CALEDONIA — Caledonia High School unveiled its new multi-use gymnasium on Monday, with the first official games set to take place in just two weeks.
“I think it’s amazing,” basketball player Charlie Sullivan said. “We’re very blessed to have it and I’m excited to be able to play here for my senior year.”
Sullivan and a few other Cavalier athletes showed up for a shootaround to appear on television, and though he was in his Crocs, he twice attempted to dunk. It’s the first of many ventures onto the court for him and his teammates, and he’ll probably be hoping his next dunk attempt will be made in basketball shoes.
“Today is my first time actually seeing the whole thing from the inside. We haven’t had a shootaround yet, but I expect us to play to the way it looks. We want to be a great team and go far in the playoffs.”
The new gymnasium is a roughly 26,000 square-foot facility that sits at the entrance to campus in what used to be an empty field. It features a state-of-the-art video board and sound system that will be put to use for boys and girls basketball and girls volleyball games. It also includes offices for each head coach, storage rooms for equipment, three separate home locker rooms and areas for the basketball and volleyball teams, visitor locker rooms for boys and girls, a weight room, a hospitality room and even a separate room for referees.
The facility cost approximately $7.3 million, according to principal Gregory Elliott.
“It’s been a long time coming,” boys basketball head coach Jonathan Comer said of the facility. “We’ve had a one-sided gym for a long time and we’ve outgrown it. Fans being on the same side is never a great thing, but with the increased size of the school we can’t even host our pep rallies in the old gym anymore. Another reason was hosting tournaments isn’t possible because they want the fans separated on two sides.”
Superintendent Sam Allison, assistant superintendent Matt Keith and principal Elliott were on site for the official walkthrough on Monday, and Comer and volleyball head coach Samantha Brooks were there to help show media around and oversee a shootaround by a few Cavalier players.
“We’re extremely blessed to reap the benefits of it,” Comer continued. “The administration kind of took it off the ground and I took a step up as far as getting the sports-related and office insight in here. Not the building itself but what makes it a facility.”
Comer is the current resident expert on how to operate the video board and is taking it upon himself to find other coaches and parents to help run it. He also has past experience with operating video boards from his time at South Pontotoc, and noted that they’ve already been able to raise $20,000 from ad sales for this year alone.
The old gym will continue to be used for practice for each team while they’re out of season, junior varsity games and assemblies, pageants and concerts.
Coach Brooks’ volleyball team will be the first ones up to utilize the facility with their season starting in August, and she’s already appreciative of the new spaces for each team after years of sharing storage, office, and locker room spaces.
“We have our own locker rooms, our own storage room so we can have it all in one place, and we’re excited that we’ve been able to run two courts in practice and be more specific with our training,” she said. “It makes a big difference. We’re excited about having a home side and visitors side as well, and of course the video board is so exciting as well.”
The first volleyball game is on Aug. 6 against Louisville, with a celebratory team introduction ceremony scheduled for July 30 where fans can see the new court and watch the team take on a team of coaches from other sports.
“We’re hoping that we’ll have a big turnout for our Meet the Lady Cavs (event),” Brooks said. “We’ll have band, cheer, and dance perform, (and) it brings a lot of families and students, but we’re hoping it’ll be even bigger this year because of the hype going around about the new gym.”
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