Jessica Guenther swam for the Saskatoon Aqualenes until 2009. Placing first at 2009 Nationals in Figures, 2nd in solo she put herself onto the Junior National Team. After a very successful UANA Junior Pan Am (Jessica placed first in every event she was in), Jessica furthered her synchro career by going to swim with Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.



Sadie Caulder
Sadie Caulder Knight

Synchronized Swimming Builder
 

 Sadie Caulder Knight was the pioneer of synchronized swimming in Saskatchewan.  Born in LiverpoolEngland in 1899, she came to Saskatchewan with her brother in 1913 to join her family.  In 1941 she began teaching the fundamentals of synchronized swimming and developed the province’s first, and for a long time, only, progressive synchronized swimming program at the old Regina YWCA.     

 In 1956 Saskatchewan participated at the Canadian Championships for the first time, and was represented by three of Sadie’s swimmers.  In the 1957 championships the Synchronette team placed third in the team event – only 1.2 points out of a first place.

 She was responsible for the formation of the first provincial association in the late fifties and when the first provincial championships were held in 1958, “Cauldie’s Girls” won easily.  The Synchronettes competed every year, until Sadie’s retirement in 1965, always placing swimmers in the top ten in Canada, and occasionally bringing home silver and bronze medals.

 After her death in September 22, 1970, at age 72, a group of former swimmers established a trust fund in her name.  Synchro Swim Saskatchewan now administers this fund, and annually presents a “Coach of the Year” award and accompanying Bursary in Sadie Caulder Knight’s memory.

 In 1972, Synchro Swim Canada presented her, posthumously, with their Distinguished Service Award for her contributions to the development of synchronized swimming in Canada.  The text of the nomination to the Canadian Amateur Synchronized Swimming Association Incorporated, on behalf of the Saskatchewan Section, follows this introduction.

 Sadie Caulder Knight was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on March 21, 1981. Her Grandaughter, Sandra Hamill Roberts, former synchronized swimmer and current Judge, was also inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on June 20, 1992.

 “50 Years to Gold” is dedicated to Sadie Caulder Knight and Sandra Hamill Roberts. The dedication includes this reference… “Between them, this grandmother/granddaughter combination has provided the momentum and dedication that has made synchronized swimming a vital and successful part of the province’s sport community.”


PRESENTATION TO SYNCHRONIZED (SWIMMING) HALL OF FAME

 From C.A.S.S.A. Inc., Saskatchewan Section

 MRS. SADIE CAULDER KNIGHT

 This petition is being submitted to the Canadian Amateur Synchronized Swimming Association Incorporated, on behalf of the Saskatchewan Section, to have Mrs. Sadie Caulder Knight admitted to the Synchronized (Swimming) Hall of Fame.

 Believing as we do, that the Synchronized (Swimming) Hall of Fame recognizes and honors the outstanding contributions made by individuals to Synchronized Swimming and is a mean whereby the work of these Canadians can be made known to others, we respectfully submit Mrs. Knight’s name as a candidate whose dedication to and achievements in the field of Synchronized Swimming make her worthy of acceptance.

 Sadie Caulder Knight was born in Liverpool, England, in 1899.  She moved to Saskatchewan in 1913 with her family and lived here until her death at the age of 72 in 1971.

 Mrs. Knight was a non-swimmer until her early adult years.  The near-death drowning of one of her children prompted her to learn to swim and the classes she took at Regina’s YWCA awoke in her an interest in and love for a sport she was to remain involved in for the rest of her life.

 Once she gained proficiency in swimming herself, she began to teach others through volunteer work at the YWCA in Regina.  Eventually she was hired as a part-time swimming teacher and became full-time director of the YW’s swimming program.  Working in a very old building with a pool not much bigger than a postage stamp (13 ½ (feet) by 9 (feet)), she taught hundreds of children each year for more than 30 years.

 Mrs. Knight pioneered Synchronized Swimming in Saskatchewan.  In 1947 she was teaching the fundamentals of Synchronized Swimming, although it was not known by that name at that time.  In 1951 she began moving into more advanced choreography, using her own money to obtain all the books, pamphlets and films she could get her hands on to further her own, and thus her students, knowledge.

 She developed a progressive Synchronized Swimming Club system, beginning with small children and advancing through all age groups to young adults.  A woman who possessed the natural gifts and instincts of a born teacher, Mrs. Knight encouraged each youngster to achieve his or her maximum potential, always holding before them the challenge to climb even higher and to dare more things.

 In 1955, Mrs. Knight sent her first three competitors to the National Championships in Montreal.  The following year, eight swimmers attended the Championship event in Peterborough and won third in the team event.  The YWCA Synchronettes competed every year following until 1965.  During that time, competing against the best swimmers in the nation, they won a team second in Vancouver and won several bronze medals for strokes and individual aggregate.

 During this time her teams also participated in and won the Kelowna Regatta.  It is interesting to note that on the Pat Austin Solo Trophy, awarded annually in Western Canada Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association (WCIAA) competitions involving all the Universities in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario, more than one third of the winner listed, learned Synchronized Swimming from Mrs. Knight!

 These are some of the more apparent achievements of Mrs. Sadie Knight’s career, but equally important were her other less obvious contributions.

 Her success with students such as Betty Lou Dean, Sandy Roberts, (Mrs. Caulder Knight’s granddaughter), and Janet Grassick, who became top Synchronized Swimmers, were important for many obvious reasons, but it should be noted that Mrs. Knight gave the same attention and devotion to the hundreds of students who never won championships, who didn’t gain the eye of the public.  Mrs. Knight spent as much energy and time on the three annual swimming shows presented by her students in the YW pool as she did on the routines of those competing on the National level.

 Each youngster who passed through her hands was treated as an individual and her philosophy is best described in her own words:  “it isn’t just a case of teaching people to swim – it’s getting to know people and getting to know children.  In the dressing room and in the showers they’d say ‘what do you think about this Cauldie?’ and first thing I knew I’d be right in there with them.”

 On the present executive of the Saskatchewan Section (1972), more than 50 per cent of the officers learned Synchronized Swimming from Mrs. Knight and others became involved because of indirect contact with her through their children.. When she died, almost 2 years ago, a group of her former students banded together and have established a trust fund in her name to assist future swimmers.  Donations to the fund have come willingly from former students now scattered across Canada and the United States.

 It is difficult for those who knew her to speak of Mrs. Knight in anything less than superlatives. To know her was to love, respect and admire her.  Knowing her made a difference in the lives of all her students and it is for this reason that we feel she so rightly belongs in a hall of fame honoring those in the field of synchronized swimming.

 The Saskatchewan Section respectfully urges the Canadian Amateur Synchronized Swimming Association Incorporated to accept Mrs. Sadie Caulder Knight into the Synchronized (Swimming) Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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