CENTENARY, Ohio — Every dark cloud has a silver lining.
Despite the damage done to the gymnasium floor by a water leak on September 16, school officials at Gallia Academy High School are now confident that zero varsity home contests will be missed at the high school facility.
Traditional Hardwood Floors, LLC — based out of Columbus, Ohio — began deconstructing the warped GAHS floor late Monday afternoon by removing base boards and volleyball plates, then began removing the top layer of the floor most of Tuesday.
With demolition officially under way, Gallia Academy athletic director Brent Simms believes that none of his varsity winter programs — boys basketball, girls basketball and wrestling — will have to be moved to the middle school gymnasium.
“It’s not real pretty to look at right now, but we are a world ahead of where we were this time last week,” Simms said. “We’ve made tremendous progress and we are probably a couple of days ahead of where we should be on the projected schedule.
“The company doing this has promised us that we will be in the gymnasium for our first home basketball game on December 4. We have most of October and all of November to get this project done, so we like where we are at this moment.”
According to Simms, Traditional Hardwood Floors, LLC is the company that installed the original gym floor, and bringing them back in to redo this project was an easy decision — given the fact that administration liked the work they did before the accident occurred roughly three weeks ago.
THF will be in the deconstruction phase of the gym until October 17, and then they will start installing the sub-floor and top hardwood layer until November 1. The crews will then disassemble and reassemble the bleachers before sanding, painting lines and logos, and coating the floor — all hopefully before the projected November 30 completion date.
The new gymnasium floor will then need five days to cure, which brings the time line to its December 4 target. That night GAHS is supposed to host Fairland in boys basketball, the first varsity contest at the high school this winter.
Until the time, the hardest thing for GAHS will be working in practices for all varsity, junior varsity, freshmen and junior high teams without its largest indoor complex. Simms is confident that the programs can get through this minor obstacle.
“The biggest problem that we will probably run into is the practice schedule, with so many teams and limited facilities,” Simms said. “We have a plan in place and the coaches know we will all be making some sacrifices until the new floor is finished, but it’s beginning to look like we won’t miss a beat out here this winter. Good Lord willing, all of our varsity contests are going to be right here.”
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