Since he was 16 years old, Kevin Burnside dreamed of opening his own gymnastics center.
Now, 10 years after his dream became reality, Burnside hopes to continue to fashion I-Power School of Gymnastics into an all-encompassing home for activities in Champaign.
“I’m a person that likes to keep continually thinking forward,” said Burnside, who owns I-Power along with Dena Slade. “I think the thing that’s surprising is that there’s always something new and exciting we can do. I don’t think we ever get to a point where we’re like, alright, that’s it. We have such a core group of staff that we are always thinking about the next thing and what we’re going to do to make things bigger and better. So I would say it’s surprising how many things we can create and dream just from a gymnastics facility.”
I-Power is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a free Celebration and Fall Kickoff event on Saturday, Aug. 18. (Details here.) But it’s also adding a few additional touches that fit with its owners’ focus of “always thinking about the next thing.”
I-Power this fall is adding ninja courses, filling many parents’ request that sprang from the popularity of shows like American Ninja Warrior.
“Gymnasts excel in things like that because gymnastics is so much about upper body strength,” Burnside said. “So we’re going to build a class that’s specifically geared toward obstacle courses and having the kids roll through them, run through them and learn how to flip through them. It will be based on kids getting stronger and faster and having them be a little bit more confident in what they’re able to do with their bodies.”
The growth of I-Power is reflected in the numbers. When Burnside – then working at LifeLines Gymnastics Center – and Slade, then the gymnastics director at the Champaign County YMCA, decided to join forces to open I-Power, there were about 15 kids who were in their initial group. “The first couple years after that we would average 100 to 115 kids through a year’s sessions,” he said, and the numbers have grown since. “We have 40 girls on our Junior Olympic competition team, and then we have another 30 on our competition recreational team, with eight boys on our boys’ team.”
The emphasis in both areas – recreational and competitive – was the key component to starting I-Power a decade ago.
“We wanted a program that was focused on developing good gymnastics and good fun,” Burnside said. “We felt like, in the area, there wasn’t a good combination of both. There probably were mostly fun-oriented programs but a lot of the programs weren’t really committing to building strong, competitive programs. We wanted something that had a little bit of both.”
For their first six months, they rented space from a friend who owned a trampoline and tumbling gym. They moved into their current building in November 2008. Then 7,200 square feet, they added another 3,000 square feet and a second building (dedicated to kids under age 5).
“It’s been an amazing 10 years for us,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like 10 years; it’s weird to think about that it’s been that long. But I guess when I look around our facility there’s so much history with things we’ve done, awards that kids have won, kids graduating off to college … but as far as the joy of it and what we do every day, it doesn’t feel like it’s been 10 years.”
Editor’s note: I-Power School of Gymnastics is a sponsor of Chambanamoms.