Eagles Gymnastics announces expansion project

This year, Brandon Eagles Gymnastics is celebrating its 40^th anniversary in its current facility and is excited to announce the construction of a new building that will expand their programming.

Started in the 1980s, Eagles Gymnastics has served as the primary source for gymnastics in the city for an impressive four decades in their current facility on 22^nd Street.

“It’s an incredible milestone for me and the program,” said Eagles program director Marilee Simpson. “It really reflects the support of our community to keep us here and thriving and growing.”

The team at Eagles Gymnastics expects a membership of more than 600 hundred people coming through the facility in 2027. While the majority are there for gymnastics, the group also offers a wide variety of programming including mobility classes for the elderly, and programming for babies as young as eight months old.

“Gymnastics is incredible for physical literacy, so moving your body in lots of different ways,” said Simpson. “Longterm, keeping your body active, being able to sit down and sit up, having the strength and co-ordination is a safety item for lots of people as well.”

EXPANSION

In order to continue growing and provide more programming for the community, Eagles Gymnastics partnered with Keller Developments to complete the construction of their new building, which will take the place of the current parking lot. It will not be attached to the current building but will be nearby.

“(Keller Developments) is going to be a spectacular partner for us in getting what we need out of the building,” said Simpson, adding they hope to break ground in the spring of 2027 and complete it by December 2027.

Simpson added that the new building is meant to be “fully functional for an instructional program gym and adaptive program gym.” It will also host birthday parties, something the gym is excited to expand into.

“(It’s) more space for everyone really to get the most out of their training time,” said Simpson.

The current gym will continue to be used by the competitive athletes, trampoline athletes and cheer athletes.

“We’re proud and grateful to be the builder behind Eagles Gymnastics Club’s new expansion,” said Keller Developments project and development manager Kelsey Swidnicki in an email statement. “Eagles Gymnastics has shaped young athletes and strengthened community life in Brandon for years, and we’re excited to help build the space that carries the work forward. Projects like this are exactly why we do what we do – building things that matter, right here at home.”

GYMNASTICS AND MORE

To the majority of people, gymnastics is an incredibly difficult sport that you might tune into every four years to watch the incredible feats of Olympic gymnasts broadcast live across the world. The lived reality of those who choose pursue gymnastics is one of intense focus, dedication and practice.

Starting as young children, these athletes learn the skills that they may use one day to compete at provincials, nationals or even on the world stage. Many kids see huge benefits from taking up gymnastics as their first sport.

“We find a lot of our gymnasts, whether they are early start or a little bit of the later start, take up a lot of different activities and sports and find they’re easier than some of the other kids that maybe just only start with vollyball and soccer just because they have that movement background already in their toolbox,” said competitive team lead Alex Empey.

For gymnasts, the vast majority of the year is spent in training and improving their skills. Depending on the goals of the athlete and conversations with their coaches, they will attend competitions to showcase their skills.

High-performance gymnasts will focus on improving their routines to hit score thresholds at competitions in the hopes of qualifying for team Manitoba. Qualification happens at the Manitoba Open, and from there, athletes will go on to nationals or westerns depending on their scores.

“We’re incredibly proud to host a competition yearly, here in our building that brings competitors from all over Manitoba,” said Simpson. “We are taking our competitive team to Calgary in January. They had the option to join us there for a competition and we are taking 23 athletes and three staff there, so we are pretty excited.”

There are many different streams to the programs offered by Eagles Gymanstics. There are plenty of kids who take part in the competitive stream, but others prefer the instructional programs, which are very similar but less intensive.

Additionally, Eagles Gymnastics offers the Xcel program which is an alternative competitive pathway that gives athletes a lot more freedom to learn different skills and implement them in their routines without being tethered to some of the traditional constraints around routine difficulties and levels.

The freedom of the program is something that really appeals to many young athletes.

“Having the Xcel program here was a really great addition because it does allow for the athletes to still be in the sport but also not have to worry about being in a set box,” said Xcel program lead Aviyon Saunders. “It gives the opportunity for any athlete who wants to be in a competitive program a chance.”

No matter the program, Eagles gymnasts are impressing at competitions.

“One of the biggest compliments that we were getting from judges was just the calibre of gymnastics we were showing after so many years of maybe not showing it,” said senior technical lead Adrianna Forrest. “They were super impressed with, not just the skills we were showing, but the technique of them and how clean we were able to be, and we were starting to take control of those podiums at the provincial level, which is just something the gym hadn’t seen in a few years.”

Beyond gymnastics, the group also offers children the opportunity to join cheerleading teams. Implemented last year, the program already includes 40 athletes going into its second year of operation.

With the arrival of the new building, they are hoping to continue expanding the cheerleading program.

Last year, the group also added the senior mobility program which is meant to help older people stay active as they age. It’s another program that is expanding in its second year of availability.

“Those gymnastics adjacent programs are, how do we keep people active in sport in some capacity outside of gymnastics,” said Simpson.

With the expansion of the Eagles Gymnastics in the new facility expected within a year’s time, gymnastics itself is growing in Brandon. Eagles Gymnastics is squarely at the heart of gymnastics in the city and they are doing everything to create a positive and healthy environment interested in the programming they offer.

“We have an incredible coaching team of almost 30 coaches that are so focused on athlete experience and ensuring that our kids have a lifelong enjoyment of the sport, versus walking away from the sport unhappy,” said Simpson. “I’m very proud of our team.”

»rmccarthy@brandonsun.com