Skater Achievements

SK 2010 AGM 2009-2010 Club Awards

Volunteer and Special Friend Award – Claire Cochrane
Claire is a very generous person, someone who quietly helped Skate Kingston and the Kingston Skating Club for more than 28 years. He served as President for nearly 9 years, Treasurer for 3 and Bingo Coordinator / Ice Scheduler for over 20 years. Claire was involved in virtually every aspect of figure skating. Between his 3 children skating as well as his own syncro skating, he has spent more hours in a rink than he may care to count.

To encourage the development of our future Canadian skaters, BMO Financial Group established the BMO Financial Group CanSkate Champions Medal Program. Each year every Skate Canada member skating club has the opportunity to recognize one skater as their club BMO CanSkater of the Year and two other skaters as their BMO CanSkate Champions.

CanSkater of the Year Award – Cassidy Ross


The CanSkater of the Year must be 8 years of age or under with the emphasis being on talent and skill achievement coupled with the spirit of skating. These skaters also need to have the desire to continue and succeed in skating. Skate Kingston’s 2010 CanSkater of the Year is 8 year old Cassidy, an enthusiastic, energetic, dedicated and talented skater. She always arrived at the rink with a HUGE infectious smile while waiting to step on the ice. She is focused and consistently practices new elements, spins and jumps until she has mastered them. Cassidy improved her skills a lot this year as evidenced when she competed at both club and interclub competitions earning medals at both events. Her coach believes this skater is a great representative of the CanSkate program because she exhibits all the traits we look for in a young skater - fun, energetic, friendly, caring, passionate and talented. 

CanSkate Champions – Sarah Coates & Kennedy Rose


Both our CanSkate Champions are excellent representatives of Skate Canada’s CanSkate program. These skaters embody the qualities considered to be a champion – commitment, perseverance, dedication, passion, triumph and talent. Our first CanSkate Champion is only 6 years old, she was the first in our CanSkate program this year to complete Stage 7. She worked diligently on all of the elements to achieve her success. Her commitment, dedication and passion to our sport has already become evident as a helper with the parent and tot groups and also in the set up and clean up of the CanSkate sessions. Sarah was also a fearless competitor competing in both club and interclub events where she brought home medals from both competitions. To quote one of the coaches that nominated her - “In the Create a Skate event, Sarah ROCKED!” Equally important is our second CanSkate Champion. She is only 4 years old. Kennedy competed at club and interclub in both solo and interpretive events and is now skating spring school working on Stage 4.  Kennedy always comes to the ice with youthful sparkle and speedy little push for a 4 year old.  Kennedy’s favorite question is ‘Can we do spirals now?’ This little girl has a huge future in the skating world as her exceptional passion shines through like a brilliant star.

Special Olympic Athlete of the Year – Jory Wagar
Skate Kingston’s Special Olympic skaters have had an amazing season, with several of their skaters receiving medals at various events through the year. During the past season they had a very impressive new member join their skating family. Jory is always demonstrated great enthusiam and enjoyment of skating.  He was always keen to join in the practices and thoroughly enjoyed himself at the Regional competition where he won a gold medal. His love for skating is very evident when watch him on the ice.

STARSkate Spirit of Skating Award – Elizabeth Hill


Elizabeth is a very special STARSkater who has genuinely demonstrated her love for figure skating this skating season. She displays a wonderful positive attitude on the ice, is always light hearted and fun while being consistently supportive of all our skaters. She is working on her Gold Skills, Senior Silver Dances & Senior Silver Freeskate. According to her coach Michelle Snihor, "I am proud of Elizabeth's skating growth and her success, however I am mostly proud of her as a great mentor and for showing us the love of skating." Elizabeth had several bad injuries over the last 2 years and endured 2 foot casts. For most people this would mean a brake from the rink but not Elizabeth. She could always be found board side cheering and providing encouraging words to her skating friends. It is a true pleasure to recognize her passion, spirit and love for the sport of figure skating.

Program Assistant Award – Anastasia Hogan


The Program Assistant Award is presented to someone that shows genuine interest and joy assisting young skaters on the ice. Anastasia was consistently the first PA to arrive at the rink this year to help with the equipment and the skaters. Being a program assistant is a huge responsibility, and even more so this year with changes to our CanSkate sessions. According to both CanSkate Coordinators Wendy Coates and Justine Greenfield, "Stasia always took the role of ‘leader’ and we knew that we could always count on her to do a great job. If you ever needed a PA to do a little bit extra, you knew that she would be the first to volunteer. Stasia not only helped out on the CanSkate sessions, but also the Starskate A sessions. When CanSkaters needed some extra help for club and interclub Stasia was there."

STARSkate Athlete of the Year - Zoe Tremblay
Zoe is a senior level skater who is an outstanding role model for any skater, CanSkater or STARSkater. She exhibits a remarkable encouraging attitude and always sets her skating standards high. Zoe is working on Sr. Bronze Freeskate, Junior Silver Dances and Junior Silver Skills. She has an infectious spirit and passion for skating, and a genuine compassion and support of her fellow STARSkater’s skating achievements and advancements. She is consistently the first skater to encourage her skating friends as they work on new skills, jumps or spins. Zoe embodies every characteristic of a STARSkater and exhibits a passion and spirit for figure skating that is second to none.

Volunteer Coach Award – Michelle Snihor


Michelle went above and beyond to assist Skate Kingston in a volunteer capacity this past skating season. She volunteered her time for the past 2 years at Skate Kingston and several years before that at the West Kingston Skating Club. Michelle is not the type of person to publicly announce her generosity to others so it was necessary to do it for her. She genuinely only wants the best for all our skaters. Michelle doesn’t only think about what is best for her own skating families but tries to help every way she can with all the skaters in the club. She eagerly helps the club with club competition and interclub preparations and when she was asked why she doesn’t bill the club for most of her time, she quietly stated that it wasn’t about the money it was about making sure the kids had a good time and to help support Skate Kingston and give back to the sport that she loves so much.

Coach Award of Excellence - Wendy Coates
Wendy's commitment, professionalism, calmness and, most importantly, her encouraging and supporting smile cannot be duplicated. She stepped forward this year with Justine Greenfield to coordinate our very successful CanSkate program. Wendy’s one and only concern was to make sure that the CanSkaters had fun and that the program was well run. Throughout the year Wendy let the board know what a great team of coaches we had and to ensure that they were taken care of. Sadly, Wendy is leaving the Kingston area and will not be able to be with Skate Kingston next year.

SK Archived Achievements
2008-2009 Skating Season