Friday, February 06, 2009
George Cuadrado: A character coach
George Cuadrado has mentored area youngsters in YMCA gymnastics classes for nearly 35 years.
Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times
George Cuadrado helps Taimya Covington, 7, do a handstand during a gymnastics class Saturday morning at the Kirk Family YMCA in Roanoke.
George Cuadrado spots Madeline Maina, 4, of Roanoke on the balance beam Saturday at the Kirk Family YMCA. He has taught gymnastics to thousands of children in more than 30 years as a volunteer or employee at the YMCA of Roanoke Valley.
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One of the first exercises that Sarah Dooley, a blond 9-year-old from Roanoke, tried in her gymnastics class Saturday was a handstand twist-off.
She stood on a 4-foot-tall base and planted her hands near the front edge, and her teacher, George Cuadrado, held her waist as she extended her legs upward. Then she twisted her body and landed on a soft floor mat, stumbling slightly to her left.
"You're almost there," the teacher told her.
Cuadrado's encouragement came with almost 35 years of teaching experience behind it. He has coached somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 children in recreational gymnastics at YMCA centers in Roanoke.
In fact, he was recognized for his service by the YMCA's board last month.
Students, parents and administrators at the YMCA say he has a charming personality and leaves lasting impressions because he helps shape confident and productive young people.
"He takes all these character values and weaves them into his classes every day," said Cal Johnson, executive director of the YMCA of Roanoke Valley. "If you could clone him and his personality, you would do it immediately."
In short, Cuadrado teaches through positive encouragement. He said he learned that growing up as a recreational gymnastics student in Queens, N.Y. His teachers encouraged him, and his teenage friends admired him despite his 5-foot-3-inch stature.
"Even as a short kid, I was always looked up to," he said with a slight New York inflection. "So I never felt inferior or like I had to apologize for anything. Gymnastics was something that really helped me develop as a person."
After college and serving in the Navy, he moved to Roanoke, where he worked as a pharmaceutical salesman and started to volunteer at the YMCA, later becoming a paid staff member. He took his experiences as a young person and as a father of four children and rolled them into his classes.
Between exercises, he jokes with students, tells them it's OK to be afraid of obstacles ("If you're afraid, that just means your brain is working") and asks them whether they've been doing chores without being asked to. Sometimes, he gets parents to do exercises on the mats.
"As a parent, I would have liked the coach to teach my children some of the things I was trying to tell them," said Cuadrado, who's 63. "So I also try to teach students values like honesty and decency."
Toward the end of Sarah's class at the Kirk Family YMCA in Roanoke, about a dozen students stood in line before each one jumped on a small spring, vaulted over a platform and rolled forward on a mat. Sarah performed the exercise perfectly.
"See that?" her mother, Dottie Dooley, asked. "She would have never done that before she came to Mr. George's class."
