“We haven’t had gymnastics here, well Jersey Braun was our last instructor, and that was a couple of years ago,” Giesbrecht stated. “It’s such an important program to have. We have the space, we have a lot of the equipment, the trouble is finding an instructor. It can’t just be anybody. We like our instructors to be certified, know what they are doing, know something about physical literacy in youth and the importance of that.”
She said sourcing the instructor has always been the challenge, adding it is often a youth instructor who moves on shortly. Giesbrecht added this is not a Boissevain-only problem, but found in many communities.
The gymnastics program was once run by the volunteer Turtle Mountain Twisters, but they eventually ran out of board members and folded. They handed over the program and their equipment to the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton several years ago. The recreation department is committed to trying to keep it going.
“It is such an important program, especially in the winter, when activities outside are not so great. Getting that exercise is so important.”
This year, Alyssa Bos from Minto is the new instructor. As Giesbrecht explained, she grew up in the Boissevain gymnastics family and they have started her on the path on becoming certified, which is ongoing. Once she showed an interest in becoming a part of the program, it did not take long for the rec director to ask her in and chat.
“It was a match. She’s just lovely.”
Giesbrecht said they have to share Bos with another gymnastics program, but added she is local, attending Boissevain School, which has a lot of benefits such as familiarity.
The classes will be running for a variety of ages starting at parent and tot. They have adorable names like Little Seedlings and Little Weeds. The idea is to run 10 session classes before a Christmas break, and they hope to do another from January to March/April.
As it stands now, this is simply a recreation program, not competitive as it once was in the past. Giesbrecht said the equipment and coaching certification changes to be competitive. This could be a path they return to in the future, but they want to get going first. She added the skills they learn are the same, so it is very useful for the kids.
Although they do not need certified coaches to do a rec program, Boissevain likes to have their people well educated, and that would certainly help if they want to move to a higher format in the future.
They will be using uneven bars, balance beams, rings, box vaults, tumbling mats and more up in the Arts Hall.
Giesbrecht said the Arts Council are amazing landlords, upgrading some electrical, lighting and air conditioning in the space. These are not only important for the programming now, but future possibilities like an unstructured playtime where kids, with their parents in tow, could use the equipment.
Giesbrecht said as the kids get older, in the 11-12 ages, they start either wanting to be in competitive or go to another sport, so the classes are smaller.
At the point of speaking a week before start up, they were looking at around 60 registrations with some more possibilities coming. Once the program is up and running, Giesbrecht is sure it will become more popular and numbers will increase.
There are hopes if all works well this year, they could run a gymnastic camp in the summer. At any rate, it is great start to a returning program.
“Very excited to get going,” said Giesbrecht. “This is such an exciting program for kids. When we started (the municipal program) we had about 100 kids. When you look at the soccer program, hockey, ball, these numbers are not so far behind. These are fundamental skills that will go on to hockey and soccer and all those other things. It is just such an important program and we have all of this wonderful equipment, it would be a shame not to use it.”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff