Demarays Gymnastic Academy

If your daughter wants to be in Competitive Gymnastics, AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAUGE!!! The boys team is good as long as Michael is still coaching and Crystal isn’t forcing him to take away from them to coach the girls because she yet again is gone and refuses to hire another coach. They don’t care about whether or not your daughter is safe or does well. It’s all about the money. The head girls’ coach, Crystal is rarely there and when she is she either is on her cell phone and only half watching (or not at all) the girls practice, «coaching» (and yelling and ridiculing) her Pair Ice Skater daughter and her partner, or she is talking to parents of the Recreational Class kids to pull in more new recruits to join the team even though there are never enough coaches to properly supervise the current amount of girls there are or the girls she’s trying to have join have only had sometimes only one or two classes before joining team and can’t even do any of the required basic skills (some can’t even do a cartwheel or handstand). They are expected to start competing (at a HUGE cost to the parents) before even being close to properly prepared for even a beginning level. The kids as a result do so poorly that I don’t know which is worse, how big of a confidence hit it is to these poor kids or how sad and inept it makes the entire team looks. My two girls were and still are looked at with pity when we tell people they compete/​competed for Demaray’s. Crystal advances the girls through the competition levels with only the bare minimum scores and no concern as to whether they are actually physically ready or even have the needed skills, thus setting them up for VERY dangerous situations. She cheers and «rewards» extremely mediocre skill execution also setting them up for a high risk of injury and seems to think that if they can barely do the skill they can not only compete it but instead of concentrate on improving and strengthening the skill that she should teach the next level skill. When I brought up my concerns and withdrew my kids she reacted like an extremely immature, wounded child. She has absolutely no professionalism. I have personally witnessed her actually telling current team girls at competitions not to say hi to or cheer on their old team mates that are now competing with other gyms. I have also met several previous team members that have said that after leaving Demaray’s and running into Crystal in public she completely ignored them even though some of these kids still idolized her. She has and always will give preferential treatment toward her daughters. Her and the entire management of Demaray’s truly need to fix their screwed up priorities and integrity and start caring about kids safety and happiness instead of seeing dollar signs. They also need to finally fix and/​or replace the extremely old and broken equipment as well as invest in a regular cleaning service because this place is a dirty, nasty dump. Yes they are the cheapest but you get what you pay for, There are so many great gyms in the area but this is definitely not one of them. PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE SIGNING UP FOR THIS (or any other) GYMNASTICS TEAM!!!

I signed my son up through the city of fremont he is six. The gym is very dirty, the instructor would not make eye contact and was extremely unfriendly. He kept grabbing my sons arm sternly. I tried to talk to what seemed like the supervisor and he was like oh did you sign up through the city, then blew me off. Everything is so gross I know it is never cleaned or vacuumed. The phones go straight to voicemail even though employees are constantly standing around they never greet you are are very unfriendly. Sad place to go.

Signed my toddler up for tumbling class through the Siliman Center and classes were held here. Experience wasn’t great, wouldn’t recommend it. Gym is dirty, equipment is old. On the first day of class people were just standing around, us being newcomers had no idea if we were supposed to check in or where to check in at. Workers weren’t exactly friendly. Teachers were decent. My kid had just started getting comfortable/​responding to the teachers when they changed them up. We didn’t go back after the 3^rd class since everyone was new. I had to ask if we showed up to the wrong class since none of the children were familiar, I was told that multiple cities have contracts there so some kids are ending class when others are starting and so forth. In other words: not good for kids. Expect new teachers and classmates each time you attend, a dirty gym, disorganization and confusion. Won’t be coming back here.

