Starkville High athletes are introduced to a sharp gym
Players from three different sports strolled through the double doors of Starkville High's gymnasium on Monday afternoon and gasped at the fresh new look that was in front of them.
The SHS gym is a unique setting. It's the only known gym in the state of Mississippi actively used for high school sports that sits on the top floor of a building. The gym itself is dated having served the school for over 50 years, but as players from volleyball and boys and girls basketball began to walk through and take a gander at the new renovations, it felt brand new.
SHS girls basketball coach Kristie Williams has played or coached in that gym for 30 years. She enjoyed it for what it was in its older state, but the fresh paint and new designs now make it something she believes everyone in Starkville can be proud of moving forward.
“It's really exciting for the student athletes to get a chance to play on this floor and in this setting,” Williams said. “It's an open area that I think will just make the student athletes that we have appreciate everything that they were given. They understand now that when you build a championship program that
you're taken care of and it's time to work even harder.”
The gym itself is carrying on a new name this year. “Welcome to the Nest” now dons the sidelines of the gym floor, along with it is a new center court design with the trademark “S” and a Yellow Jacket and the free-throw lanes are a shade of yellow honeycombs.
The walls have been painted from Starkville's black and yellow to a neutral grey new backboards on the basketball goals as well as a new electronic system to raise the goals has provided much more convenience for the staff after having to crank the goals into position in the past.
The gym also now features a brand new scorers table that allows for more room for officials and media alike as well as a state of the art digital board on the front for advertisements, among other things.
One part of the gym that the coaches and the administration were most excited about wasn't accessible to the student athletes at the time of the tour. It's the new locker rooms on the bottom floor of the building that are poised to be something that all of the athletes can call their own. The new locker rooms have lower ceilings, a new air conditioning and heating unit, new lockers and more.
SHS boys coach Greg Carter believes the entire renovation has been overdue and something that the players deserved as well as the fans who support the Jackets every year.
“It's exciting to see the changes,” Carter said. “A lot of things have been the same since I've been here and this is a major upgrade. We're going to have a totally new locker room and it means a lot (to the players). They have a sense of ownership when it comes to the locker room because I don't go in there a whole lot. It will be a big deal for them.”