Once, the place teemed with activity. Spinning classes with 20 occupied bikes, music blaring, locker rooms full, yoga classes with mats placed cheek to jowl, a row of chatting people on stationary bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines. Now, in the morning, a lone person more often than not has an entire room of fitness training equipment from which to choose. In one week, even she will be gone. A day later all the equipment will go, too.
The Sun Valley Athletic Club, built in 1984 when Ketchum was still a sleepy mountain town, will be razed to make way for a high-end condominium project. Stage one of that project began last fall with the destruction of Evergreen Restaurant, next door on eastern end of First Avenue.
Many members admit to feeling let down, and around the club there is a pervasive feeling of sadness as it winds down its 22-year run.
The talk around the club used to run the gamut from kids and schools, work, vacations, movies and general social gossip to golf in the summer and snow sports in the winter. For the past month all the talk is about where everyone will go. What will they do?
Of course, a lot of members have already moved on to other fitness centers from one end of the Wood River Valley to the other—"up the hill" to Zenergy, High Altitude Fitness, various Pilates and yoga classes in Ketchum to Gateway, Blaine County Fitness, Curves and Paradise Muscle & Fitness in Hailey. When the YMCA opens in Ketchum, members will probably show up there as well. In the meantime, the Y is conducting classes in yoga and rock climbing at other locales.
There will be a members and staff party from 5:30 to 7:30 Friday, May 26, at the Athletic Club. It promises to be a weighty send-off.
The club officially closes at the end of the day, Wednesday, May 31.
Equipment from the Athletic Club will be available to purchase on June 1.
Following are comments by some staff members and their patrons on the passing of an institution.
Feel the burn:
Trainer Patty Daigh, who has been at the Athletic Center for 18 years, likens the Athletic Club to a large family. "There's a sense of community and home. We created a family. There's heart and soul here. We're sad today."
Her client, Jean Roth, who has worked out with Daigh steadily for 11 years, nodded in agreement. "Patty and I will stay together but now we'll be training in my basement with Athletic Club equipment. But no matter what, you can't beat having all this equipment here. It's not going to be the same."
"People are walking in having moments," Daigh said looking around the all-but-empty weight room. "We're all remembering what it was like when 35 people were jammed into a class and we were turning them away."
Daigh, who has been training part time at High Altitude for two years, said that now when she is there or at Zenergy former members of the Athletic Club come up and hug her. "Normally we'd just nod or wave to each other. We have this connection. It's a bond."
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"The SVAC is a kind of community center" for others as well, trainer Diane Olson said. She leads senior citizens in weekly workouts for the Blaine County Senior Connection. Footlight Dance Centre has taught two generations of dancers in the studio upstairs. Children have learned to swim there and all sorts of workshops and classes have been held—all of these offerings were open to the public.
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Carol Tessier drives up from her home in Hailey every morning, drops her child off at school and works-out for an hour before work. She is one of many who follow that routine. For commuters, the club has been a haven, a place to workout, socialize and finally shower and dress for work. Tessier, after much consideration joined Zenergy.
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Elkhorn resident Edie Cary said she's devastated. "It's a landmark. I know lots of people who're very upset." Though she has been attending Aqua-robics for years at the Athletic Club pool, she is planning on driving south to go to Curves.
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Margaret Sundholm of Hailey who has the same routine as Tessier said, "It saddens me. It seems more is done for tourists than residents." A 12-year member, she too is heading up the hill to Zenergy.
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Trainer Pete Anderson works out just as hard as he insists his clients do. "I go where they go," he said. "They're my reason for living."
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Yoga instructor Richard Odom, who has taught yoga classes at Sun Valley Athletic Center for more than 20 years, will be teaching at the YMCA's Studio Y2—formerly the Sacred Cow—beginning Monday, June 5. Odom's class schedule will be the same as his SVAC schedule.
"We feel very fortunate to have Richard teaching at the Y," said Teresa Beahen, executive director of the Wood River Community YMCA. "He has been a landmark in this community, and his teaching style has a very good fit for Y programs."
Registration for Odom's classes is Thursday, May 25, and Thursday June 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Studio Y2 is located at 211 Northwood Way in Ketchum's light industrial district.
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Movin' on
A number of former Sun Valley Athletic Club staff members and service providers are moving over to other facilities in the Wood River Valley. They include:
· Trainers: Patty Daigh, Diane Olson, Eric Hall, Pete Anderson, Diane Holden, combination of Zenergy in Sun Valley and High Altitude Fitness in Ketchum. MaryEllen Mahar is conducting an African inspired dance class at Zenergy.
· Yoga: Paul Child, Hailey Yoga Center at the Gateway in Hailey; Richard Odom, Studio Y2 in Ketchum; Ryan Redman, Zenergy in Sun Valley; Mila Riggio, Studio Y in Ketchum.
· Footlight Dance: Footlight studio at Community Campus, Hailey, 788-3841 ext. 6.
· Swim: Margi Caldwell Cooper, Elkhorn pools, High Altitude and Studio Y.
· Administration: Manager Bill Koretz, undecided. Business manager Ivy Slike: Business office of The Community School in Sun Valley.
· Sport Therapy: Collen Coyne, Jill Pardini and Winston Purkiss, Zenergy.
· Massage Therapist: Susanna Lee, Zenergy.
Ketchum resident Gary Paul gathers steam while working out with trainer Diane Olson at the Sun Valley Athletic Club recently. Express photo by Dana DuGan