First allow me to provide my initial thoughts:
Facility: definitely looks used but the gym has been around for a while. Some of the equipment looks like its predates the Roman empire. But also well cared for. One gymnast had a accident of the bodily fluid kind and the staff (or husband of a staffer) cleaned it up immediately.
Staff: unfortunately, there is no consistency: some of the coaches seems genuinely happy to be there and coaching kids; it may be a prison sentence for others.
Overall Experience: very confusing, no consistency from one week to the next.
We live in the City of Newark and through the city rec program, found this gym. My sons started in the Boys Level 1. Admittedly, my wife and I are both a bit of helicopter parents and our son is shy when it comes to new things. So my wife called ahead and asked it we could observe our son closely, «Not a problem» When we arrive, there are signs posted that read «parents must stay behind the red line.» To be sure, my wife checked again. «Not a problem.» Our son kept looking around to make sure we were in eyesight and he truly enjoyed the class. Second session, Coach/Owner’s Daughter/​Co-​Owner/​Floor Manager Crystal, tell my wife that she needs to move behind the red line. We informed her that we spoken with Scott at the front. She walked away. Next week, same thing but now Crystal asks that my wife, who has our daughter in a Bjorn, move behind the red line. OK, so I go keep an eye on my son (also across the red line). The following two weeks result in a yelling match for which I am ashamed for having participated in but when Crystal keeps cutting me off and is yelling at me, I got goaded into it.
Unfortunately, we had already signed up for another session. Enter the owner Ray. I have a polite discussion and I inform him of my experience with apologies for having yelled in the gym. We should have taken it outside and away from the children, but it takes to to start a yelling match. We were informed that it was a mistake to have let us ever cross the red line as it was a liability issue. In all fairness to Crystal, she also mentioned that during our yelling match. Ray was also willing to refund us our fee against the stated policy. We have a heart to heart discussion with who feels that it would be OK since he can come find us at anytime. He decided to stay. Mind you, this would not have been dad’s choice.
Let me add that i we had not been allowed to cross the infamous red line, I assure you our son would never have made it this far. But we are also mature enough people that if our child makes a choice; we wont let petty squabbles impede his development.
During our last session, «Coach» Crystal allowed a parent who was walking with cane to cross the red line and sit on the edge of a trampoline, while it was in use. What happened to LIABILITY???
Some unsolicited advice for Ms. Crystal. Pay more attention to your students and less about everything else. Pick a role and stick to it. Be consistent.
My son would most likely give the gym, five stars but he can do that when older. We love Coach Jeff, the Boys Level 1 coach.
If I had this to do all over again, I would avoid this like the plague. Lets try some Tai Kwan Do!

I signed up my 4 year old through the City Of fremont. What a waste of money and my precious time. The facilities are old and worn and the instructors are not that great either. Their enthusiasm level is quite low. Its crammed in there and there’s not enough chairs to sit on. Very disorganized… I would recomment against this place.

Hi all to parents,
I request all of the parents out in Fremont to please focus on facts before you sign up your kid in this Gym. The facts are that the coaches are leaving left and right, business is going down, one of the partner left and kids are mistreated. Crystal who is one of the owner is very partial to her kids. She doesn’t pay much attention to other kids performance improvement. Instead of putting her extra effort on other kids, she leaves early or come late. She was rude to me in front of my kid when I raised an issue with the teams overall performance.
Demarays Gymnastic specially Crystal is sucking in money from parents by ensuring parents that kids confidence will improve if you sign up for this or that competitions. I paid almost $ 1500 from my pocket to see my kid loosing further confidence. No prior communication was given to us regarding the payment terms. I also validated with other parents and their kids were also mistreated and parents had no choice but to continue as they already have paid.
This gym claim to be cheapest but I believe is one of the worst place to be in from the quality and professionalism. Hope some one from us takes action on their mis treatment to both kids and parents.

My daughter has been attending Demaray’s for 3.5 years, 8 to 13 hours per week. I agree that the gym needs some sprucing up (half the lights don’t work, mice live in the gym, and it’s basically dark and dirty) but the tuition is very reasonable compared to other gyms. Some of the instructors are wonderful. The head coach for the girls team, however, also the daughter of the owner, is almost always late, or leaves early, or doesn’t show at all. She shows obvious favoritism towards her daughters and will never admit mistakes or receive criticism. If there is a problem she blames the kids or their parents. The only reason we stayed so long is because my daughter enjoyed the friendships of her teammates and other coaches. So many of her friends have left now, as have a couple of the better coaches.

