Putnam Fitness & Racquet Club is a Home Away From Home

CARLI-RAe PANNY It’s 11am on a Thursday morning. Near the building’s entrance is a group of people, varied in age, standing around the free coffee machine. They sip from their cups and clutch their racquets under their arms. At this early hour during the week, most of them are retirees, and, as the group files out, the place seems empty, save for the employees behind the front desk.

“All my friends and social contacts are here,” Mary Lou Malavolta said of the Putnam Fitness and Racquet Club, located on Old Route 6 in Carmel. The long time Patterson resident has been playing tennis at the club for almost 30 years. “The people are what keep me coming back,” she said.

Within ten minutes or so of her coffee klatch group’s vacancy, the courts are filled with a different group of exercisers for a tennis aerobics class—jogging and swinging their racquets around the courts. Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, swimmers lap the pool.

Nick Dagnone has been the owner of Putnam Fitness and Racquet Club for the past 33 years. Since the town of Carmel has two large commercial workout facilities, Gold’s Gym and New York Sports Club—which came to the area fewer than ten years ago and are located within less than ten minutes of each other—the Putnam Fitness and Racquet Club is an antique among new and large fitness chains. “I would say it’s more of a mom-and-pop-club—we’re family owned. It’s not a gym; this is a social type of place where we have fitness and fun,” Dagnone said. “It’s like a second home to the people who come here.”

The facility has indoor tennis, racquetball, and basketball courts, swimming pool, sauna, and fitness machines. Some of the staff are members of Dagnone’s family and others are professional instructors and trainers. According to Dagnone, some of the tennis teachers are professional players and a lot of the kids who learned to play on their courts went on to receive athletic scholarships.

Monica Ayala originally joined the club for the use of the pool, but “now I’m here seven days a week and I’ve taken on tennis and other things, as well.” Ayala also enjoyed the “Aquatone” water aerobics class so much that she became certified and now works as a swimming instructor. “I work at my other job at nighttime and every night I look forward to coming here the next day,” Ayala said.

Much like many of the other people who go to the fitness club, Malavolta said she brought her daughter there to learn tennis and they would come together as mother and daughter. “Now my husband joined and it gives us something to do together,” Malavolta said.

Putnam Fitness and Racquet Club doesn’t always just operate as a fitness center, it has also served as host to many benefits, including birthday and pool parties, and fundraisers for Hope Town, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society.

Membership rates differ based on the length and days that people plan to attend and the facilities they intend to use. There are also some very special deals for members of the military and veterans. Some of the most popular member offerings are the aerobics, yoga, and pilates classes, tennis lessons and leagues, personal training, and Zumba.

Dagnone said that for many years the club had the only indoor pool facility and it is still the only indoor tennis site in the area.

For member Nereo, who wouldn’t give his last name because he said he’s the only Nereo in Carmel, he only lives a few minutes down the road from the club. He has both a tennis court and indoor pool at his home; still, he comes to the club every day that he’s in town because he said he’s “among friends.”