BIDDEFORD — When business owners retire, they usually sell to whoever is willing to put up the money.
Bogdan Dudziak didn’t take money from anywhere when he decided to sell Dudziak’s Gymnastics — he sold his business to one of his athletes, Roxanne Deshaies.
Now that the gym’s doors have been open for 25 years, it seems he made the right choice.
“This is our 25th anniversary. Dudziak’s started in 1994. The name ‘Dudziak’ is from an old polish man, who opened up the facility back in ’94. He coached for about 14 years and then turned the business over to one of his athletes, Roxanne Deshaies. She’s currently co-owning the facility with her mother, Cecile Deshaies. That’s pretty much the history of it,” said manager Daniel Parks.
After becoming owners of the business, Deshaies and her mother decided to keep the original name.
“The name has been kept the same just to keep the coach in mind as the gym keeps moving forward,” said Parks.
The Deshaies family may also sell the business to one of their athletes when it comes time to retire.
“They always talk to about eventually giving the gym back over to another one of their athletes. It’s a cool idea, it’s been passed on through tradition,” said Parks.
Twenty-five years after opening, Dudziak’s Gymnastics’ 13,000 square feet state-of-the-art gymnasium is the most equipped facility in the Northeast. The gym has two floors, three tumble tracks and three trampolines.
Dudziak’s Gymnastics offers gymnastics programs as well as tumbling and cheer programs.
“In the afternoon, all of our team gymnasts come in. We have all the levels — they go all the way from walking, parent and tot classes to recreational classes to team classes. We also have a trampoline team aside from gymnastics. Tumbling and cheer, if you’ve seen competitive cheer. Athletes tumble here to brush up on their tumbling skills and then they put them into cheer routines,” said Parks.
Before the gymnastics classes start, Dudziak’s provides a mind and muscle preschool program.
“We have a fully licensed educational preschool. A group of kids come in every day — they do some gymnastics and then they also do a full-on education, math numbers, science-based program,” said Parks.
The gym also has a ninja program, that is styled after the Ninja Warrior television show.
“Ninja warrior, if you’ve seen it on television, it’s all kind of obstacle courses. Gymnastics has gone hand-in-hand with them. A lot of the Ninja Warrior competitors will partner with some form of gymnastics or warrior gym after they’ve finished the competition,” said Parks. “We offer ninja classes, where we’ll set up obstacle courses and they basically use gymnastics to surmount the challenges like the show.”
Dudziak’s Gymnastics keeps busy all year long by providing birthday parties and summer camp options.
“We do birthdays and what not too, so there’s lots of other things to keep us busy,” said Parks. “We also have a summer camp that gets really big too. They do gymnastics and then we go on a trip. We’ve gone into New Hampshire to go to waterparks. All year round we offer something.”
Dudziak’s Gymnastics plans to commemorate their anniversary in the near future.
“It’s the 25th anniversary so we’re really excited. We’re hoping to do an event coming up to celebrate,” said Parks.
— Sports Writer Sienna Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@journaltribune.comor at 780-9018. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.