By STEFAN MODRICH, Staff Writer
This summer has been a busy one for St. Joseph Academy athletic director Tino Villarreal.
He is overseeing several facility upgrades on campus, including the removal of the Memorial Gymnasium floor and work on a new girls locker room.
He said that now is the perfect time to make the improvements, with no students on campus and therefore no worries of interrupting summer school or sports camps with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic ongoing.
“It’s a big deal for our campus, because most everyone who’s gone to (SJA) who’s still alive has played on that floor,” Villarreal said. “So preserving it is huge. We’re taking our time removing it, cutting it up. We’re going to sell it by the square foot.”
In an Instagram post last Thursday, the school announced its plan to sell pieces of the floor as keepsakes and auction off more prized areas like the painted baseline sections and center court circle, which have been kept intact. The proceeds of the sale will help pay for the new floor.
The project to replace the 53-year-old gym floor began in earnest a year and a half ago, but its origins can be traced back 15 years to a group of alumni that started a fund to maintain the historic gymnasium. The SJA Alumni Golf Committee and Donna Barron, vice president of academy advancement and alumni affairs, have spearheaded the efforts to fundraise for the new gym floor.
The old floor is only the second hardwood surface the building has used, after the first was ruined by water damage from Hurricane Beulah in 1967.
“After 53 years of wear and tear and many sandings and paintings, it was just time for us to get a new floor,” Villarreal said. “The floor began to crack, and little things here and there, it was starting to have more dead spots.”
The SJA AD has been involved in a hands-on way with the early phases of the renovation — he applied a coat of varnish to the old floor before it was disassembled. He and the school administration have anticipated a large demand from the community and have been fielding several questions about availability and pricing from alumni and parents.
“Everyone’s asking,” Villarreal said. “Right now, it’s just about drumming up interest. We’re not trying to sell the old floor to pay for the new floor, obviously. They’re still trying to figure out a price tag. It’s just gonna be something that can be affordable and fun for a lot of alumni to be able to buy it. … If it’s meaningful for them to have a slab of the floor to put in their man cave, or square footage to put in their office, whatever they desire.”