Major renovations set for both school gyms

The athletic facilities at Sevier Middle are about to receive a major facelift. Kingsport City Schools plans to rebuild the Sprankle gym floor and resurface, repaint, and restripe the big gym floors.

Marty Moore is the athletic director at Sevier Middle. He believes these upgrades and repairs are incredibly important.

“We hosted nearly 100 basketball games this year alone in the Big Gym along with Sevier volleyball games, not to mention all the other uses that our gyms are used for, such as outside rentals, band performances, etc.,” he said. “These games alone are our main source of income to our athletic programs. We also host state qualifying tournaments, as well, so keeping the condition of our facility at a top-notch level is required and necessary.”

Members of the coaching staff believe this would be a good change, since there are many problems with the gym floors, especially in the Sprankle gym.

“I am very happy about the floor being renovated,” dean of students and coach Stephen Baker said. “It needed to be done a few years ago.”

Chris Carr, an assistant baseball coach, agreed.

“The Sprankle gym is in desperate need of renovation,” he said. “We had a water leak a while back that severely damaged the floor.”

That is why Kingsport City Schools plans to completely replace the floor.

“The existing floor is going to be removed, repairs to the existing subfloor will be made, and a new floor installed and painted,” Moore said. “There is some damage and deterioration with parts of the floor in the Sprankle Gym which is going to be diagnosed and remedied before a new floor is installed. It appears that moisture has become prevalent under parts of the floor and that moisture is causing the wood to rot and slightly buckle.”

The big gym will also receive some work, but not as much as the Sprankle gym.

“The Big Gym floor is going to get a total resurfacing, which means they will sand the wood completely smooth removing all of the current paint, lines, and blemishes,” Moore said. “Then, the entire gym will be painted and re-striped and look as good as new.”

Once those repairs are complete, the main challenge will be to keep the floors in good condition.

“I would think the biggest challenge with the gym floor is the variety of use each floor receives,” Carr said. “Besides being used at least 6 times per day for PE classes, after school sports also use them for practices. Obviously, basketball and volleyball are indoor sports, but, football, baseball, softball, cheer, dance, and even track use the gyms for practice when there is inclement weather.”

Wellness teacher Juliun Price is excited about the upgrades.

“One thing I’ve noticed about John Sevier Middle is that it gets used by surrounding areas a lot,” he said. “It would be nice to have a new floor to show off.”

The age of the floors plays a big role in the kind of repairs they need.

“The Sprankle gym has had this problem for years and it had a ‘patch-work’ repair about 8-10 years ago with the same major problem that has resurfaced,” Moore said. “I have tried to find out how old the wood floor is in the Sprankle gym but I cannot pinpoint an age. When the school was rebuilt in 1997, the big gym was a new structure with a new floor but the Sprankle Gym is part of the old building and I am not sure the floor was replaced.”

The Sprankle gym once served as the gym of the original Dobyn-Bennett High School. Parts of the original Sevier building date back to the early 1900s.

“In the small gym, the biggest problem is that the floors are old and in need of a huge renovation.” Price said, “If you go down there, you can see some of the floor rotting away.”

Major renovations like that can have a major impact on wellness classes and athletics.

“It depends on when they are scheduled to be renovated,” Jesse McCormick, a basketball coach, said. “If it is during the school year, then wellness classes will have to combine in the big gym or go outside. Sports programs shouldn’t be impacted too much because spring sports take place outdoors and not too much happens during the summer.”

The KCS Board of Education voted in April to award the contract for the gym floor renovations to Finchum Sports Floors. The total cost of the project bid was $219,938.00.  Work is set to begin 14 days after Finchum receives the notice to proceed. The work should be completed by August 1, 2023.

Some of the athletes think the gym floors actually don’t need renovation.

“I think that they are not in that bad of a condition,” 8th grade basketball player Cooper Armstrong said.

Daniel Pond, an 8th grade football player, agreed.

“The Sprankle gym is decent,” he said. “I like them as they are.”

Moore hopes that the repairs of the gym floors are just the start and that there will be further upgrades.

“We are currently working on upgrading the sound system for various uses, not just athletics, as well as working with the Wellness department about installing a video board or screen and projector combination,” he said.