Powell River Gymnastics Club is working with Assumption School and School District 47 to pilot a new training model for young athletes called Sports Academy Training.
Students who want to streamline their school and gymnastics schedules will be able to take their academic subjects at school in the morning and go to the gym in the afternoon to earn physical education, dance and personal growth credits.
Executive director Michele Dillon looks forward to a busy year with new head coach Janet Duval, assistant Desiree Young, and hundreds of students. This has been a year of transition and renovations for the club, and Dillon predicts that it will continue to go strong. Dillon, who competed as a gymnast until she was 16 and has been coaching for 32 years, loves the sport.
Zayda Neeme is in grade four at Assumption and she plans to take part in Sports Academy Training program. Her mother, Kami Neeme, said, “When she could hardly talk Zayda would walk along the back of couches and say ‘I doing ‘nastics.’ Gymnastics is just in her.”
“I still ‘do’ walk on the backs of couches,” said Zayda. “I like doing flips and I love being upside down.” Zayda has tried other sports and always comes back to gymnastics. “A lot of people in my class are also in gymnastics.”
There are 55 competitive gymnasts that could take advantage of the new Sports Academy Training program this year. The athletes train for 22.5 hours a week from September to June. “For them, the gym is like a second home” said Dillon. “And just like at home they clean up and help out.” Parents do volunteer hours around the building, too. It is like a family. Competitions on Vancouver Island, around Vancouver, and in Seattle are planned this year, so the gymnastics family also travels together.
The club offers a component of regular physical education at school. Classes from kindergarten to grade 10 attend the gym throughout the school year. Home school and daycare programs also take advantage of the facility.
Outside the school programs, Dillon estimates that about 250 people will participate in their Recreational Gymnastics program, from Parent and Tot Drop-In, to the array of recreational gymnastics classes for ages five to 12.
Another new project for 2014 is Cheer!—a program based on cheerleading disciplines which involves dance and tricks like leaps, cartwheels and group formations. The plan is to perform at local school games and compete with other clubs.
