From football, to basketball, to track, Galesburg-area sports facilities get updates
GALESBURG — Galesburg High School's track has been resurfaced.
The cost of the project was $289,325, and it was approved at the February school board meeting.
The work was completed in June and Track Surfaces Company, based in Elburn, installed the mainly charcoal grey surface. The exchange zones are gold.
The old track, which was eight years old, was made of latex and only an eighth of an inch thick. The new surface is polyurethane and a half inch thick.
"It’s more of a beaded than a shredded surface," Galesburg boys track coach Craig Hillier said. "It’s spongey.
"The track that was in there, the surface was coming up," Hillier added. "The branding they've done, too, is so nice. We’ve made it a home instead of a facility.”
More: Galesburg High School's fieldhouse undergoing almost $30,000 branding makeover
“For our athletes that are out there we want them to be able to run on something that is comfortable and safe," said Eric Matthews, Galesburg's athletic director.
Galesburg's Wicall Gym gets facelift
Galesburg's Wicall Gym won't look the same when the 2022-23 school year begins, as it's getting a complete facelift this summer, as are the locker rooms that are, like Wicall, used by Streaks student-athletes and GHS students in general.
A new floor, new mats, new LED lights and a fresh coat of paint are the upgrades Wicall will receive, as well as scoreboards. The lobby inside the building, which was completed in 1993 and contains Mustain Pool and Wicall, will also have new flooring and receive a fresh coat of paint.
The price tag for Wicall’s flooring is $351,760 and the locker room upgrades will cost $152,000. The project was approved at the March school board meeting.
"We think it’s a place once it's done, and we get some seating in there, that we can have some contests in there," Matthews said of Wicall. "It will be huge for practices and to piggyback on top of that we are getting new scoreboards. We have eight new scoreboards — two per court. We have two regulation courts in Wicall and we’ll have four in there.
"In the fieldhouse, we will have two new scoreboards for the wooden court and the court next to it we will have two scoreboards on it," Matthews added. "We’re going to finally get permanent scoreboards on those courts, and it will look really nice. I’m really excited about that.”
The cost for the eight scoreboards is around $52,000, which includes all of the hardware and signage, according to Matthews.
Work on A-Town's Viar Field in progress
Work is still ongoing at Abingdon-Avon High School's Don Viar Memorial Field. The project began early in the spring and is currently on a slight pause.
The old grass sod was ripped out in April, and eventually new sod will be laid. New drainage tiles have been installed and work on a six lane track is also in progress.
At this moment, there's no timeline when things will wrap up, and it is not known if the Tornadoes' football team will be able to have home games in the 2022 season. A-Town's first home contest is slated for Friday, Sept. 2.
"I hope it gets done. We don't really know right now. There's not really a timetable. We've been kind of all over the board on when it may or may not be done," Tornadoes football coach Rick Quinn said. "It will be nice to have a track, and I'm happy for the track kids. They won't be practicing in the hallways and the streets. I think it will be very beneficial to them.
"It will be nice to have a new grass field but maintenance is always an issue, I think," added Quinn, who has been maintaining Viar's playing surface for a dozen years. "It will look good once it's done. I just don't know when it's going to get done."
Four years ago, Quinn and his brother, Jerrad "Boo" Quinn, gathered materials and proposed a turf field and an eight lane track but the idea wasn't approved by A-Town's school board.
"I believed in that project. My brother and I put a lot of work into it," Rick Quinn said. "They're making some improvements now, and I'm excited about it but it would help if I could see a finished project because the season is approaching very fast.
"The sod is supposed to be going down within the next two weeks, which makes Week 2, our first home game, highly unlikely, and you have to hope the sod takes. It is summer in Illinois," Quinn added. "Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the improvements whether I wanted something else or not. I'm happy for the kids. I just hope our seniors get the opportunity to play here."
Mon-Rose's 'Shoebox' has new look
"The Shoebox," Monmouth-Roseville High School's gym, has a new sound system, paint job, and new navy blue seats.
Fans sat on maroon seats previously, which were linked to the days of the Monmouth Zippers. The consolidation as the Titans began in 2005.
Just like every summer, the hardwood was stripped down, sanded and recoated inside "The Shoebox," as well. A new scoreboard will be installed on the west wall early in the fall, as it won't be shipped until mid-September.
“The big thing was to get it all done from the end of May through the month of June," said Jeremy Adolphson, who is the Titans' AD and Mon-Rose's football coach. "It looks like a totally new place when you walk in there. It’s a huge upgrade.
“We did put air conditioning in the gym in 2018, and that was the last major update within the gym," Adolphson added. "I would like to give credit to Dave Greenlief, our maintenance director. He is the one who organizes all of this work along with a very long list of projects in all of the district's buildings."
Matthew Wheaton can be reached at (309) 315-6073 or at mwheaton@register-mail.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewlwheaton
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: New looks: Four Galesburg-area facilities get updates
