New gymnastics school to open in Huntley

Aspiring gymnasts with their minds trained on winning college scholarships and competing at the highest levels in the country soon will have another Huntley venue in which to flip, jump, dance and vault.

Authorities from the Huntley Gymnastics Academy are renovating a 15,000-square-foot facility within the Wolf Business Park at 10763 Wolf Drive. The project should be completed by mid-July, said owner Amy Krotser.

Thursday night, the Huntley committee of the whole awarded preliminary approval for a special use permit that allows Krotser to run an indoor venture within that space. The matter now goes before the village board for a final vote.

"I'm excited," said Krotser of Crystal Lake, "It's been a dream for a long time."

Krotser, a former gymnast and dancer herself, currently runs her 70-member squad out of a temporary location in Lake in the Hills and has done so for the past two months. Some of the gymnasts she worked with later won college scholarships, but much later, after enrolling in other programs, Krotser said.

She was previously one of the main coaches at Huntley Unlimited Gymnastics School, a job she held for three years.

Hers will specialize in gymnastic training for vaulting, floor dancing and working the bars and balance beams — all of which are featured during the Summer Olympics. Gymnastics classes will be offered as well.

The academy will also include space for adults, with ballet, yoga, ballroom dancing and Pilates classes. Open gym would be available on the weekends and space would be reserved for birthday parties, mainly on Sundays.

Krotser would field a staff of about a dozen and hopes to have between 400 and 500 people using her facility.