MAJOR GAME CHANGER
For Mount St. Charles athletics, a new hardwood floor would prove bold statement
Adeal for a much-needed gym overhaul has yet to be officially finalized, yet enough traction has already taken hold to surely prompt a predictable reaction from current Mount St. Charles seniors and recent alumni.
“You’re seriously thinking about installing a brand-new hardwood floor? Really, that project couldn’t have happened while I attended school and competed in interscholastic sports — specifically, basketball and volleyball — on the Logee Street campus?”
Better late than never, it hopefully appears for the Mountie community.
Timeline-wise, the rubber floor inside the Mount building nicknamed “The Warehouse” has been crying out for yet another upgrade for a while now. Borrowed time was the term used to describe the situation of moisture problems and unsightly bubble areas, some of which were patched over as recently as last summer. The gym that was built in 1999 had the multi-purpose surface ripped up and completely replaced prior to the 2007-08 school year.
If another makeover was going to spring to life, swift action needed to be taken.
“We knew this coming summer would be big as far as ultimately making a decision,” said Ray Leveille, Mount associate athletic director and varsity girls’ basketball head coach. “Do we switch to hardwood, potentially do another synthetic floor, or maybe go another route and try something else?”
Keeping a cautious tone, Mount officials are aware of the remaining hurdles that need to be crossed before the gym can be roped The off for construction. Last week, Woonsocket Call
reported that fundraising efforts have netted $200,000 of the $224,207 that’s needed to cover the cost of the new hardwood gym floor. Approval from the school board is also needed.
By the same token, optimism reigns supreme that an endeavor that holds great appeal is closer now than at any point. A hardwood addition to the Mount St. Charles community has the potential to serve as a major game changer with wide-reaching benefits. It would also have a profound impact on the wear and tear on Mountie student-athletes, particularly those shooting a basketball or spiking a volleyball.
Before looking ahead to what an upgrade of this robust magnitude would provide, let’s talk about the trying state of the current rubber floor, one that for the Mounties hasn’t always put the “home” in “home-court advantage.”
“You almost have to change how you play at home versus the road, where some of your better defensive players could get up and pressure more and maybe create a little more chaos and havoc,” noted Leveille. “Unfortunately, you couldn’t sustain it at home. If you got up close to a player and tried to make a quick move or stop on the defensive end, it becomes that much harder to properly brace yourself and you find yourself behind the eight ball.”
Added Josh D’Abate, head coach of both MSC girls’ and boys’ varsity volleyball, “We know we can be more aggressive on the road because we know we have the footing underneath us, which in turn allows us to explode to the ball. Sometimes on the rubber floor, we don’t know if we’re going to get the same push-off or even the same reaction.”
At the end of the day, the current surface at Mount is akin to running on concrete.
“The referees would say, ‘Oh boy, we know we’re going to be sore tomorrow,’” Leveille said.
With a court that lacks grit for even highpriced sneakers to get a firm handle on and causes kids to slide, there have been times when training and practice schedules for basketball and volleyball have been compromised. Instead of full-blown suicides, conditioning drills have taken on a more continuous tone, such as laps around the gym. Station drills have been put in place to minimize the amount of movement.
“You have to get creative with what we’re dealing with,” Mount varsity boys’ basketball head coach Henry Coleman said.
Added D’Abate, “We don’t do a lot of running on it because with all the soft spots, you never know where you’re going to plant your feet. At least on our [volleyball] courts, we’re vigilant about where the spots are so we can avoid them. We probably don’t do the proper training that we probably should.”
The main court used on basketball game days is in good shape, says Coleman. In a school where there’s junior varsity and middle school programs, you want to use side courts, which is the same size as the main court. That’s when the presence of dead spots becomes even more alarming.
“You run the risk of a kid getting injured,” Coleman said.
The most common injuries associated with the MSC hoopsters have been ankle sprains and shin splints. Typically, a player could be sidelined for a few days to a few weeks at most.
“The rubber padding is very thin and it’s especially tough in the beginning of the season when the girls aren’t used to running on it,” Leveille said.
Keep in mind that gym usage isn’t solely limited to Mount basketball and volleyball participants. Nagging injuries can just as easily occur during the number of gym classes held throughout the school day. Still, there’s no denying that from a competitive perspective, a wood floor would provide the basketball and volleyball teams with greater continuity.
“Going to a wood surface would even out the playing field and give us an opportunity to play the same way on the road and at home,” Leveille said.
You can fully understand Mount’s reasoning behind the rubber floor, since the gym celebrates Mass and hosts additional func- tions. Donald Demers, director of institutional development at MSC, noted in an interview last week that if fundraising efforts exceed the needed goal of $224,407, the school will purchase a cover for the floor to protect the hardwood when special events are held in the gymnasium.
At a time when the school has clearly moved past the impasse stage — Exeterbased Kenvo Floor Company, which installed the gym’s original floor in 1999, would be the company for the project — head coaches like Leveille, Coleman and D’Abate see nothing but endless possibilities.
“Aesthetically, it’s already a nice facility,” Leveille said. “You throw something like this on top and it has the chance to be one of the best in the state. Coming into the gym would make a big difference for our kids as far as a pride perspective and people from the outside looking to possibly come here.”
“As a coach, I don’t think I could put it into words,” D’Abate said. “It would be a huge boost to the school and something we need to be desperately competitive with other schools around the state.”
“Bringing in a wood floor would take it to another level,” Coleman said. “It shows the administration cares and the Mount alumni/community still has a vested interest to make something happen.”
Sports such as basketball and volleyball were meant to be played on hardwood, not on a floor resembling a rocky ocean. In the nottoo-distant future, perhaps Mount St. Charles will be able to make a hard claim to the former as opposed to the latter.