BY PHILLIP WILLIAMS
Sports Correspondent
GILMER—An open house will be held sometime next month for the new $2.3 million Gilmer High School athletic field house at Buckeye Stadium.
The athletic program moved into the facility a few weeks ago from the old nearby field house, the oldest part of which was constructed in 1962, said Gilmer Independent School District officials.
The former field house had problems ranging from overcrowding and staph infections to plumbing woes and leaking, school officials said.
The 16,000 square-foot new structure, which is more than triple the size of the old one, will house not only one of the premiere football programs in East Texas, but each sport in Gilmer ISD.
“It’s nice,” head football coach/athletic director Jeff Traylor said while showing the facility to a representative of the Tyler Paper on Thursday. “My kids are just so proud of it, and we’re (coaches) proud of it, too.”
“They’re already proud of the program,” said Traylor, whose Buckeyes have won a state championship while going 71-14 in his seven years of coaching his alma mater. “This (the new building) has put ‘em to another level.”
Indeed, he said, since the team won more than 70 games while housed in the aging field house, he expects more wins in the next seven years.
After all, the new edifice offers several advantages over the Buckeyes’ former quarters, according to Traylor and Gilmer ISD superintendent Rick Albritton.
For one thing, Traylor noted, his players no longer must share lockers. The football program probably has 170 players, and the old facility contained room for only about 85, he said.
Indeed, Albritton said Friday, the old facility posed “an accident waiting to happen” because it was too small for the number of athletes using it.
In addition, the new facility’s weight room—which has all new equipment—is double the size of the old weight room, enabling all players to work out simultaneously, Traylor said.
And since staph infections were a “terrible” problem in the old field house, the new one has no carpet, a measure aimed at greatly reducing the risk of that headache, the coach said. The new facility has rubber flooring.
Besides its other features, the newly-built structure houses three locker rooms (for the varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen); and separate offices for Traylor, athletic secretary Amy Ward, the offensive coaching staff, and the defensive coaching staff.
Said Albritton, “They’re (athletes) gonna take care of it, and they deserve it.”
Visitors who enter find “Gilmer Buckeyes” in orange letters on a black floor. There is also a trophy case, and a separate special glass-enclosed display with mementoes of Gilmer’s winning the 2004 Class 3A Division II state championship.
Among those items is a congratulatory letter from President Bush dated April 2005.
Traylor said he, his brother, assistant coach Kurt Traylor; team trainer Steve York; and Albritton visited numerous other schools’ field houses to glean ideas for the new Gilmer facility. Most of those field houses were built in recent years, he said.
RPR Construction Co., Inc., of Tyler was general contractor for the project, while Thacker/Davis Architect Inc. of Longview designed the brick-and-cinder-block building.
Albritton said the project was financed by a combination of bond issue funds and savings. The building and new adjoining parking lot cost about $1.85 million, while the school spent an additional $450,000 for land preparation (an approximately 250-foot culvert to re-direct a creek), he said.
As for the old building, Traylor said it is being used as a mat room for agility drills, tumbling, and flips, as well as for storage. Albritton said the old facility had only 3,500 square feet, along with 1,500 in a metal storage building.
Weight equipment from the old weight room, which had been added to the original field house in the 1980s and/or 1990s, was sent to Bruce Junior High School in Gilmer, said Traylor.
“That building has run its course,” he said. Albritton said the school district “got our money’s worth out of it.”
From The Tyler Paper.com and Tyler Morning Telegraph, April 29, 2007
Sports Correspondent
GILMER—An open house will be held sometime next month for the new $2.3 million Gilmer High School athletic field house at Buckeye Stadium.
The athletic program moved into the facility a few weeks ago from the old nearby field house, the oldest part of which was constructed in 1962, said Gilmer Independent School District officials.
The former field house had problems ranging from overcrowding and staph infections to plumbing woes and leaking, school officials said.
The 16,000 square-foot new structure, which is more than triple the size of the old one, will house not only one of the premiere football programs in East Texas, but each sport in Gilmer ISD.
“It’s nice,” head football coach/athletic director Jeff Traylor said while showing the facility to a representative of the Tyler Paper on Thursday. “My kids are just so proud of it, and we’re (coaches) proud of it, too.”
“They’re already proud of the program,” said Traylor, whose Buckeyes have won a state championship while going 71-14 in his seven years of coaching his alma mater. “This (the new building) has put ‘em to another level.”
Indeed, he said, since the team won more than 70 games while housed in the aging field house, he expects more wins in the next seven years.
After all, the new edifice offers several advantages over the Buckeyes’ former quarters, according to Traylor and Gilmer ISD superintendent Rick Albritton.
For one thing, Traylor noted, his players no longer must share lockers. The football program probably has 170 players, and the old facility contained room for only about 85, he said.
Indeed, Albritton said Friday, the old facility posed “an accident waiting to happen” because it was too small for the number of athletes using it.
In addition, the new facility’s weight room—which has all new equipment—is double the size of the old weight room, enabling all players to work out simultaneously, Traylor said.
And since staph infections were a “terrible” problem in the old field house, the new one has no carpet, a measure aimed at greatly reducing the risk of that headache, the coach said. The new facility has rubber flooring.
Besides its other features, the newly-built structure houses three locker rooms (for the varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen); and separate offices for Traylor, athletic secretary Amy Ward, the offensive coaching staff, and the defensive coaching staff.
Said Albritton, “They’re (athletes) gonna take care of it, and they deserve it.”
Visitors who enter find “Gilmer Buckeyes” in orange letters on a black floor. There is also a trophy case, and a separate special glass-enclosed display with mementoes of Gilmer’s winning the 2004 Class 3A Division II state championship.
Among those items is a congratulatory letter from President Bush dated April 2005.
Traylor said he, his brother, assistant coach Kurt Traylor; team trainer Steve York; and Albritton visited numerous other schools’ field houses to glean ideas for the new Gilmer facility. Most of those field houses were built in recent years, he said.
RPR Construction Co., Inc., of Tyler was general contractor for the project, while Thacker/Davis Architect Inc. of Longview designed the brick-and-cinder-block building.
Albritton said the project was financed by a combination of bond issue funds and savings. The building and new adjoining parking lot cost about $1.85 million, while the school spent an additional $450,000 for land preparation (an approximately 250-foot culvert to re-direct a creek), he said.
As for the old building, Traylor said it is being used as a mat room for agility drills, tumbling, and flips, as well as for storage. Albritton said the old facility had only 3,500 square feet, along with 1,500 in a metal storage building.
Weight equipment from the old weight room, which had been added to the original field house in the 1980s and/or 1990s, was sent to Bruce Junior High School in Gilmer, said Traylor.
“That building has run its course,” he said. Albritton said the school district “got our money’s worth out of it.”
From The Tyler Paper.com and Tyler Morning Telegraph, April 29, 2007
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