Our Team
Who we are, and why we do this.
Dalena Juárez
Owner & Director
NCCP Level 2 & Certified Active Start
Years coaching: 20
Specialty: Performance, developmental, and pre-competitive streams
Career Highlight: Opening Ritmo Gymnastics in May, 2016
Favourite thing about RG: Seeing athletes and coaches grow into beautiful, strong, unique, and independent women.
Favourite quote: “What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” -Erin Hanson
Angelina Messina
Head Coach
NCCP Level 2
Years coaching: 5
Specialty: Provincial and National level competitive stream
Career Highlight: Finishing 4th overall at the 2016 Western Championships and receiving the Gymnastics Saskatchewan Athlete of the Year award for the 2015-2016 season.
Favourite thing about RG: How grace and beauty meet sport, and seeing the joy on an athletes face when you have helped them achieve a skill or a goal they have been working on.
Favourite quote: “The definition of success is doing something you love.”
Danielle Veikle
Coach
NCCP Level 3
Years coaching: 19
Specialty: Provincial and National level competitive stream
Career Highlight: Completing her NCCP Level 3 Certification
Favourite thing about RG: Getting to know the athletes and their uniqueness, watching them master new skills and celebrating their accomplishments.
Favourite quote: “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside of you greater than any obstacle.”- Christian D. Larson
Desirae Giesbrecht
Coach
Gymnastics Foundations & Active Start – Certified, Comp 1 Trained
Years coaching: 7
Specialty: Recreational, pre-competitive, and provincial level competitive
Career Highlight: Transitioning from athlete to coach and getting to coach alongside her former coaches.
Favourite thing about RG: Its grace and beauty that is unlike any other sport.
Favourite quote: “The only way to be the best at something is to be the best you can be.”
Katrina Phippard
Coach/Ballet Expert
Years teaching: 9
Specialty: Ballet/dance instruction, development streams
Favourite thing about RG: The way it integrates individual responsibility with teamwork.
Favourite quote: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” -Aristotle
Janae Klassen
Coach
Comp 1 – Trained
Years coaching: 3
Specialty: Pre-Comp/Competitive
Favourite thing about RG: Its diversity and ability to incorporate both strength and flexibility.
Favourite quote: “A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” -Serena Williams
Kara Wright
Coach
NCCP Level 2
Years coaching: 15
Specialty: Provincial competitive stream
Career Highlight: Attending 3 Canadian and World Gymnaestradas as an athlete, completing Level 2 certification recently and having athletes qualify to Westerns in her first year of coaching.
Favourite thing about RG: Watching the girls grow personally and artistically, and seeing them master skills by the end of the season they thought they could never do at the beginning.
Favourite quote: “You will never regret reaching your goal, you will only regret giving up and not trying harder”.
Devyn Cole
Coach-in-training
Years coaching: 1
Favourite thing about RG: How an athlete’s personality can come out on the carpet as well as their confidence. The elegance of the sport is one that can not be matched with anything else. RG helps athletes realize there true passion for sport.
Favourite quote: “ If it does not challenge you, it will not change you”.
Mikayla Doerksen
Coach-in-training
Years coaching: 1
Favourite thing about RG: Performing my routines. I love how it’s a way for me to express emotion, through movement. I also love competing and getting that adrenaline rush right before I compete!
Favourite quote: “Enjoy the little things in life for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.” -Mr Fredrickson (the movie “up”)
Tania Schultz
Facility Manager
Years in RG: 12
Specialty: Volunteering her time for all Ritmo athletes and coaches.
Favourite thing about RG: Being a sport not just valued on exercise and flexibility, but also artistry. It is truly the most beautiful sport.
Favourite Quote: “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire: the size of your dream: and how you handle disappointment along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki