PRAIRIE GROVE -- Tiger basketball will have a brand new look for the 2015-2016 school year with construction nearing completion on the new competitive basketball gym.
Work is ongoing with a projected date of Aug. 1 for Prairie Grove High School getting use of the facility according to superintendent of schools Allen Williams. The gym will seat 1,400 fans with additional standing room capacity. Williams estimates the capacity is increased by 400 to 500 seats over the old gym, which to meet Arkansas Activities Association guidelines could seat 1,100 fans. Realistically, Williams says the number of fans which could be seated comfortably in the old facility is more like 800 to 900.
"The fans would have to be pretty thin to get that many in there. When you get 800, 900 people in there it's pretty much full," Williams said. "The new gym will be able to handle 400 to 500 more seating-wise with room to move around."
"There is a lot of little detail stuff left to do, but we're getting close. By the first of August within a month I think we'll be in there."
Williams says part of what is being decided is under review by a committee which is made up mostly of Prairie Grove alumni.
"The committee is thinking of things to go on the walls to honor conference champions, regular [season] champions and state championships, things like that," Williams said.
Coaches aren't allowed to conduct practices until after the dead week is over beyond July 4 but Williams said both head boys basketball coach Steve Edmiston and head girls basketball coach Kevin Froud are starting to get excited about the facility with completion in sight. Furniture still has to be ordered for the coaches' offices and the locker rooms aren't done yet and the sound system still must be completed but the countdown among Tiger fans is on for all systems go.
"We're still working on getting some of the furnishings ready but I'm hoping it will be usable by the first of August, by the time school starts," Williams said.
Williams also calculated the gym, which was lumped in one construction management bid along with work done at the football field including building new concession stands and other school construction, will come in under budget. The total budget was around $14,258,000.
"We were running all projects together," Williams said. "Overall, we expect to come in a little bit under what the total budget was."
Randy Pursell, whose son, Tanner, played on Prairie Grove's 2014 district championship boys team and graduated this spring, admits Tanner was disappointed he didn't get to play in the new facility but Randy told him, "You can say you were the last one [team] in the old gym and hang your hat on that."
"The old gym had its charm, like all old gyms do," Randy said, than added tongue-in-cheek, "I'm sure everybody will miss those 98 degree nights that they had to open the garage door. It was time for a new gym. The new gym, it's phenomenal, it's a beautiful facility. It's fan-friendly."
One green seat has been placed in the new Tiger gym in memory of former Prairie Grove athletic director and coach Mike Green, who passed away nearly a year ago on Aug. 31. Pursell thinks the seat will be roped off so nobody can sit there. This was how the community decided to honor Coach Green's memory and his contributions to Prairie Grove athletics because as Pursell explained, "He was adamant that he did not want the court named after him."
Sports on 07/01/2015