“I hate waiting, but sometimes you have to be patient. Everyone wants the gym to be rebuilt, so it kind of lights a fire under you."
Hurricane Sandy’s raging flood waters and winds up to 100 mph tore through the North East coastline in October, destroying homes, infrastructure and killing more than 100 people. In Avenel, N.J., BlackHearts CrossFit owner, Mark Nagy, is still picking up the pieces.
“You feel like it’s your fault. You’ve got all these clients, and you feel like you’re letting them down,” Nagy, whose affiliate remains closed, says.
BlackHearts’ Beginnings
In 2011, Nagy cleared out his one-car garage for ropes, parallel bars and rowing machines with the intent of training individual clients while earning his CrossFit Level 1. He began to build a following through word-of-mouth about the high-intensity personal training offered from his home. He even helped train Olympic fencer, Dagmara Wozniak, who grew up in Woodbridge Township, N.J., and went on to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London.
In May 2012, Nagy bought the space that became BlackHearts CrossFit and simultaneously applied for affiliate status. He quit his full-time job as a personal trainer at a local globo gym and focused on preparing to open his box. The next month, Nagy officially opened BlackHearts CrossFit. Classes filled up quickly and Nagy found himself coaching from 6:30 a.m. until 9 p.m.
Less than six months later, Hurricane Sandy struck. Flood waters destroyed flooring and ruined electrical work, heating and plumbing at BlackHearts CrossFit. Excessive rain and wind collapsed the roof and parts of the ceiling. The once-growing affiliate is now in disrepair and all of the equipment now packed in Nagy’s home garage.
“It’s frustrating because I feel like all I can do is wait. (The Federal Emergency Management Agency) only helps with primary residences, the Small Business (Administration) can’t help because I was only open for a few months, and with all of the other damage to people’s homes, insurance adjusters haven’t been around yet,” he explains.
Still, Nagy says he has hope that BlackHearts CrossFit will be back soon.
“I hate waiting, but sometimes you have to be patient. Everyone wants the gym to be rebuilt, so it kind of lights a fire under you. Our original plan was to be up and running in a week, but that didn’t happen,” he says. “I’m telling people to go to other boxes in the meantime because I don’t want to see them lose their progress, but I still have goals for CrossFit in Woodbridge (County).”
Efforts to Reopen
Although Nagy is concerned he will lose clients to other boxes, he has a loyal base of athletes who occasionally meet for dinner. The group of roughly 10 to 15 members was even able to do some outdoor workouts out of Nagy’s yard before the weather started changing and daylight became sparse.
Jennie Crouse, who has been working with Nagy since his personal-training days at the globo-gym, says she continues to hope for the best.
“We were all devastated when the box was closed. I haven’t really worked out much since,” she says. “I can’t go back to any of the old-style gyms. I know that some of the other members have been working out at other boxes, but we all hope that we can go back to BlackHearts.”
One of the biggest challenges for Nagy as he works to reopen is the lack of resources. He put all of his own money, including his savings, into opening the box; it became his only source of income as he quit his previous job to concentrate on day-to-day operations. Because he left his most-recent job voluntarily, he is not eligible for unemployment while he gets back on his feet. To make ends meet, Nagy has been working construction jobs for the past few weeks whenever he can.
Still, his chief concern is for his members.
“I have people to serve and they need a place to go, so I’ve been looking for other locations that could be ready sooner. We were growing (prior to Hurricane Sandy) and we were going to need to expand anyway, so I might be able to find a larger space,” Nagy says.
Despite his difficulties, he says he knows there are worse things that could have happened and he considers himself lucky.
“There are people here in New Jersey that got it a lot worse than I did,” Nagy explains. “There are people here who still don’t have power. My house, my family — I’m thankful they’re all OK.”
