Joe DeCicco MT041519_web
Local News

Job switch moves Joe DeCicco to H-F Racquet & Fitness Club

Joe DeCicco, a six-year Homewood-Flossmoor Park District employee, has switched departments, taking on the assistant manager’s position at the H-F Racquet & Fitness Club. DeCicco is working alongside manager Eileen Rohrer.
 

Joe DeCicco, a six-year Homewood-Flossmoor Park District employee, has switched departments, taking on the assistant manager’s position at the H-F Racquet & Fitness Club.
  Joe DeCicco is now assistant
  manager of the H-F Racquet
  & Fitness Club.
 (Marilyn Thomas/
  H-F Chronicle)
 

DeCicco is working alongside manager Eileen Rohrer. His first major project was getting the fitness center painted – a tough challenge that meant working into the night on weekends when the facility closed.  

 
“We wanted to clean it up, freshen it up and bring in the logo colors,” he said of the orange, brown and aqua tones.  The fitness center has on average 300 people a day using the machines, walking the track and using the exercise rooms and handball court. Members have noticed the difference and seem happy with the end result, he added.
 
DeCicco previously worked in the Recreation Department and took responsibility for the park’s facilities, including the H-F Sports Complex, the H-F Auditorium and The Clubhouse and their rentals. 
 
In addition, he managed special events, including the annual Park Pride event, the Lucky Egg Hunt, Halloween Happenings and the newest event, the 2018 Brew and View that “was great fun” bringing together brewmasters, food trucks and a movie in Irwin Park that DeCicco said was “the first of its kind in this area.”
 
But when the club’s assistant manager position was posted, DeCicco didn’t hesitate.
 
“This is going to sound cliché, but this is probably my dream position. I want to be in facilities. I like the staffing and the diversity of the job, the pace,” he said. 
 
Although most fitness facilities focus on membership numbers, DeCicco and Rohrer agree, “the real thing that separates you is your staff and how (members) feel when they walk in the door. That’s what we’re really striving for here. They walk in and they feel like part of that family.”
 
DeCicco, originally from Brookfield, Illinois, says throughout high school he played every sport, except soccer. After graduating, he enlisted in the U.S. Army “and right after I finished basic training, 9-11 happened. I knew I was going overseas.”  He served for six years, including a tour in Iraq.
 
He enrolled at Illinois State University without a specific major in mind.  A professor recognized he had leadership abilities and directed him into recreation management with a public administration minor. He worked for several park districts before he landed at H-F Park District, which he calls “one of the outstanding places to work.”
 

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