Riekes Center
Gary Riekes
650-364-2509
Before I got to the Riekes Center, I thought that it would be a small, shanty gym with a few old, out dated exercise machines and athletic equipment. Any facility claiming to provide professional, specialized training for all art and athletic interests for a more than affordable price couldn't be that impressive.
But I was so super wrong.
The facility is more than impressive, with an indoor track, full powerlifting platforms, an outfitted strength training room, next door archery range, kitchen, rap, art and photography studios, performance stage, batting cage, and backyard brick pizza oven. On top of that, there were strength trainers, nutritionists, sport coaches, art teachers, and a number of other utilizable professionals.
It was eye opening, that so much could be offered to this local community, one with so many people unable to build on their goals because of how unaffordable the tools of reaching them are, through a non-profit gym half-staffed by high schoolers.
During the three weeks I worker at the center I oversaw the veterans' archery class, coached young athletes in strength training, ran general maintenance of the facility as a whole, and took a "break" during lunch to fire up the grill and be the master chef for the daily open summertime bbq's the center hosted.
I didn't learn much from the cooking and the mopping, menial labor was nothing new. But I did learn a lot about being a coach, how to keep your athlete safe while maximizing progress, and what it means to be a professional teacher.
Overall it was such a gnarly time being at the Riekes Center, and I really appreciate how real they had managed to create a working, sustainable model of what seemed like a wishful idea to me before.
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