Happy Valley’s ‘Hub Gymnastics’ unreal tale of survival – ultimately thriving, through Covid-19

In a classic case of survive or thrive, this gymnastics club has done the latter – despite all of the world’s challenges over the past 18 months.

In a classic case of survive or thrive, this southern suburbs sporting group have done the latter despite the world’s challenges over the last 18 months.

Happy Valley’s ‘Hub Gymnastics’ have done exactly that, with head coach Emma Murray saying the club had ‘no choice’ but to survive a global pandemic.

“We literally had no choice but to get through Covid,” she said.

“We reduced our fees and did everything we needed to, council were a great support, but we just kept the kids active.

Club Head Coach Emma Murray, Mya Schipper – 8 and Mollie Jamieson – 17. Picture: Keryn Stevens

“The moment we knew we were heading into a lockdown, we set up Zoom sessions at the same time they would have trained so they still had that routine in their day.”

The club currently has 45 coaches among its 659 members with another 300 on the waiting list.

“We’ve recently moved towards a pay model which is a great thing for the club, being able to offer employment to our coaches to help keep them involved at the club, obtain certain levels of qualifications, doing something they love, has been amazing,” Ms Murray said.

Ms Murray’s father, the late Paul Murray was and continues to be an instrumental figure at the club and a big believer in adopting the pay model before his passing earlier this year.

Ms Murray’s father Paul Murray. Pic: File

“We had many conversations about his vision and what he wanted for the club,” Ms Murray said.

“He did the ground work to get us ready.”

With numbers and classes growing everyday, the Hub will look into further expansion of the club to house to accommodate more members.

“It’s certainly my intent to get them all in by opening a handful of sessions in term four which could see up to another 100 kids come through the door each week.

“Those kids want to be with us we want to have them.”