Twisters Gymnastics Club is a non-profit society incorporated in June 1977, due to the inspiration of its principal founder Liz Carter, who remained the club administrator for 25 years.  The club worked out of school gymnasiums, initially running a recreational program and after 2 years formed a competitive girl's team.  A daytime program for pre-schoolers was started at a local community centre.  The numbers grew to approximately 250 gymnasts with a number of boys showing an interest in competing.

In order to grow as a club, and meet the demand of the community, a building committee was formed and government funding sought, as well as various fund raising projects undertaken. After working out of school gyms for ten years, the club moved to its existing building. The gym was built with the aid of a BC Government grant, club fundraising, and an interest-free loan from the District of Matsqui. Parents volunteered many hours to assist with painting and digging the trenches. The facility is one of the best equipped in the province.

In January of 1978, Eva Schmidt became Head Coach of the Women's program, and 10 years later Rusty Pierce became Head Coach.  By the time the new facility was built, the girls competitive team was one of the best in B.C. at the Provincial level.  In the new gym, a pre-competitive boys program was added and the following year Mits Ikeda joined the coaching staff as the Men's Head Coach.  The young boys started competing and some of them are still involved as gymnasts or coaches.

Twisters has maintained one of the strongest mens' program across Canada with the largest number of athletes at the national level.  Richard Ikeda, who has been a National Team member for 11 years, was a member of the Mens' Olympic Team in 1996 in Atlanta and is a 4-time Canadian National Champion (1996, 2001, 2002, 2003.)  Mits was named the team coach for the 1996 Olympic Team.

In 2000 David Kenwright took over as head coach of the women's program. Under his tutelage, Kate Richardson became Canada's highest All-Around finisher at the World Championships and the Olympic Games (2000), and became the Canadian Senior Women's Champion in 2001. In 2002 shortly following back surgery, she accomplished a remarkable comeback by winning the All-Around and Beam Gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. She is now enjoying a full scholarship at UCLA, where she took the National NCAA Beam & Bars titles in her freshman year.

The annual Twisters Invitational meet which takes place in March, has been grown significantly over the years to over 700 athletes in 2003. Hosting competitors from across the province, Canada and Japan, it has become one of the province's premiere events, and frequently serves as a Trials/Selection competition for Nationals and/or Westerns.

 

Twisters Gym training facility

Twisters Invitational inside the Ag-Rec facility