This group has been juggling for joy at Castro Valley Station for nearly two decades

Al Franz juggling at Castro Valley Station during a Tuesday evening meetup in July. Photo courtesy of BART.

“It’s fun, it’s social, we juggle.”

Those six words, spoken by juggler Tony Flusche, provide a neat summary of the Castro Valley Jugglers Association’s group agreement if the CVJA had formal agreements. 

A good motto for a juggler’s physicality might be loosey-goosey; you’ve got to keep your body and mind focused and relaxed when you’re lobbing balls and clubs (the props that look like bowling pins) and flaming torches into the air (and over people’s heads) then catching them. 

It’s also an apt motto for a group of jugglers who’ve been meeting informally to practice and swap clubs at Castro Valley Station for just about two decades. The association meets every single week in the free area of the station – under the rotunda – from 6pm to 8:30pm or so. Members of the group – before they began practicing at Castro Valley Station – performed at the station’s official opening in 1997. 

“Sometimes we get up to 30 people at a session; sometimes no one shows up at all,” said juggler James Johnson. “Sometimes we’re the Castro Valley Sit and Gab Association.”

Johnson is a former student of Louis Kruk, a longtime Physical Education teacher at Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley. He’s the main throughline that connects this ragtag group of juggling fiends. 

Louis Kruk is pictured juggling at Castro Valley Station during a Tuesday evening meetup in July. Photo courtesy of BART.

When he was a middle school teacher, Kruk would interject a juggling unit between more traditional sporting units, like football and volleyball. He himself learned to juggle after he was gifted the classic instructional book "Juggling for the Complete Klutz" on a snowy Christmas in Tahoe many decades ago (The Klutz book, still in print, released its 30th-anniversary edition in 2007). 

The thing about juggling is it’s best to do with other people. Alone, you can toss the balls up and down, up and down, add and subtract clubs, and introduce certain elements, like unicycles or fire. But in the company of others, you can practice different, complex patterns. 

At these meetups, if you didn’t know how to juggle already, people would teach you the basics and then integrate you into their passing patterns.

After Kruk retired, school administrators wanted him to start renting the gym more formally. So, he decided to change venues. Castro Valley Station was the ideal spot: easy to get to, centrally located, well-lit and protected from the elements, including every juggler’s kryptonite – wind. 

“Look at this place, it could be pouring down rain and you can still juggle,” he said. 

A rider leaving Castro Valley Station stops to watch the jugglers on a Tuesday evening meetup in July. Photo courtesy of BART.

On this particular Tuesday, the group began with three men. They warmed up with a basic four count – 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 – and then practiced their two counts. As the clubs flew overhead, hand to hand, they melted into a sort of cosmic mush in which it was no longer clear which club came from where and whose hand. When one juggler dropped a club, the rest of the jugglers kept on, adapting the pattern until the juggler who dropped could jump back in. Throughout, the group made casual conversation, often swapping barbs of the dad-joke ilk. 

Jugglers toss clubs around a willing member of BART Communications at Castro Valley Station during a Tuesday evening meetup in July. Photo courtesy of BART.

“Y’all comfortable with Havana?” one juggler asked the small group. They got into formation: three jugglers standing on one side with one facing them. Then they rotated around each other as if waltzing, tossing clubs all the while. 

A few minutes into the practice session, another juggler appeared. 

“Ray, get your clubs out,” barked Flusche. "Now we can do a star.” 

By 6:30pm, six jugglers had shown up. It’s decided they will practice a “sweep feed,” where a feeder passes each feedee a club along the line from left to right then right to left – you sort of have to see it to get it. 

“At parades, we do this with torches!” said Flusche, the consummate showman of the group. 

Tony Flusche is pictured juggling at Castro Valley Station during a Tuesday evening meetup in July. Photo courtesy of BART.

Catch the Castro Valley Jugglers Association at Castro Valley BART Station juggling and chatting Tuesdays from 6-8:30 p.m.

Have you seen the Juggling crew at Castro Valley Station?

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