The summer has been an unusual one for the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds as far as basketball and volleyball goes, as offseason workouts have been relocated to either Gray Station or Clifton Ridge Middle.
The reason? The JCHS gymnasium has been unable to be used as a result of extensive renovations.
That wait, however, is about to cross the finish line with renovations on target to be complete in time for not only early-season volleyball practice but also the first match of the season Aug.7.
It will start a new era for the gym with one goal in mind — for it to be a place where everyone in and around Gray wants to make their way to for events.
“That’s the goal for us with a brand-new facility, to bring people in. Let’s bring the community in,” Jones County athletic director Charles David said. “Everything we do right now is to bring the city of Gray, Jones County, into this facility and put as many people in here as possible because we want this to be an open door and one where everybody wants to be there.”
As the gym renovations are in their final stages, the new version of the facility can not only be seen but also felt. That feeling is one of a cool rush of air by way of what will be a welcome form of comfort — a new and fully functioning air conditioning system. In recent years, contests and sports camps during warmer times of the year, especially in the late summer, resulted in having a plan to hydrate and large fans on site to blow cool air being part of holding events in the gym.
Those days are now over. “It’s going to allow us to welcome more people because, to be honest, as we get closer to August and September, it’s still hot,” David said. “We had doors open with fans running, trying to get cold air in. There were some cases where people just could not sit through it. Now, you can actually get into a climate-controlled environment.”
Yes, the new AC system will bring a cool feeling. And it’ll be part of a facility that’ll have a cool new look with it having been repainted, the flooring around the walkways being redone, and the bleachers being replaced, matching the colors of the Greyhounds. The bleachers are even designed to spell out “JCHS.”
That, David says, is an intentional element.
“It’s all coming back to Jones County,” David said. “When people walk in there, they realize, ‘Ok, this is Jones County’s house. This is what it’s supposed to look like.”
As for gym’s playing surface? It will also be reworked. Initially, it’ll be resanded with a full replacement in the next few years.
But the new-look gym goes beyond the epicenter of the building. It extends to the facility’s infrastructure, too, where locker rooms with brand new lockers, paint and flooring will await the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds.
“I know the players, when they see the locker room, it’ll mean a lot to them,” David said. “Those things were falling apart. They’re going to flip out when they go in there.”
