The Forming of Omni Gymnastic Centre

Written in approximately 2001

During 1980 – 81 gymnastics in the Napier area had really grown, with four clubs operating in different venues.

These were;

• Napier Gym Club (operating at Port Ahuriri School – but experiencing difficulty finding coaches)
• Napier YMCA Gym Club (operating at YMCA building, but being faced with a great increase in rental to remain)
• Taradale Gym Club (operating out of Taradale Intermediate)
• Tamatea Gym Club (operating out of Tamatea Intermediate, but experiencing difficulties with space and time as the club was rapidly growing)

Gymnastic equipment had also undergone major changes, particularly in girls bar, and was rapidly becoming expensive, to purchase one set of bars was just under $2000.00.

More gymnasts training at a senior level required more space and training time.

Gary Howard, a local business man and gym coach with the YMCA called a meeting of all clubs and interested people and put a proposal before the clubs for an amalgamation of the clubs. This was planned to be in a building built by his firm on one of his existing properties. The scheme did not eventuate, but the seed had been sown as to a way the clubs needs could be met and their expenses etc become more achievable.

Members from Tamatea Gym Club and the YMCA Gym Club proceeded to investigate buildings for lease, that could be suitable for our needs. Low ceilings, too many roof supports and cost ruled out many that were looked at. Two suitable buildings were found, one in Greenmeadows and the building in Lipton Place that we currently occupy. (Note we moverd to our new building in 2003, after this was written)

The one in Greenmeadows was felt by the majority to be the most suitable but was sold before final details of the contract were confirmed.

We entered into a contract with Falknor Construction at the beginning of 1982, taking up residency in May 1982, ready to start in term two. During the first term we operated the new and much larger club, with great difficulty, at Tamatea Intermediate. Every spare moment in the weekend was spent by members at Lipton Place laying a wooden floor and making the building suitable for Gymnastics.

The name, logo, leotard design etc were all decided through club competition. The name came from the Knight family who came across it while travelling overseas. Its Latin meaning of ALL suited the amalgamation we were trying to achieve, plus it was short and snappy for Tee Shirts. It also was not able to be abbreviated in competition programmes. David Rush submitted the winning design for our logo and the YMCA Gym Club colours of red, white and blue were adopted by the new club. The Tamatea leotard design was accepted for the seniors and the Y’s design for the juniors.

Coaches for the new club were Yvonne Richardson in charge of junior girls, Jane Sheldrake in charge of the senior girls, Alan McIndoe and Ray Jones in charge of the boys and Robert Kindell with the Senior Boys.

The first committee for the new club was headed by Bob Sheldrake: President, Gail Rush: Secretary, Margaret Nicholas: Treasurer, Gary Kivell: Club Captain and uniforms with Val McAllister.

The club has undergone significant changes as it has grown from this initial establishment. Over the years there have been changes in coaching staff, the most significant of these being Yvonne’s departure to run Taradale Gym Club. This now gives Napier two large well equipped strong clubs in the area.

The growth of Omni however, has been in the preschool classes and this is directly related to the fact that Omni is a permanently set up facility. Also thanks to Sylvia Mather and her excellent coaching team the gym is able to offer quality day time programmes.

The programmes plus time in the gym are sought after by an ever widening group of Playcentres, Kindergartens and Schools. This later market hasn’t been able to be developed as yet, owing to our rental and running costs, we have not been in a position to pay for full time staff. Being a predominantly children’s sport it is not possible to raise fees to a point where this would both be possible and acceptable. However this is very much the trend in other parts of New Zealand. The gym now provides programmes for all disciplines in our sport; pre-school, introductory girls and boys classes, trampolining, rhythmic gymnastics and adult classes. Within the next year we will need to offer competitive aerobics as internationally these bodies are amalgamating. The time in the gym is at a premium. Our clients are children and therefore only the hours from 3.30 -9.00pm (and this later time is only for our most senior athletes, not for the majority) to timetable classes. With our current roll numbers this makes our present building(Lipton Place) inadequate.

Omni has now had 15 gymnasts representing New Zealand in overseas competitions. We have also had one trampolinist represent the club in Japan. The most recent success is the selection of two gymnasts to join the New Zealand High Performance Programme in Auckland.