I signed my 4 year up for classes here through the Fremont Activity Guide. It was dark, dirty and the teacher seemed uninterested. I understand that gymnastics facilities are often dusty from the chalk powder but this place is gross. My son found a dead cockroach on the floor during his first class. I hate to think what is lurking in the foam pits. The teacher went through the motions with the kids but was not enthusiastic at all and sometimes seemed frustrated with the kids. I highly recommend avoiding this place!

This place isn’t clean, i tried to cancel my son’s membership and the lady gave me attitude and told me i should have told her 30 days before and she charge me another $ 60 for another month. Also if you pay 10 days late the charge you $ 15 extra.
All i can say they take your money! And its a waste!

I enrolled my 2 year old son through the silliman center in newark. I’ve never been to any other gymnastics place so I don’t know how the rest of them are, but this one is grimy and yucky. Perhaps we went on a rainy day and my perception is a bit obscured.
Anyway, it’s very unorganized. On my very first day I signed some paperwork and the girl at the front desk told me to wait till we were called. We waited and waited for someone to call us. All this time we are watching the group that we are supposed to be a part of doing their thing. I didn’t realize it at that point. When I finally went and asked the girl when we were going to be called, she’s like they’ve already started. There was no introduction, no one called us or anything. Wow.
The rest of the first session seemed to be ok. They allowed parent participation. I guess I’ll see how the rest of it goes, but I wouldn’t have registered if I had checked out the place first.

I was planning on enrolling my child here for gymnastics, one look at this place and I changed my mind — the facility is an absolute dump, it is dark and filthy, I doubt anything in this place has ever been cleaned in the past 20 years. I sat in on a gymnastics class for 6 – 9 year old kids? I’m not sure what the age group was but the coaches are really harsh and have no patience for mistakes — I doubt this is building confidence in these young people. I understand that these coaches are training these young kids for gymnastics fame or whatever, but really how many of these kids are actually in this for real competition — they are being trained like they are going to the olympics.

My child was enrolled at Demarays Gymnastic Academy during the summer of 2008, and I would never recommend it to anyone! This is what I have witnessed:
During the past few weeks I have noticed instances of inappropriate behavior in a physical nature by two staff members. One time the staff member was repeatedly slapping at a child’s legs and the child was crying and saying, «don’t hit me» over and over, yet the instructor continued to hit him (not hard, but that’s not the point). When I brought this to the attention of the lady at the front desk, she told me that the children were training for competition, and that he is just trying to get them to do what they are supposed to be doing. She also said that she has heard complaints from parents about him before, and that he has been talked to, and that she will bring this to the owners attention for me.
Unfortunately, I have now witnessed another staff member (his family owns the facility) in another totally inappropriate action. This instructor shoved a small child out of his way (the boy was about 4 – 5 years old). It was not a case of moving him over a little bit, or sliding him over, he literally shoved him out of his way without a word because the child was in front of the mat that he wanted to drag over. I was sitting very close, so there is no mistake as to what occurred. Once again I spoke with the same lady at the front desk who said the owner was in today, and that she’d have him talk to me when he got off the phone.
The owner was off the phone and I saw her talking to him, then a gentlemen came in the door and he talked with the owner for a few minutes, and the owner returned to his office behind the front counter. I gave him about 15 minutes to come out and speak with me regarding the behavior of the staff members, and he never came out. Finally I went back to the counter and the lady told him that I was there to speak with him. The owner, Ray, acted as if what I had to say what not important, and that since it was not my child who was hit or shoved I should not be concerned. He kept asking me, «was it your child», «did your child get hit»? I had to let him know that it doesn’t matter if it is my child or not, I am an advocate for children and I will not tolerate this kind of behavior.
Unfortunately many parents drop their children off here and they don’t see what is going on. Other parents remain in the facility, but some are so busy either talking on a cell phone, working on their laptop, reading or talking with other parents that they don’t see what is happening before their eyes. They feel confident that their child is safe there (as they should), but I want to tell you that they are not. While the actions of the staff members may not have lead to injuries, it is not okay for them to treat children in this way, and I urge you to find another gymnastics facility for your children.