Room to grow ... and leap

The students at Ide Gymnastics in Fairfield now have more room to move around … and up.

Last month, the gym moved from the old Walmart building on Burlington Avenue to a more spacious location at 1598 Pleasant Plain Road.

'We officially moved in on Nov. 1,” gym co-owner Jeanne Ide said. 'It took us a few weeks to get all situated.”

They had been in the old Walmart building for about six years, but the company that owns the building was expanding and needed the space.

The gym, too, needed more space.

'The issue with the place was not only just a size situation as far a floor space for all the equipment, but we also had a worse condition because we had to have the height,” Ide said. 'With our national champion when we were at the old Walmart, we had 20-foot ceilings, and she could touch the ceiling. A number of our athletes could touch the ceiling, too.

'It kind of limited them as far as how far they want to go with their skills, because they were always conscious of the ceiling being there.”

Now, the students have 30 feet or more to work with.

'That's the reason we were having trouble finding a place,” Ide said. 'It's not that there weren't people offering. In order for us to move, we wanted to make it worthwhile to move.”

The gym has two different departments - trampoline and classic gymnastics. They regularly take part in competitions around the country.

Ide said that their teams compete through the United States Trampoline Association (USTA) and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).

In a typical year, they take part in 15-20 different competitions during a season that runs October through July.

'We've had state and national champions,” Ide said. 'Our oldest girl in competition, Marissa Rupe, is - I want to say - an eight-time national champion on trampoline, double mini and power tumbling.

'We've had dozens of state and national champions. That's one of the reasons that we're becoming more known.”

This year, though, the completion season has slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

'We have had some of the teams that have hosted before who had to cancel,” Ide said. 'We don't know yet, from one day to the next, how the next one is going to go. It kind of depends on when the new government takes over as to how we'll continue.”

In past years, Ide Gymnastics hosted a competition in February, but that, too, is in a holding pattern.

They were able to travel to Bettendorf last month to compete in a tournament hosted by a team from Aledo, Ill.

'All of our athletes had to wear masks up until when they did compete,” Ide said. 'When they were done, they had to put their masks back on.”

Her husband, Jeff Ide, has been involved in gymnastics for most of his life, as a gymnast in high school, then later as a coach on many levels.

'When we found out that Fairfield needed a coach at the Park and Rec - that's where we started out here - we were already having a small group of kids meeting at our home in Brighton,” Jeanne Ide said. 'We did that for two or three years. We decided we needed to get our own space, and that's how we came to the place we'd been in at the old Walmart.”

They were in that building for six years before moving last month.

They hope they can continue to weather the pandemic storm and keep their doors open.

'We're holding on by the skin of our teeth, because we don't want to be one of those gyms that has to shut down,” Jeanne Ide said. 'We want to keep holding on, because we feel like it's really vital for our kids at this point to have something that releases some positive endorphins, something that gives them self-worth and some freedom from all of this mess that's going on.”