New gym at McIntosh to seat fans on four sides

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

For years, McIntosh High basketball teams have played home games in a dark, cramped gym known for an odd design that had fan seating only on one side.

But come January, the Chiefs will begin playing in the newest gym among Fayette County’s five high schools, and the only one that is “in the round.”

Principal Tracie Fleming anticipates the new 1,700-seat facility will give the Chiefs an extra home court advantage because it will be the first high school gym in the area with fan seating on all four sides, like in a traditional arena.

McIntosh’s winter sports teams will be able to play at least the second half of their seasons in the new gym, which should be finished by the end of December.

Klaus Darnell, construction supervisor for the Fayette County School System, said last week he’s confident work will be done and the building open to students when they return to campus after the holiday break Jan. 4, 2005.

That’s just in time for the start of the region schedules for both the basketball and wrestling programs.

However, delivery of the end-zone sections of bleachers has been delayed due to an error in measurements, Darnell told members of the Board of Education last week. The seats should be in place by early February, he said.

But in the meantime, the bleachers down each side of the court will hold about 1,200 fans for basketball games, Darnell said. That alone will be a change for the Chiefs, who’ve had to put up with the current gym since the school was built in 1982.

The new building gives McIntosh a P.E. facility on par with the county’s other high schools. In addition to expanded classroom space, coaches offices, locker rooms and an elevated walking track, the gym floor is big enough to accommodate two full-sized basketball courts when the bleachers are pushed in, and four wrestling mats.

This week, workers are expected to begin laying and snapping into place the wooden slats of the gym floor — one of the last big jobs necessary to get the building ready by Christmas.

Once laid, the floor will be sanded and varnished several times, then stripped and varnished again. The McIntosh Chief emblem will be painted center court.

The gym has taken about 18 months to complete, but it won’t relieve construction mess right away.

It’s just part of nearly $6 million in upgrades to the McIntosh campus that began in June 2003.

Also around the end of the year, a new kitchen will be complete to serve the school’s cafeteria. But it will take a couple of months before the old kitchen can be demolished and gutted to provide expanded dining space for students.

Also in January, crews that have been working on the new gym will turn their attention to the old one, which will be converted into a fine arts center.

Fleming showed plans for the auditorium that will be carved out of the existing gym, taking advantage of the rise in the concrete bleachers. The stage will be replaced and will actually be bigger than the one at new auditoriums at Sandy Creek and Whitewater high schools, Fleming said. Each end of the old gym space will be walled over to create classrooms, storage areas and back-stage access.

Patrons will enter the auditorium through a new lobby and entranceway that it will share with the new gym.

If all goes as planned, the auditorium will be complete by the time students return to school next August, Darnell said.

The more immediate good news, Fleming said, is that in January the school will regain some of the parking spots it lost to the gym construction, but not all.

The contractor will still need a small staging area between the new gym and the football stadium to do the conversion, but she anticipates several dozen parking spaces will be made available once students return for the second semester.

First on the list of takers: Juniors who’ve been forced to park off campus all year due to the space crunch, Fleming said.