Holmes County's 'hidden gem' Ohio Floor making its mark in the basketball world

PRAIRIE TWP. – Not every high school basketball player gets to perform on college courts or those of NBA arenas.

But some former players from this area have helped make the floors on which the college and professional basketball games are played.

Larry Wade, marketing director for The Ohio Floor Company near Shreve, said he and another company executive, Kevin Miller, grew up playing basketball for Garaway.

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"We loved the game and we often talk about where we came from, and now we're doing NBA floors," said Wade, who joined the company in the late 1980s. "We were doing little gym floors here and there. There were six of us back then. If you would have told us what we're doing now, we'd have thought you were crazy."

Ohio Floor has grown by leaps and bounds over the last three decades.

"We've done floors for the Olympics, sent floors overseas. We did floors for the World Cup in China," Wade said. "To think that this is even possible is a testament to the owners of the company and their willingness to take some chances to expand into that realm."

Steve Yoder started Ohio Floor with a few accounts he had purchased from a relative, George Bear of Bear Floor Sanding in Sugarcreek, in the early 1980s.

"He's taken it from one guy and a sander to an international company some 35, 40 years later," Wade said. "This company has grown through good work and word-of-mouth. The work basically sells itself."

Wade learned the business from the ground up — literally. He began his career cutting and sanding the floors, eventually moving into marketing for the company.

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Wade calls Ohio Floor one of the hidden gems of Holmes County. The main office is on County Road 1, just west of state Route 83. They also have a warehouse in the Holmesville Industrial Park on County Road 245.

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In a 30,000-square-foot building near Holmesville, employees do the finishing work on portable floors for the NCAA and the NBA, Wade said.

"I often wonder how many people drive past there daily and have no idea of what's going on in those buildings," he said.

"It's local people doing all the work. We don't ship people in from across the country," he continued. "It's people who grew up in this area who have made a career out of working on these high-profile floors."

The company is focusing on NCAA floors through the end of February so the product will be ready in time for March Madness.

"It's pretty cool to see the floors being worked on in this warehouse, and then a month later seeing it on TV at one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the NCAA Final Four tournament," he said. "And the floor was done right here in our own backyard."

How Ohio Floor made it to the big leagues

The company also has a residential side, making flooring for bedrooms, kitchens and hallways. They will refinish existing hardwood floors, or install new pre-finished flooring, and unfinished material, where the sanding and finishing is done onsite.

"The NCAA is where the interest lies for a lot of people, but our company does multiple things," Wade said.

A recent expansion allows the company to make customized prefacing of stairs and floors. A graphics arts division produces temporary designs on gym floors.

About 10 years ago, Connor Sports Floors, a manufacturer of portable sports flooring, began subcontracting their finishing work to The Ohio Floor Company, which helped the local business get promoted to the big leagues.

"They send us a floor on a semi," explained Wade. "We unload it and install it in our facility, sand it, paint it, finish it, put it on racks and let it dry. Once it's done, we ship it to wherever they sold it."

For example, the Brooklyn Nets purchases a floor from Connor, which produces it, then ships it to Ohio Floor where it's finished then delivered to its home arena.

Each panel of a basketball court is about the size of a table, said Wade, noting roughly 195 panels make up a floor.

"The panels lock together with a pin, so they become permanently attached together, but not permanently attached to the facility floor," Wade said. "Once you get them all put together, they're so heavy, they are not going anywhere."

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Dave McMillen figures teen basketball fans can get closer to the game and find a career through Ohio Floor.

McMillen is an instructor in the building and trades program at West Holmes Schools.

"A lot of people around here are passionate about basketball," he said, "but statistically speaking, it's going to be hard making a living dribbling a basketball."

Wade said it is important for area companies to build the workforce from the local schools. He said students, and sometimes their teachers, become part of Ohio Floor's summer workforce, when the staff almost doubles in size.

The company works on high school and college gym floors when schools are closed for the summer, said Wade. Projects include tearing out and installing a new flooring, sanding and changing logos, or cleaning floors and adding a fresh finishing coat.

"We have three months to get all that work done, so we bring on extra workers, and those high school students come in and help us," he said.

High school teachers also work at Ohio Floor during the summer leading student crews.

"If you start with a passion for basketball, you could be doing the floor for the New Jersey Nets," said McMillen. "I think that's pretty cool."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Holmes County's Ohio Floor Co. makes its mark from the NCAA to the NBA