Kauai Gymnastics Academy, the only gymnastics school on the island, has changed hands. It is now owned and operated by a former national gymnastics champion with more than 30 years of experience teaching and coaching the sport. Jack Leonard, a
Kauai Gymnastics Academy, the only gymnastics school on the island, has changed hands. It is now owned and operated by a former national gymnastics champion with more than 30 years of experience teaching and coaching the sport.
Jack Leonard, a nine-time national champion with medals in tumbling, vaulting and floor exercise, and his wife Kay, assumed ownership and operation of Kauai Gymnastics Academy (KGA) on July 1. The Leonards moved to Kaua‘i from Maryland, where Mr. Leonard was a gymnastics teacher and coach since 1973.
“I really love what I do and I’m just really focused on the sport, plus I love working with kids,” Leonard said.
Leonard will direct KGA’s gymnastics program and teach many of the classes, while Kay will manage KGA’s business operations. For 19 years, Kay was vice president and general manager of Beach Associates, a multimedia communications company based in the Washington, D.C. area. She continues to be a satellite videoconferencing consultant and virtual classroom facilitator.
Leonard’s first participants were the Akau’s (Tamara, Britnee, and Kaytlen) and along with their mother, Theresa, they put on a little show on Friday, right before practice.
“I like to do it because it keeps me in good shape and really focused,” 8-year-old Tamara said.
Theresa, who was a gymnast as a young girl, said that her girls love gymnastics and often look forward to coming to practices.
“The only time they don’t feel like going is when they’re in the pool swimming, but other than that, they are usually the first ones in my vehicle,” Akau said of her three girls.
Leonard, who worked with the Akaus during warm-ups on Friday, began competing in gymnastics at the age of 11 and continued competing on the national level until he was 32. In addition to nine national championships, he was a Big 10 medal winner for his alma mater, Ohio State University, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education. Leonard also holds a master’s degree in education from Bowie State University.
As a teacher and coach, Leonard’s accomplishments include being named National High School Coach of the Year for Men in 1981, National High School Coach of the Year for Women in 2001, and an All-Metropolitan Coach in 2003 and 2005.
Entrepreneur and Olympian’s Coach
Besides working as a PE teacher and coach in the Montgomery County school system, Leonard coached for many years at Hill’s Gymnastics Training Center, where he was assistant coach of Olympic Medal winner Dominique Dawes, and where other Olympic champions Elise Ray and Courtney Kupets have trained. Leonard also owned and directed Jack Leonard Gymnastics since 1982. In this role, he led gymnastics classes for children, ages 5 – 12 and oversaw the instruction of as many as 250 students a week.
Leonard has written articles about the benefits of fitness and gymnastics in particular for children for The Washington Post and is a gymnastics expert for AllExperts.com, an international informational web site for which he answers questions from all over the world.
In 1992 the Leonard’s produced a video with Beach Associates. “Toe Belly Up Belly,” geared to children ages 5 to 10, featured Leonard teaching a class of youngsters how to make exercise fun by using their imaginations.
KGA is more than 10 years old and has a typical session enrollment of about a 130 students, ages three to adult. The former owner/operator, Lisa Fairchild, is returning with her son to her hometown of Chicago to help her mother run the family daycare business. Her KGA partner, Willie Berthantermonnae Washington is also returning to his roots in Chicago where he will be able to focus on his art, which is his passion.
Fairchild and Leonard met in the summer of 2004, while the Leonard’s were visiting family on Kaua‘i and he went to the gym with his grandson. Fairchild and Leonard quickly discovered they shared the same philosophies about gymnastics education, and had similar teaching styles and approaches. Later in the year, when Fairchild decided to return to Chicago for personal reasons, she contacted Leonard about taking over KGA.
Gymnastics “Pied Piper”
Leonard said of their shared philosophy, “Lisa and I both believe that as educators, we should provide a safe environment in which children can have fun and become stronger through gymnastics.”
Leonard, who is referred to by his wife as the “pied piper of gymnastics,” said his approach to teaching and coaching the sport is to emphasize “artistic expression and to break down the process so students learn routines or ‘tricks’ in manageable parts, then communicate it effectively to them in an age-appropriate manner.”
The Leonard’s plan to hire more instructors with the hope to eventually double the size of the gym. Leonard said he also intends to continue Fairchilds’ tradition of holding annual exhibitions at local venues on the island.
Kauai Gymnastics Academy is located at 1536 Haleukana Street, #104, Lihu‘e, HI 96766. For more information about the academy and its programs, please call 245-8863, e-mail gym@kauaigymnastics.com, or visit www.kauaigymnastics.com.
