Published Monday, June 10, 2013 in The Cold Lake Sun

Above the Seniors’ Centre is a group of young people who are hard at work honing their gymnastics skills.  Under the guidance of their coaches they open their practices with several laps around the gym, limbering up while doing so.
The Cold Lake Gymnastics group had one of their most successful years yet, says head coach Krista Ramsay.  The competitive team has done more this year this ever before and has walked away with more then their fair share of medals and ribbons to prove it.  It was also a year of many firsts for the team.
“I’m so proud of the kids,” Ramsay said.  “They worked so hard.”
The total count of medals won by individuals and teams this year was 102, and those ranged from first to third place in a competition.  The number of ribbons won was 136.
The program, which has kids from the ages of five to 16, has a competitive team consisting of 22 girls from that age range.  In this past year alone they have travelled all over Alberta, from St. Albert to Canmore and several places in between, for competitions.
Ask any of the girls however, and their favourite place to visit was Florida, where they competed in their first ever Presidential Classic at Walt Disney World.  They walked away from that competition alone with 15 medals.
“It was a blast,” Ramsay said.  “We also got a nice vacation out of it.”
It was also their first year competing in provincials, which three  of the girls attended.  They walked away with a fifth and sixth place ribbon out of the entire province for their competitions.
However the club continued to face several of the same problems they faced last year, which all stem from a lack of space.  The club itself hosts over 300 kids.
“We just have no more room.  There’s nothing more we can give,” Ramsay explained.
However, in January 2014 they’re moving into the Energy Centre, where they space needs should finally be alleviated.
“We’re already designing it with them.  We’ve been discussing how much space we’ll need and so on,” Ramsay said.
Looking into the future, Ramsay has lots of ideas but also has several things to work out.  Twenty new girls want to join the team, but they only have the space for four more girls.
“Some girls (are) moving away, but that’s really the only space we have to open up,” Ramsay explained.
On the lighter side, next year Ramsay hopes for Cold Lake to host their first ever gymnastics competition.  She wants to bring in teams from all over, and help to make Cold Lake better known in the gymnastic community.
All in all it was a good year to be in the gymnastics club.  The girls travelled and competed, and got the medals and ribbons to show for it.  However if you ask any of the girls what their favourite part was, they’d probably tell you that it was that they got to go to Disney World.