There is a new storefront in Center Moriches, it is a kickboxing studio, and the person whose name is on it is 24 years old. Ruby Impact opened its doors at 5C Canal Street at the end of August, and on September 1 founder Ruby Comeau cut the ribbon with Brookhaven Councilwoman Karen Dunne Kesnig and the Chamber of Commerce of the Moriches on hand to make it official.

Comeau graduated from the Eastport South Manor school district in 2020, which makes the math simple and a little startling: six years out of high school, she owns the business. The town's announcement of the ribbon cutting framed it as a story about young entrepreneurs building where they grew up, and for once the official framing is just accurate. This is a hometown kid's studio, a short drive from the district that raised her, opened with friends, family and supporters on hand.

What the studio actually is

Ruby Impact describes itself as a kickboxing and strength infused training studio, which in practice means classes that mix pad and bag work with strength circuits rather than pure boxing technique. Comeau is an ISSA certified personal trainer and a certified kickboxing instructor, with additional training in high-intensity interval work for boxing and in low-impact high-intensity training, the version of a hard workout built for people whose knees have opinions.

That last credential says something about who the studio is for. The pitch is not fighters. It is residents at any level of experience who want a workout with some hit-things joy in it, in a room small enough that the instructor knows your name by the second class. The studio's own line is that strength is about more than what you lift, and the class structure backs that up: kickboxing for the cardio and the stress relief, strength work for everything else, and a community small enough to notice when you skip a week.

The practical part

The studio is at 5C Canal Street, just off the hamlet's Main Street business strip, and class sign-ups run through the Mindbody app, with schedules and packages at rubyimpact.com. Two notes the studio itself has been posting for newcomers: arrive about 15 minutes early for a first class so there is time to get wrapped and walked through the basics, and check the studio's pages for where to park before you come, since Canal Street parking has its quirks.

A good sign for a quiet corner

A fitness studio is a particular kind of addition to a hamlet's business strip: it pulls the same people back two or three times a week, which is the kind of repeat foot traffic a small downtown actually feels. The town made a version of the same point in its announcement, calling the opening a milestone for the local business community and not just for the founder.

The pattern is real, too: this is the latest in a run of first-time fitness studios opening across the Island this year, from a red light therapy studio in Commack to fit20's first New York location coming to Miller Place. What makes this one worth the item is the founder. A 2020 graduate spent her early twenties getting certified, then signed a lease in her own school district instead of somewhere with better foot traffic. If you live in the Moriches and have been waiting for a reason to try a kickboxing class, the reason now has a name on the door.