The Greenwood High School basketball team will get back on a solid footing when it practices for the first time on a brand new wooden floor Thursday.
So far this season, which has just gotten under way, the team played its first three games in the Greenwood Middle School gym. The temporary home has been a relief but not a replacement, according to school officials.
"It's a middle school gym, not a high school gym to accommodate high school crowds," Superintendent Les Daniels told the Greenwood School Board Tuesday night.
For the first three games of the season, ticket takers had to turn fans away from the door. That should not happen the rest of the season, Daniels said.
"The high school basketball team is ready to get on the floor. The fans in Greenwood are ready to get a bigger gym, and we're ready to turn everyone loose in there," he said.
The shiny, natural maple surface, which cost the district $20,000, remained unused today, the end of a 15-day curing period.
"It's a beautiful sight," said Daniels. "It is a level floor, and it is a beautiful floor."
It was not a level floor before Mancuso Inc. tore up the old wooden court. About 50 years of sanding and refinishing had shaved the original gym floor down almost to the concrete underneath, according to Assistant Superintendent Jim Mattox, who coached the basketball team for 23 years.
"You get to the point where there's no more floor left," he said. "And it was cracking. You could hear it creaking and cracking."
Mattox said 50 years is a long life span for a gym floor. Board member John Aldridge expects the same from the new floor.
"The first one lasted 50 years. This one will last 50," Aldridge said.
The next renovation for the the gym will be the addition of two new pull-out bleachers, expected to cost between $45,000 and $75,000 each. The School Board agreed Tuesday to advertise bids for that phase of the project.
The basketball team went 1-2 in the middle school gym. Whether the solid new hard court improves its performance remains to be seen.
"We hope so," Mattox said.
