The Summer Olympics aren’t the only exciting races going on right now. West Side Christian is scheduled to open its volleyball season on Aug. 20 against Taylor. The game is scheduled to be held at the West Side gymnasium. But the floor in the gym has been damaged by water and not ready for competition.
Athletic director Randall Miller is hopeful the floor will be repaired by the season opener but said it’s not really up to the school at this point.
“It’s supposed to be finished at the end of next week. We don’t play a game until the 20th, so it should be done by then,” said Miller. “Next week is the only time they can attack it. I don’t know how long it will take them because they have to sand it down some more, re-paint it. I don’t know how long it will take.”
Miller said a leak from the roof caused water to seep through the wall and under the gym floor.
“Apparently it had done that for a while. We had the roof fixed. There was something coming in under those back doors. We had that fixed. Now we’re redoing the floor. They had to strip it and let it dry out, I guess, all summer.”
Meanwhile, the Lady Warriors have had to adjust to not having a practice floor.
“The floor has hindered us some as far as diving and getting balls,” said Coach Shelby Jones. “Without the finish on, it doesn’t play very friendly to the skin. We couldn’t miss practice due to the floor so we have just made the adjustments needed.”
In case the floor isn’t ready for competition, Miller said a contingency plan is in place to simply switch home games to the road.
As of right now, Taylor is still scheduled to play at West Side in the opener.
“It should be here. We should be able to play. We will see,” said Miller.
“We don’t anticipate losing any (games). That’s assuming these people come down when they say and get done when they say which is kind of out of our control.”