thaden, who congratulated the girls on their swim.

Ryleigh Evening Swimmer of the Month

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Evening – Ryleigh Taylor

Ryleigh fell in love with synchro when she started Kids In Sync at age 8.  Over the past four years, she has had fantastic coaches that challenge her and great teammates to work with at the Novice level.  Last year she earned the 110% Effort Award, and this year she has excelled at figures competitions. Outside of Synchro, Ryleigh is a talented musician.  She is a singer, cellist, guitarist and composer.  She loves to sail, travel and cook.  At school, she plays on the volleyball and basketball teams and is in this year’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “At practice, Ryleigh is always eager to learn,” says coach Diana Selemeneva. “When we are learning new counts to our routine she always pays really close attention, so she learns the counts very quickly and is always the sharpest when we are doing land drills. All of her effort on land transfers into the water. she is constantly pushing for better.”