New Gym in Orangefield

[Bobcatfan4life]

Story from the Orange Leader:

Bobcats moving from old school to modern-day

Jason Rollinson

The Orange Leader

The construction progress of the new gymnasium-bandhall at Orangefield High School is moving along quite well and Bobcat fans may soon be cheering for the orange-and-white in a much spacious and modern facility.

Workers are beginning the 4-5 week process of installing the maple hardwood floor in the gym and school officials are optimistic that it will be completed in time for school to start.

While the old gym exhibited the "old-school" style of basketball with its "Hoosiers-like" setup, its obsolete and outdated amenities leave Bobcat players and fans yearning for more, especially when the air-conditioning system struggles to keep up.

"I love the old gym, always will," said Lady Bobcats Girls Athletic Coordinator and Head Basketball Coach Sondra Ancelot. "A lot of us grew up playing in that gym and it always gives you a special feeling. It's a great place to play and still is, especially when basketball season starts. But it's tough working out in there year-round, especially as hot as it gets around here. We're so thrilled about the new gym but there will still be plenty of chances to play in the old one, especially when our tournament rolls around."

Assistant superintendent Philip Welch is also optimistic about rolling out the new gym.

"There's still going to be sentiment in the old gym, but it won't just disappear altogether," said Welch. "It will allow us to have tournament games in two locations on the high school campus and also make it possible for two subvarsity games to go on at the same time."

The development of the new gymnasium was made possible when Orangefield ISD voters approved the $11.5 million bond that also included improvements to all three campuses.

The new gym will hold a capacity of 1,000 fans, with around two-third of the seats planted on the home side.

In the old gym, fans on both sides were forced to share one set of small-scaled restrooms and an undersized concession stand, but the new gym calls for two sets of restrooms, one for the home team and one for the visitor, along with a concession stand that is planted near a foyer with a window to catch the action with, similar to what Bridge City has.

The dressing rooms move from an odorous, cramped-in, hot locker room to spacious and clean along with scoreboard clocks to see how much time is left until the start of the game or second half.

The storage closets go from a caged-in place to several places inside the new gym and both the girls and boys coaches and physical education staffs will have their own offices inside the new building.

"The new locker rooms are so nice," said OF boys basketball coach Rea Wrinkle. "The ones in the old one, you were always bumping in to everybody and it was always so hot. The whole facility is going to be so nice. It's much more spacious then we ever imagined. I think our fans are really going to like it."

The gym might be the newest facility around, but it's certainly not the only one.

"Silsbee, Kirbyville and Bridge City all have fairly-new gyms, so the construction of ours keeps us in line with the other teams in our district," said Welch. "We still have another phase to complete the bond issue and that will involve expanding the field house and weight room."

Hurricane Rita wiped out the softball field, forcing Coach Wanda McLane's team to play all road games, but they should be able to have home games this season, according to Morrison.

"The field is a work in progress, but the land (adjacent to the baseball field) is already surveyed and is just waiting for the weather to clear up so we can get the dirt out there," said OF athletic director Blake Morrison. "Our plan is to have it ready to play on this year."

Morrison sees the progress as necessary, especially when competing against the likes of other 3A schools.

"After our gym and softball field is completed, our facilities will be just as good or better than most schools in the area," he said. "Our school keeps growing and we've got to be sure that our kids have it just as good as any other school our size."

Rita also reaked havoc on the football scoreboard, but a new one, valued around $36K replaced it earlier this month, along with a pair of 25-second clocks.

"We moved the scoreboard a little and also have caught up with the current technology and have LED lights and a wireless setup," said Morrison.

You can bet that the brand new scoreboard will be lighting up next month as Coach Morrison welcomes back his second group of players when equipment is issued on August 7.

The first day of contact will be August 11 and the Bobcats will scrimmage Huffman (Aug. 19) and Deweyville (Aug. 26) before opening up the 2006 football season on the road at Buna on September 1.