Time is running out for the Kansas School of Gymnastics.

About 25 boys and girls may have finished their last season of organized competition in the club supervised by the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department, unless they find a new, adequate location for training.

“You never know. Something might come open,” said Jo Ellis, the department’s recreational programs supervisor.

Over a 20 year period, the youths have trained and competed in the gymnastics room on the second floor of Kansas University’s Robinson Gymnasium. That will end Aug. 1.

KU officials gave the department a year’s advance notice that the gymnastics program would have to leave Robinson so the room, about the size of two basketball courts, could be used for other purposes. In the near future at least some of the space will be used for health and exercise classes, said Don Steeples, the university’s vice provost for scholarly support.

Despite the considerable notice, the city has been unable to find another location with the size needed for competitive gymnastics training and events that meets budget requirements.

In addition to the School of Gymnastics, also leaving Robinson will be other youths who participate in noncompetitive Parks and Recreation gymnastics classes. All will move to the small gym at the East Lawrence Center, 1245 E. 15th St. There are about 250 children age 2 and older in those classes. They work with 12 instructors who work part-time for parks and recreation.

The parks and recreation gymnastics program will continue at East Lawrence. But the small gym is inadequate for competitive training and events, said Ellis and Kelly Dirks, gymnastics director and coach.

“That’s really very small,” Dirks said of the East Lawrence gym, noting that it wasn’t even a third the size of the space in the Robinson room.

Miller Wolf, 9, practices on the parallel bars during gymnastics practice Monday at Kansas University's Robinson Gymnasium. KU is renovating the space, and the Kansas School of Gymnastics needs a new home before Aug. 1. The club is supervised by the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department.

An adequate training facility would have about 5,000 square feet of space to accommodate the necessary equipment such as parallel bars, balancing beams and ring stands, plus tumbling mats, Dirks said, and would have a ceiling at least 19 feet high.

Such facilities exist in Lawrence, but the cost would be considerably higher than what the city has paid for Robinson, Ellis said. KU is paid 10 percent of the gymnastics program’s annual revenue from fees paid by the youths who take the classes. That could range from $6,000 to $10,000.

The School of Gymnastics has its competitive season in the winter. The rest of the year the youths train several hours a week.

“As soon as our season ended in March, I think it has been kind of unmotivating to all of the kids to know that we’re kind of in limbo and not knowing what their fate is,” Dirks said.

Already one of the eight boys in the program has decided to quit, Dirks said. Others also may quit and join up with private, for-profit, competitive gymnastics clubs in Lawrence or the Kansas City area, he said.

Club loses practice space at KU (07-26-04)

The School of Gymnastics generally has youths ranging in age from 8 to 12, although there have been some 16-year-olds, Dirks said. Throughout the years the team has performed well in local and state competition, he said. This past season two boys qualified for a six-state regional competition in Dallas. A girl also qualified for the regional.

Mark Wolf’s son, Miller Wolf, is on the boy’s team. Mark Wolf said his son has done well and would hate to see competition ended.

“We really want the program to keep going,” Mark Wolf said. “We really have a good team.”

Mark Wolf also is a member of a booster club that supports the team and which has held fund-raisers to pay for some of the equipment and maintain the gym room floor.

Both Wolf and Cathy Singles, president of the booster club, said they still hoped a solution could be found.

“Maybe we can come up with a grant,” said Singles, whose son, Worth Singles-Smith, also is on the team. “Maybe somebody will allow us to use a facility temporarily until something else can be found. I still have a glimmer of hope.”