School board approves new high school court

The Gonzales High School gym will get a new look after the Gonzales ISD board of trustees passed a list of budget amendments, including moving $15,000 over to refinish the court, instead of its annual waxing and refurbishing.

 “It’s been over 10 years since we’ve had that done,” Gonzales ISD Chief Financial Officer Amanda Smith said at the board meeting Monday. “They want to strip it, repaint a new logo on it and then finish it out very nicely.”

The project is scheduled to begin the week of July 29 and is expected to take up to 15 days to complete, which includes time for the finish to cure. 

“To ensure optimal conditions, the floor project is not scheduled to begin until after the new HVAC unit install is complete,” said Robin Trojcak, the director of public relations. “The floor has not been refinished in at least 14 years.”

Gone will be the faded yellow and in its place a court that matches with the school’s colors.

“I’ve given them what I want but I haven’t seen the final approval sheet but basically, the true Gonzales orange, black and white is going to dominate that court now,” Gonzales Athletic Director Mike Waldie said. “I think there’s some faded yellow, we’re going to try to get rid of that where everything is basically orange and black and then use white to separate the volleyball lines and the court. That’s kind of my vision is that the court, basketball, if you’re just looking at it and able to take everything away you’ll see black or orange and for volleyball you’ll see white, and then we’re still in school colors.”

The Indian logo at center court will be replaced with the Apaches’ “G” logo with the spear across it. The G logo is the same one the baseball team used last season on their caps. 

Since the court has multiple uses like volleyball, cheerleading and both boys and girls basketball, Waldie and his staff agreed that the logo should represent the entire program, not just a specific sport or gender.

“We’re super excited about [the new court], it hasn’t been repainted [in a while],” Waldie said. “We’ve had it waxed and refurbished every year but the paint, and I’ve heard, but I haven’t been able to attend a game yet, but when the lights come on it’s even more dull and I hope this will brighten the whole facility.”

Due to the timing, the Gonzales Lady Apaches volleyball team may have to use the auxiliary gym and the junior high gym until the project is completed. The Lady Apaches host a scrimmage on Aug. 6, but then are away until Aug. 30 when they are scheduled to take on Wimberley at home. As of press time, the scrimmage has been “tentatively moved to the junior high,” Waldie noted.

“Brittney [Oruonyehu], the new coach, she knows there’s probably going to be a delay in the new court,” Waldie continued. “With the nice gym at the junior high and our auxiliary gym, volleyball is basically on standby that hey we’re going to have some conflict in August. Hopefully we don’t but probably going to. But everybody agreed, getting it done now versus putting it off to a really rushed Christmas or into next summer is just not worth it.”

“It’s going to be great when we get it done, it’s going to be beautiful,” Waldie said. “We did this in Woodville and it just changed, we were black and gold there, but it was kind of a dull yellow after the years and it just reminded me when I walked in on how dull that all was, I hope this will be bright, shiny and sharpen up that whole area.