Athletics director looks forward to McAlester Activities Center completion
Dec. 19—James Singleton inspected the room from underneath his hard hat as echoes of construction machinery bounced off the walls of the upcoming McAlester Activities Center.
The McAlester Public Schools athletics director said he was pleased with the progression of the facility, and is looking forward to the project's completion in the coming months.
"It's going really, really well," Singleton said. "Currently, it's on track for a mid-May completion, as far as them handing us the keys. Obviously during the summer, we'll have to utilize that time putting gadgets in it."
Voters in the McAlester Public Schools district overwhelmingly approved a $34.9 million bond toward construction of the facilities and a new middle school during in February 2021. The bond extended two previous measures that brought an 8% tax increase in 2019, but did not increase taxes moving forward.
Work began in November 2021 on the facility — which is now nearing the final stages of construction heading into the early months of 2023.
Affectionally dubbed "the MAC," Singleton said the athletic department is already planning events for the next academic school year in the new facility.
"We'll be able to start utilizing it this summer," he said. "Going into the fall, we already have a volleyball tournament scheduled August 25-26...we've set the court up where we can run two games simultaneously on the court."
Singleton said that format will be mostly used for sub-high school varsity matches, but the site will allow the district to centralize volleyball events instead of at two sites across town in recent years.
The MAC will be the primary home for McAlester volleyball, basketball, and wrestling with locker rooms and coaches offices, with spaces for the Pride of McAlester band and junior high athletics as well.
He also said historic Bob Brumley Gymnasium isn't going anywhere and will still see plenty of use.
"We're going to have to still juggle some things... but Brumley is still going to be heavily used," Singleton said. "The one thing with any new facility is we want to minimize wear and tear, and at the same time, maximize and find a balance with the facility itself."
Bob Brumley Gymmnasium is named after the former McAlester basketball coach. He started his coaching career in 1949 at Moss, and the next year at Wetumka before becoming a mainstay at McAlester, where he finished with a 423-185 record and six state tournament appearances from 1951-1977.
Brumley was enshrined in the Oklahoma Coach Association, Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Association All Star, East Central University and Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Association Halls of Fame — then posthumously inducted as the first coach in the McAlester Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.
Singleton touted Brumley Gymnasium's history and said MPS will keep banners in place — and there are talks to move the Athletic Hall of Fame to the MAC, or possibly have something at both sites.
"We are going to create some banners to put over there," Singleton said. "With all the success we've had, if we move everything over there, we eliminate wall space. So we want to utilize that as well."
But in the end, Singleton is excited about what opportunities the MAC will bring not just to the school but the surrounding community as well. And he has talked to a lot of community members about doing more events to bring schools and people to McAlester — bringing tourism and business to the southeastern Oklahoma hub.
"One of the things that we have to embrace here is we are kind of a travel town. When we get on the bus, we usually have to travel (long distances)," Singleton said. "But if we're hosting...we could stay home, and our community could come out and watch our kids, and support our kids.
"Hosting events like basketball tournaments, volleyball tournaments where we have multiple teams that are coming into our community, that's a big victory for everybody," he said.
Contact Derek Hatridge at dhatridge@mcalesternews.com.
