Steinbach Synchronized Swimming Club Merges With Winnipeg Club

The eight-year-old Steinbach Synchronized Swimming Club has merged with Aquatica Synchro Swim Club in Winnipeg.

Club President Natalie Sala says the change will be effective in September when the next season starts adding they will continue to run programming out of the Steinbach Aquatic Centre and the merge will be beneficial for both recreational and competitive swimmers. Sala says the name will change to Steinbach Synchronized Swimming, powered by Aquatica.

"We're still going to run all of our recreational programming out of the Steinbach Aquatic Centre and it's going to be exciting because we're going to be able to offer more programs here," notes Sala. "Currently, after the age of 12, if you don't go into a competitive team, we don't really have any recreational teams for older swimmers."

She says with the merge they will now be able to offer a learn to sync team for recreational swimmers. She adds the competitive teams will also see a benefit in the merge.

"We love the Steinbach Aquatic Centre but our competitive team can't even run a routine from start to finish in our pool, the deep end is not big enough. So we're at a disadvantage where our competitive teams are not even finishing a routine until the day they compete at the Pan Am pool."

Sala notes the competitive teams are going to be able to swim with Aquatica once or twice a week and still swim once a week in Steinbach, giving the competitive teams a more opportunities to succeed and grow. In addition to more programming, Sala says, there will also be opportunities for both swimmers and Steinbach coaches to interact and be mentored by more experienced synchronized swimming coaches.

The announcement of the merger was made to the club on Monday and she notes she has received many positive emails.

Meanwhile, The Steinbach Synchronized novice team and provincial stream team recently competed at the Canadian Prairie Championships in Regina. Sala says it was the clubs first out of province meet and both teams did well.

"There's a lot more to synchronized swimming than just a routine. There's figures, which is a huge component in synchronized swimming and they have to perform figures in front of a judge individually and are judged based on how well they do. One of our novice swimmers, Alexa Pott, came in third out of 45 swimmers from across the Prairies."

Sala adds the novice team won a bronze medal and the provincial stream team of 13 to 15-year-olds came in 11 out of 17, both accomplishments, she says, are exciting for the club.