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Leon Bekker, a coach, teacher
and co-owner of Michigan
Academy of Gymnastics in
Westland, helps a student
refine a move.
His American
Dream
Photos by Brett Mountain
Teacher, coach and gym co-owner teaches
life lessons along with gymnastics.
Leon Bekker in the
gym with his sons
Ari and Elan
Linda Laderman | Contributing Writer
A
walk inside the 24,000-square-
foot Michigan Academy of
Gymnastics in Westland with new
co-owner Leon Bekker reveals much about
the aspirations and dreams of many of
those inside.
It’s not just the landing mats that cover
the floor like primary-colored building
blocks, nor is it the little pony-tailed girls
learning how to walk the balance beam,
nor the boys’ teams practicing on the
rings, their strength greater than their age,
that solely define the space.
To be sure, all of those details are
important pieces of what makes the
Michigan Academy of Gymnastics a train-
ing center that has been at the heart of the
gymnastics community in the Detroit area
for decades.
But as important as what meets the eye
is Bekker’s underlying philosophy that
individualized teaching is critical to giving
the 1,400 students who train at Westland
and at the academy’s other two locations
in Ann Arbor and Dearborn a good expe-
rience.
Describing himself as a teacher who
coaches, Bekker says, “You cannot teach
each child by the same book. You have to
tweak your approach to the mindset of the
child. My goal here is to teach the kids life
lessons.”
Along the way, Bekker has learned some
life lessons of his own.
LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES
In 1995, Bekker, a graduate of the
Belarusian Institute of Physical Education
and Sport and a wrestler for Belarus, a
former Soviet Republic, was a 23-year-
old teacher when he traveled from his
hometown of Minsk to America to visit
his cousin for what was supposed to be a
short visit.
Bekker says his decision to stay in the
United States was not motivated by dis-
crimination toward Jews in Belarus, but,
once he was in America, he discovered a
way of life that, while it demanded hard
work, was ripe with opportunities.
In fact, being Jewish was one reason
Bekker didn’t have as much difficulty as
some others did who wanted to leave his
native country.
“It was a time when the government was
allowing Russian Jews to travel or leave,
so everyone wanted to be Jewish,” Bekker
recalls. “Besides, I had an apartment, a car
and a job, proof I had a reason to come
back after my visit.”
But he hit it off so well with the young
woman who was asked to show him
around that four months later they were
engaged and then married the next year.
“She didn’t speak any Russian and my
English was not great, but we managed to
figure it out,” Bekker says. “I’d had some
English in Belarus so I took classes here
and practiced while I worked three differ-
ent jobs.”
Currently, Bekker lives in West
Bloomfield with his wife, Nita Beurer-
Bekker, and their two sons, Ari, 13, and
Elan, 11. The family belongs to The Shul,
also in West Bloomfield, where Ari recent-
ly celebrated his bar mitzvah.
His wife’s family welcomed their son-
in-law into their homes and their hearts,
inspiring him to pursue his passion for
teaching physical education to children.
“Nita’s family accepted me immediately;
I couldn’t have been any luckier,” Bekker
says.
When a family member found an
ad from the Michigan Academy of
Gymnastics for an instructor, Bekker
interviewed for the opening. He immedi-
ately hit it off with the gym’s owner, the
late Doug Rowe, who hired him on the
spot.
Rowe’s widow, Debbie, remembers when
her husband met Bekker.
“He just walked in off the street one
day and he and Doug started talking.
They had the same love for teaching
kids and a shared vision about what the
gym needed to grow. Doug hired him
immediately,” Debbie Rowe says, nearly a
year after selling the gym to Bekker and
his partners, coaches Cami and Stoytcho
Gotcheva.
Cami Gotcheva, who was on the 1980
and ’84 Bulgarian Olympic gymnastics
team, met Bekker shortly after he was
hired by Doug Rowe.
Calling Bekker “a partner and a friend,”
Gotcheva says, “Leon is always looking for
new and creative ways to expand the busi-
ness. We have a mutual respect for what
the other is doing. He is much better than
I am in reaching out to the kids in the
community, whereas my focus is on train-
ing our high-level gymnasts.”
continued on page 24
22 August 25 • 2016