Health with Heart

The Mid-Cape Athletic Club has a winning approach to fitness.

For decades now the Mid-Cape Athletic Club has been a mainstay on the menu of activities offered across the Cape. Opened in the late 1970s by the Majewski family, the fitness club has steadily grown from its firm roots as a tennis center, to an athletic hub that now offers a vast variety of fitness classes, tennis leagues and lessons, and social opportunities. The club today is housed in a substantial facility, complete with pickleball courts and rooms for rowing, lifting weights, and working out. The locker rooms have newly installed steam rooms, as well as saunas and a hot tub.

Like many other sporting centers, a bustle fills the building—teammates saying “goodbye” to one another after a match as they part ways and head for their cars; parents hustling children through the doors, hurrying them to join other little ones, who are plucking bright green tennis balls from baskets and hitting them towards a net taller than they are. People work behind the desk, setting up court times for members, while smaller siblings of lesson goers play at the feet of waiting parents.  

What makes Mid-Cape unique, however, is the palpable feeling that hits when you walk through the doors: here is a community, a place of families and of friendships.

Sitting in his office, surrounded by pictures and years’ worth of memorabilia, Bob Majewski recalls a workshop at the Brewster Men’s Club when members in discussion were asked to consider personal goals and missions for life. Through that conversation with his fellow club members, Bob said he came to understand that one of his primary goals in life was to bring love, joy and happiness to others. 

“It was kind of a defining moment for me. And I like to think we’ve created that here,” he says with a broad smile. “It’s taken time. And yes, it’s a tennis club. It’s an athletic club. But it’s come to be so much more than that. It’s a place where people can be who they want to be, it’s their happy place.”

Jenn, Majewski’s daughter listens, nodding as her dad talks. They laugh at various memories. Jenn points to the children playing outside the office door, noting a cousin who visited recently had shared memories with her about being like those children. “We grew up here, playing here, it was like home.”

“Only time, continuity and family connections can create that kind of feeling that people are always telling us they feel here,” Jenn says. 

Bob remembers coming to the Cape in the late 1970s, scouting opportunities for a club the family could run, turning their passion into a career. 

“It was a rainy summer day, and the directions we had took us down Route 28, from Falmouth to Yarmouth,” Bob says, laughing. “I thought it was a terrible place.” Despite his skepticism about living on a sandy spit covered with slow-moving traffic, the family opted to buy the club in Yarmouth. His mother, father and brother launched their new business together.

“When I started to explore the Cape, I realized how beautiful it is,” Bob says. Jenn, who grew up here, listens to her dad’s stories with pride. She is the third generation of Majewskis to find not only a career, but family and friendships at the club. “I feel so lucky to be able to do this,” she says. “Especially to share something as a family that we’re all passionate about.”

Today Mid-Cape Athletic Club is home to USTA winning men’s and women’s leagues, town tennis, private and group tennis lessons and clinics for all ages. They arrange pickleball matches, and host groups who arrange their own play. Club members enjoy social events, and support members who may be struggling by hosting fundraisers. 

Bob and Jenn estimate the club has grown to more than one thousand members, but they take pride in the intimate, friendly atmosphere they’ve cultivated and in the community they’ve created.