Kiskeya is the brainchild of Rochy Diná. As a kid growing up in the Dominican Republic, Rochy played Tennis in a local sports club after school. When tennis practice was over, she and her friends were able to wander around the club to enjoy other sports and activities, as well as eat food. Their parents didn't have to pick them up until the late evening. 

      When her family moved to South Texas in 2001, Rochy found it very difficult to accommodate for her two young children in afterschool activities as working mother. All of the classes available were only about an hour long and too far apart. She'd have to drive from Dance to Karate, math tutoring to baseball, et al- and would have to buy food somewhere quickly in between.
Rochy thought to herself, "if I could drop my kids off somewhere where they could just do two things back-to-back, I'd take them at any cost!"

 

       Additionally and to her dismay, the vast majority of the sports available were also competitive, and therefore rather stressful in nature. She wanted her children to be able to enjoy different sports without the added pressure to be "good" or have to compete.

 

      Fast forward to 2009, and Rochy took matters into her own hands. She began renting a public baseball park every once in a while and invited family and friends for an entire day of sports, food, and fun! Even the adults would make teams and play softball, and the crowd size grew bigger with every park day that passed. And where there are Dominicans involved, there is most certainly dancing involved as well. After grilling food, the adults and kids alike would dance until well after the sun had set.

       Over time, that park became more and more difficult to reserve; it just never seemed to be available anymore. So Rochy just said to herself, "I'm going to build my own park then. An indoor park. Instead of a baseball field, we'll have tennis courts."

     Here we are, many years later, and that's exactly what she did. "Kiskeya" is a play on "Quisqueya," the Taíno name for the island of Hispaniola, where Rosa Diná and her family are from.

     Kiskeya has now grown to represent many things for Rochy and her community. In addition to being a one-stop afterschool sports and enrichment solution for children, Kiskeya will also serve to provide innovative fitness and movement options for adults, and even seniors. According to research, finding a fitness/athletic community where one feels a sense of belonging is the key to staying motivated and dedicated to one's fitness goals. Kiskeya's number one goal for its members is to build a sense of belonging for people who can invest in better health, recreational fitness and wholesome fun for the whole family.

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