BLUE HILL — Opponents of the George Stevens Academy boys basketball team have faced an uphill climb during the second half of road games played at the school in recent years — and it had nothing to do with the numbers on the scoreboard.
Time and gravity had taken their toll on the Eagles’ gymnasium during the 35 years since it first hosted a high school game, leaving one end of the court as much as four to six inches lower than the other end.
“You could set the ball down on the foul line,” said GSA coach Dwayne Carter, “and as fast as you’d walk away from it, it would start rolling and be right on your heels.”
That’s the somewhat funny part. The not-so-funny part is that the floor had gotten to the point where if the Eagles had qualified to host a Class C preliminary-round game last winter — they wound up playing on the road — the game may have been moved out of their home gym.
But now, as the Eagles prepare to open their 2010-11 season at home against Orono on Friday night, that playing field has been leveled thanks to a construction project completed just in time for the start of preseason practices.
“We’d been concerned about it over the last few years,” said GSA athletic administrator Jim Murphy, “so the school decided it needed to do something to rectify the problem. At one point I think we were up on MBR (a sports chat room) as being one of the worst floors in Eastern Maine to play on, mainly because the floor dropped so much at one end. It was pretty obvious, especially to the opposing coaches from where they sat.”
The first phase of a two-phase process to renovate the school’s multipurpose gymnasium provided structural repairs to the building’s foundation, new bleachers, a fresh coat of paint and a new hardwood floor.
And a building once known for its grayness — from the walls to the color of the old basketball court itself — now boasts a sense of newness and brightness that’s not lost on visitors or student-athletes.
“It’s been amazing,” said Murphy from his courtside office at what used to be the lower end of the building. “The kids have been really, really pleased with how the floor reacts and how it plays, how easy it is to run on and jump on, and how everybody seems to have a little more spring when they jump.
“It’s just much more forgiving than the other floor we had, and not only that but they’re also proud that now we have a gymnasium that is as good or better than any other ones we play in.”
Private fundraising has accounted for $700,000 of the $770,000 goal for the two-phase project — the second phase will result in new and improved teaching and learning spaces in the building. Donors and volunteers will be recognized during a ceremony between the junior varsity and varsity games Friday night, according to GSA director of development Rada Starkey.
The GSA gymnasium was built in 1973, and since then has become a center of school and community activities ranging from college fairs to concerts — and, of course, basketball, with the first game played on the gym’s original rubberized court art the start of the 1974-75 season, the year Murphy arrived at the school.
The rubber floor was replaced in 1991, with a few cracks in the foundation also repaired at that time, Murphy said.
But at least in part because one end of the gymnasium was built on ledge while the other end was built on fill, one end of the basketball court began to sink ever so gradually over a period of years.
“Back when we noticed that there was a real drop, we had someone come in and they actually lowered one of the baskets so it would be a little bit better,” Murphy said. “As far as shooting from the foul line, we were pretty much at 15 feet in terms of distance and 10 feet as far as height, but underneath the basket you were a little bit lower and it was probably a couple of inches higher that you’d have to shoot. Unfortunately, the lowest point of the floor was right at one of the blocks near the basket. If you’re looking at the basket, it was on the low left block and that was the lowest point of the floor.
“The other thing was that in the second half of games we were always going downhill, and the visiting team was going downhill in the first half. It was kind of subtle, but that big dip near the basket was the obvious drop.”
The sloping court proved frustrating not only to visiting teams, but to the home teams as well, though GSA teams tried to make the best of the situation.
“We used to laugh about it,” said Carter. “We’d have running drills, and the guys would head down to the low end of the court and say, ‘We’ve got to go down to the pit and run the hill.’”
The GSA boys team typically shot at the lower end during the second half of games, and it didn’t always work to the Eagles’ advantage — particularly when grabbing offensive rebounds at the lowest point of the court near the basket.
“Our shooting percentage at that end was not very good in the second half because we missed so many put-backs,” said Carter. “The other team went uphill in the second half, but at least their end of the court was level.”
But on the day after graduation this June things began to change, as construction crews from Ellsworth-based E.L. Shea Inc. began work removing all the cement under where the gymnasium floor and two adjacent offices were located, initially leaving nothing but dirt.
“Then they had to sink pylons quite a ways down to where they hit ledge,” said Murphy, “They had to put quite a few in on this end so it would not sink again, then they put steel concrete beams across and then they got set up to pour the concrete.”
Once the concrete was poured and allowed to cure, the new hardwood floor was installed, with the project being completed a week before the start of basketball season.
Players and coaches have found the new court much more forgiving on their legs than its rubberized predecessor.
“I know when we had tryouts I was on the new floor for four straight hours and my legs never felt it,” said Carter. “Before it would have killed me.”
Perhaps more important, the refurbished facility also has revitalized team pride.
“The kids are so excited about it,” said Carter. “Before they were embarrassed and we kind of lost our spirit a bit. But this really has fired everybody up. It’s an exciting time right now, and I’m especially happy for the seniors because they didn’t think they’d ever get to play on a court like this.”
