Women to Watch Receive Grants

Working in partnership with Provincial Sport Organizations, Sport Manitoba provides monthly grants of $500 to female athletes to assist them in enhancing their participation and career in sport. A $500 monthly grant is also awarded to female coaches to assist them in further developing the skills necessary to attain a higher level of coaching or increased level of coaching experience.

Sport Manitoba is pleased to announce our most recent Women to Watch Grant Recipients.

ATHLETES:

Sarah Flett – Artistic Gymnastics
Flett is a 22-year-old gymnastics athlete who was the only Manitoban to make every final at Nationals this past May. She wants to continue competing at the highest level in her sport and to compete not only for her province but her country as well. Even though she is considered an elder in her sport at 22 years old Flett says she feels she is just reaching her prime and has much more to offer. Flett has demonstrated a strong work ethic and her excellent results have proven that her determination and dedication has been well invested. Flett is a role model for up and coming athletes.

Connor Deneka – Air Rifle
Deneka is a 17-year-old air rifle athlete who will be attending the World Cup in England this April. This competition will be held in the same venue in which Olympic Athletes will compete at next summer. She is able to attend this event since making the Women’s National Developmental Air Rifle and 3P teams.
In February of this year Deneka won a bronze medal in the Team Women’s Air Rifle and a silver medal in the Individual Women’s Air Rifle. At the Canadian National Smallbore Championships in Calgary this past August Deneka won a bronze medal in the Women’s 3P, was the Junior Canadian 3P Champion where she broke the record and won a Gold medal in the Women’s 3P Team also breaking a record.

Radio Interview with Connor Deneka

Emily Potter – Basketball
Potter is a 16 year old basketball player who at age 14 made the under 17 Manitoba Provincial Basketball Team. She was ranked 9th in the province at age 15 for High School Athletes. She was also selected to try-out for Basketball Canada’s 16U Women’s Team at age 15. She is working with a strengthening coach, nutritionist, and Sport Psychologist so that she can succeed at the highest level in the Sport of Basketball. Potter’s goal is to qualify and make the 16U Cadet Basketball Team Canada in the spring of 2012 and travel to the Worlds.

Megan Imrie – Biathlon
Imrie is a member of the National team, whose training includes a glacier ski camp in Austria, a shooting analysis in Salzburg, Austria and a spring bike camp in Europe. This past season she made significant gains in her shooting scores and her physical fitness. Her goal is to be consistently ranked in the top 30 for the entire season. Imrie just recently had a best ever result of 24th at the World Cup circuit in Austria. http://www.sirc.ca/news_view.cfm?id=43621

COACHES:

Dana McKee – Figure Skating
McKee is a Level 2 certified Figure Skating coach with 15 years of coaching experience. She works with athletes at the CanSkate, STARSkate, Adult and Competitive levels. She is also an approved Regional Seminar Clinician for Skate Manitoba. She was selected by Skate Canada to attend their CanSkate Coach University program offered in Charlottetown, PEI last May. She will apply the skills learned at the Coach University to her coaching at the grassroots to competitive level as well as to her business. McKee also aids skating clubs with the marketing and promotion of their programs.

Tammy McKay – Figure Skating
McKay has been teaching figure skating for 30 plus years and has taught from the grassroots to the National level. She currently has her Gold CEP status. McKay is always willing and available to assist her fellow coaches and shares information and knowledge gained from attending the National Coach Apprenticeship Program at the 2011 Grand Prix. The knowledge gained also strengthens figure skating at the Provincial level with opportunities to share, discuss and listen to other coaches’ thoughts, ideas and experiences.

Sarah Land – Synchronized Swimming
A former competitive swimmer turned coach Land has applied for the Women to Watch grant to travel to the Canadian Open Championship in May in Victoria and the Canadian Espoir National Championships in Toronto later in May. She will also use it for travel and participant fees for sport specific portions of the Competition Development modules offered outside of Manitoba. Land is currently the lead coach of Winnipeg Synchro 13-15 National level team and is on Synchro Manitoba’s Board as the Technical chair.

Mary Montgomery – Cross Country Skiing and Para Nordic Skiing
Montgomery has been coaching cross-country skiing at the community jackrabbit level since 2005. She presently coaches for the Seine River Jackrabbits and this season she will be providing a competitive ski program. She has also started a Para-Nordic program for her sport. This season she is ready to offer a grassroots Para-Nordic ski program alongside the competitive program. Montgomery will use the grant money to attend a Para-Nordic training camp in November and also attend the IPC World Cup as a volunteer coach in January. She will be taking her medical classifier course for Para sports to provide essential medical classification for our present and future Para-athletes. Montgomery will also attend the Training to Train on snow component of the NCCP coaching education stream.