Gym

COSTA MESA — Triangle Square's latest addition, 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport, is slated to open Saturday morning. Employees will be offering free tours, and guests will be able to try out the club on the first day for free. The 60,000-square-foot gym is the latest tenant to open at the struggling shopping center as part of property owner Greenlaw Partners' attempt to bring business back. "It's the beginning of the revitalization of Triangle Square," said Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer.

The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday night gave the green light to a Santa Ana-based adult basketball league to rent its municipal gym on Sundays for league games. The Parks and Recreation Commission previously voted to allow Rigoberto Bautista, founder of Aztec Basketball League, to use the court at the Downtown Recreation Center, displacing an average of 22 people who come for drop-in adult basketball and volleyball games. Councilman Eric Bever appealed the Parks Commission’s decision and voted against allowing the league in but could not find any allies on the council, which approved the contract, 4 to 1. Councilwoman Katrina Foley implied that Bever opposed the league only because it was primarily made up of Latino players.

ROBERT GARDNER I'm trying to figure out when we all started working out. Nobody worked out in my youth. We did sports like swimming, but those were part of being in school. We didn't consider swimming laps as working out, and we certainly didn't do any other sort of exercise to prepare ourselves for swimming like lifting weights. I suppose the football players did, but since I wasn't even big enough to be water boy, I don't know. Certainly, the grown-ups I knew didn't "work out."

Councilman Eric Bever has called up for review a Parks and Recreation Commission decision to allow a Santa Ana-based adult basketball league to use Costa Mesa’s municipal gym on Sundays. Aztec Basketball Leagues, a quickly growing organization with about 50 teams, wants to use the Costa Mesa gym because its normal gym in Santa Ana is closed for a year for renovation, according to league President Rigoberto Bautista. After initially denying the league’s request, the parks commission approved the request unanimously at its last meeting.

An adult basketball league will be allowed to take over Costa Mesa’s downtown basketball gym on Sundays after a unanimous decision by the Parks and Recreation Commission on Wednesday night. The Santa Ana-based league asked to use the facility last month because its usual gym in its home city is closed for renovation, but four of the five commissioners did not support Commissioner Kurt Galitski’s motion to approve it. Commissioners said at Wednesday night’s meeting that they had no problem with the league and were just indecisive because they didn’t have enough information, specifically about how many Costa Mesa residents would be displaced by the new league.

The wind was chilly and the misting rain wilted their hand-made cardboard signs, but the small crowd of protesters didn't care. The group of about 15 people picketed and marched outside the Newport Center 24 Hour Fitness gym Saturday morning in a last-ditch effort to save the gym's popular juice bar ? and its friendly owner ? from being evicted. Many of the club's members are angered that club remodel plans leave no room for Jin-Sung Kim and his juice bar, Surf City Squeeze.

Noaki Schwartz NEWPORT BEACH -- Harbor Day School officials hope that new paint and climbing vines on the new 40-foot-high gymnasium -- at first considered an eyesore by neighboring residents -- will soften the view. Last fall, the school proudly unveiled the gym, the result of a year's worth of student fund-raising. Unfortunately, the $2-million facility was not a hit with surrounding residents, who vociferously complained that they were uninformed about the new building that ruined their views.

Charlie Brande As the Balboa Bay Club moves closer to opening the "new clubhouse," memories of the "old" club become stronger. The gymnasium at the Bay Club will come down in October with the new section providing a new state-of-the-art replacement. The growing success of volleyball in our area has been greatly supported by the Balboa Bay Club with much of the development happening in the BBC gym. In the early '70s, under the leadership of BBC recreation directors John Plass and Henry Hitchcock, the Balboa Bay Volleyball Club started youth leagues.

A crowd of disappointed fitness buffs stood outside 24 Hour Fitness Sport in Costa Mesa in the drizzling rain after being evacuated from the gym due to what authorities think was an electrical fire Friday morning. Power went out around the whole area surrounding the downtown building at West 19th Street and Park Avenue, and officials say the incidents may be connected, but weren’t sure which caused the other. People saw smoke billowing out from an air duct just before noon.

COSTA MESA — When Bernie Rubio moved into the building he intended to convert into a gym, there were two sizable bathrooms — one for men, one for women — that took up quite a bit of the floor space. The average gym owner, in that situation, might have had the bathrooms moved to widen the exercise area, or at least filled them with bodybuilding magazines and vending machines full of Powerade. Rubio, on the other hand, enlisted his wife as co-decorator and filled the bathrooms with paintings, scented candles and even a bowl of dry rose petals for the women.

Costa Mesa High School's gym buzzed with all things green Friday. Clean Green Technology Inc., Viridistor LLC, Orange County Coastkeeper, Orange Coast College's Recycling Center and other organizations set up booths around the gym to educate students about careers in environmental sustainability. "The green career job market is becoming more and more important," as the Earth's natural resources are depleted, said teacher Cristen Rasmussen. "It's important for our students to be able to address those issues when they get out in the real world.

