Wayside welcomes new fitness director
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

(l to r) Fitness Director Tim Crowley, Group Exercise Director Jeanine Ruffing and General Manager Darren McLaughlin form an all-Marlborough team at the Wayside Racquet and Swim Club. PHOTO/KEN POWERS

Marlborough - The hometown athletic club - the Wayside Racquet & Swim Club - now has a hometown team overseeing its operation.

Longtime Marlborough resident Darren McLaughlin, general manager of Wayside Racquet & Swim Club, recently announced a pair of additions to the staff - Fitness Director Tim Crowley and Group Exercise Director Jeanine Ruffing - and both are also Marlborough residents.

"I've been in the business for more than 20 years and I've been living in Marlborough for 13 years," Crowley said. "When the opportunity arose to work in my own community, I jumped at it."

Prior to coming to Wayside, Crowley was the fitness director at the Longfellow Club in Wayland for the last 19 years.

"Working at Wayside is good for my family; it will make it easier for them to use the facility," Crowley said, "but the move will allow me to do a lot of things I've wanted to do for a long time. I want to start expanding and getting involved and making a difference in the community. Darren is very much involved in community work and I see how much he enjoys it and what a diff erence it makes in his life and how it impacts the community, and I want that, too."

As fitness director at Wayside, Crowley will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the fitness department, including spinning programs and weight training and exercise as well as staffing and personal training issues.

"Everything but group exercise," Crowley said. "Thankfully Jeanine is on board to do that. It's a case of know what you know and know what you don't know. Group exercise is not one of my strengths, but Jeanine is unbelievably good at it and it's great to have her on board overseeing that part of the operation."

Ruffing has taught group exercise classes at Wayside for the past four years. She moved to Marlborough five years ago, has been teaching various aspects of group exercise for the last 20 years and has a degree in exercise physiology from Salem State College. She will teach five classes a week and oversee a part-time staff of 10 to 15 instructors, who combine to teach a total of 23 classes a week in all aspects of group exercise.

"The participation level, which has always been good in group exercise since I've been teaching it, just continues to grow in popularity," Ruffing said. "What I want to do is really offer the members at Wayside as many opportunities to get in and participate in the classes that they want to be in as much as we can."

McLaughlin said that addition of Crowley and Ruffing to the Wayside staff represents a philosophy change industrywide in the role of the fitness center.

"We've always had a real presence as a diff erent kind of fitness club because of what we brought to the table in the tennis and swim aspects of our operation," McLaughlin said. "But what we're realizing is that people want more in the area of personal fitness and personal training and weight training. They see the fitness end of the business as a way to live a longer and healthier and happier life.

"If that's what they want, and they've made it clear to us that it is," McLaughlin said, "then that's what we want to provide."