Friday, July 23, 2010

“Gymnastics: New gymnastics option in Rapid City” plus 1 more

“Gymnastics: New gymnastics option in Rapid City” plus 1 more

Gymnastics: New gymnastics option in Rapid City

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 05:06 PM PDT

As a long-standing member of the gymnastics community, Tim Trimble is aware of the importance of taking leaps.

And as he prepares to open the new Rapid City Gymnastics Academy, he is hoping his leap will score big within the community.

A former gymnast turned coach, Trimble began working at Just Jymnastics in 1989 and established the boys' competitive program there in 1991. Having continually developed the program from its humble beginnings, Trimble and his wife, Sarah, are now pursuing an opportunity to begin a new gymnastics club in Rapid City.

According to Trimble, the RCGA will offer a wider range of classes, more training hours per week and a tougher training schedule for competitive gymnasts.

"We will offer programs for boys and girls from preschool age through competitive-level gymnastics," he said.  "I want to provide them with more gym time, longer training hours, and a more rigorous schedule that will take the athletes to a higher level."

When Trimble opens the

RCGA for registration on Aug. 2, the boys program he has built at Just Jymnastics will transfer to his new gym. To his knowledge, Just Jymnastics will not offer a boys program.

When contacted for an interview, Just Jymnastics declined to comment for the story.

There has been consistent interest in the high school gymnastic programs in Rapid City, and Trimble said he recognized an opportunity to stand behind a program he believes in. He has chosen to affiliate the high school gymnastics program with his gym in the hopes of helping them both succeed.

"The high school program will also be based out of my gym, some of the cheer practices will be based out of my gym as well," Trimble said.

There were discussions this spring to eliminate gymnastics as a sanctioned sport at Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central in favor of competitive cheer and dance. However, after gymnastics supporters voiced their concerns to the school board, it was decided to fund both sports.

Not only will the gym be full of local gymnasts, the coaching staff will be composed of former gymnasts that Trimble has coached as well.

Husband and wife Morey and Shawn Trupe, parents of three gymnasts whom Trimble has coached, said they believe  his coaching style allows relationships to grow while gymnasts reach their full potential.

"The kids respect him and the way he coaches because he builds them up instead of tearing them down," Morey said.

"He knows how to coach the kids, and knows the potential they have; he brings out the best in them," Shawn said.

The Trimbles are excited about the new opportunity that is ahead of them, and their excitement is contagious to those around them.

"They are excited to bring these kids to a new level of competition, and we are all looking forward to the upcoming competitive season because of their feeling," Shawn said.

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Can Osceola afford ambitious sports complex?

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 08:10 PM PDT

Osceola County's plans for an amateur-sports complex are ambitious, but tourism officials say the pot of money being considered for the facility is waning and mostly committed to other projects.

On Monday, the County Commission is scheduled to pick a site for the complex. The project could carry a price tag of more than $29 million for its first phase, including land and construction costs. Operations, management and maintenance expenses would be additional, but those costs haven't been estimated yet.

The complex would play host to all championship tournaments for the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA), one of the nation's largest youth-sports groups, with headquarters at Osceola Heritage Park.

Former County Manager Michael Freilinger introduced the idea last year as a way for the county to generate money. He proposed tapping into tourism-development tax funds. But according to tourism officials who collect and distribute that tax, the pot might be smaller than county commissioners anticipate.


The county's tourism-development fund — generated by a 6 percent tax on Osceola hotel rooms — has been shrinking with hotel-occupancy rates. For this fiscal year, the fund is almost $1 million in the red.

"There isn't a lot of money available," said Tom Lang, director of the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau, the agency that collects the tax. "So if they'd want to go out and incur some additional debt, then they would have to make changes to priorities."

Lang said the sports complex is a good idea but the county might not be able to afford it.

County officials have already committed to spend the estimated $30 million the tax was expected to generate this year. But collections have fallen short from that forecast, which means about $900,000 will come from the tourist-development fund's $19 million in reserves.

It is those same reserves that the County Commission initially would use to start the sports complex. But that money would only cover some initial costs.

More than half of what the county collects in tourist taxes is committed to pay debt service on loans, contractual obligations with an area resort and maintenance of four existing sports facilities. Another 41 percent — $11 million — is paid to the Convention and Visitors Bureau to promote the county as a tourist destination.

But tourism officials consider cutting that budget too risky.

"We have a lot of hotels that are running on reserves. If you take advertising money that currently generates room nights and apply it to an athletic facility, you're not doing anything to help the economy," Lang said.

More than 80 percent of the money the visitors bureau receives is used for advertising, marketing and promotions to attract tourists to Osceola, Lang said. Hotel-occupancy rates are down 10 percent from five years ago. The bureau's budget already has been cut by $7 million during the same period.

The USSSA says the sports complex — planned for at least 20 multiuse fields and indoor venues for sports such as karate and gymnastics — would generate 200,000 hotel room nights a year.

"We can book this facility year-round," said Don DeDonatis, the association's CEO. "We have 154 women fast-pitch teams playing in Osceola this weekend and 279 [other teams] playing in Kansas that would've much rather come here. We want to bring them here, to our home. But we don't have enough facilities."

Expanding ball fields for football and other sports is counterproductive, DeDonatis said, because it would result in losing some fields to make others bigger. He said he recognizes the county's financial pinch but is confident the complex would have a guaranteed return.

"l've received less than $737,000 [in subsidies for headquarters and parks] but we brought in $144 million," he said, citing a recent University of Central Florida study of the association's economic impact on Osceola. "That's pretty substantial."

County Commissioner Mike Harford said he is not convinced a new sports complex would be a wise investment.

"We can end up putting $60 million [when completed] into something that the organizers are telling us will generate 200,000 [hotel] room nights a year," Harford said. "That still doesn't put us anywhere near where we need to be."

Even at that number, area hotels wouldn't reach the occupancy rate of 62 percent needed to operate at a profit. The area would have to add more than a million hotel-room nights to hit that target.

County Commissioner John Quiñones said he wants to know whether an offer from Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports would help free up some visitors-bureau money to build the county's sports complex.

Disney has floated a $3.3 million, three-year deal to help brand Osceola as the Amateur Sports Capital of the World, which would include promoting the county complex on Disney websites, billboards and at trade shows.

Jeannette Rivera-Lyles can be reached at jrivera@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5471.

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