Championship Saturday CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championships At Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut Parking: There will be a parking fee at Mt. SAC. $10 for Lot R, closest to the stadium. $5 for Lots S and F. Ticket information: gates will open each morning at 7 a.m. Cash only. General admission and high school students $8; High school students with ID and children 13 and under $5; children under three free. 8:05 a.m. - Sage Hill Division V girls' race 8:25 a.m. - Costa Mesa's Robert Blackwell Division IV boys' race 8:45 a.m. - Sage Hill Division V boys' race 9:25 a.m. - Newport Harbor's Jake Barber Division II boys' race 9:45 a.m. - Corona del Mar Division III girls' race 10:25 a.m. - Newport Harbor Division II girls' race 10:45 a.m. - Corona del Mar Division III boys' race * CIF Southern Section Boys' Water Polo Championships At Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine Ticket prices are per session: general admission $8; high school students with ID and children 13 and under $5 Division II (in second session)

CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championships At Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut Parking: There will be a parking fee at Mt. SAC. $10 for Lot R, closest to the stadium. $5 for Lots S and F. Ticket information: gates will open each morning at 7 a.m. Cash only. General admission and high school students $8; High school students with ID and children 13 and under $5; children under three free. 8:05 a.m. - Sage Hill Division V girls' race 8:25 a.m. - Costa Mesa's Robert Blackwell Division IV boys' race 8:45 a.m. - Sage Hill Division V boys' race 9:25 a.m. - Newport Harbor's Jake Barber Division II boys' race 9:45 a.m. - Corona del Mar Division III girls' race 10:25 a.m. - Newport Harbor Division II girls' race 10:45 a.m. - Corona del Mar Division III boys' race * CIF Southern Section Boys' Water Polo Championships At Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine Ticket prices are per session: general admission $8; high school students with ID and children 13 and under $5 Division II (in second session)

COSTA MESA — Triangle Square's latest addition, 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport, is slated to open Saturday morning. Employees will be offering free tours, and guests will be able to try out the club on the first day for free. The 60,000-square-foot gym is the latest tenant to open at the struggling shopping center as part of property owner Greenlaw Partners' attempt to bring business back. "It's the beginning of the revitalization of Triangle Square," said Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer.

COSTA MESA - Orange Coast College took rival Golden West College to five games for the first time this season - unfortunately for the Pirates, they lost and could not deal the Rustlers their first Orange Empire Conference loss this season. The Pirates came within five points of beating the Rustlers, but came up just short in a back-and-forth rally, as Golden West won, 20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 18-25, 15-11, Wednesday at OCC. Golden West (17-3) clinched the OEC championship at 12-0.

CORONA DEL MAR - Although the wall of the gym reads "Home of the Sea Kings," Thursday afternoon belonged to 152 Little Sea Queens, whose parents packed the bleachers to watch their young cheerleaders perform at the final day of cheer camp at Corona del Mar High School. The wood floor boomed with the stomping of small feet at the second-annual event as parents lined the gym, documenting the performance with cameras. "She's my little girl," Kevin Sharp said of his 8-year-old daughter Sydney.

NEWPORT BEACH — Maddy Brown had been sitting on the bench since the first set, soaking up the atmosphere of the girls' match at the 34th annual Dave Mohs Memorial Orange County High School Volleyball Games. Suddenly, on match point in the third set, the Newport Harbor High senior was subbed in to serve Friday night. The significance wasn't lost on Brown, not in the Sailors' gym where she had spent countless hours perfecting her game. "It's really cool, especially since it's in our own gym," Brown said.

A lady walked out of one of the Corona del Mar High gyms on Wednesday, making sure to hush whoever made noise. Students were taking tests inside the gym. At CdM, it was Advanced Placement exam week. Evan Dean had taken his tests in the gym. Now, it was time for him to get back to work inside the gym and prepare for the Sea Kings' first test in the CIF Southern Section Division II boys' volleyball playoffs. The students had cleared out of the gym in time for Dean and his teammates to practice.

Estancia High School in Costa Mesa will open its gym during the Presidents Day break to students looking to improve their basketball skills. The Estancia Boys Basketball Boosters are hosting a coed basketball camp Monday through Feb. 25 for students enrolled in first- through eighth-grade. Students will learn how to shoot, dribble, pass, rebound and play defense. The camp runs from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in Estancia's main gym, 2323 Placentia Ave. Registration is $50 and can be paid on the first day of the camp.

SANTA ANA — Just three weeks ago, the Costa Mesa High girls' basketball team was in the midst of an eight-game losing streak. Coach Nichole Maddox said it became tough mentally for the Mustangs. But nowadays, Mesa is thinking more pleasant thoughts. First place in the Orange Coast League is more than just a pipe dream after the Mustangs breezed past Calvary Chapel, 52-26, on Tuesday night. Costa Mesa is now 8-11, but 3-0 in league, tied for first with cross-town rival Estancia.