The Noah Harris Center is just one facet of the current athletic undertakings by the Gilmer County School System.
The spoils of the special purpose local option sales tax will finance facility reshuffling designed to streamline operations, while other locations are receiving a face-lift.
The Larry Walker Education Center’s (LWEC) gym and adjacent weight room will be the new location of the NHC. The gym and its surrounding interior rooms will serve as an all encompassing wrestling facility for both GHS and Clear Creek Middle School.
Some basketball stanchions will remain, and the main gym area will be utilized for both practices and events. The on-site weight room will be converted into the practice room for GHS cheer and dance.
Gilmer’s director of maintenance and facilities, Thomas Griffith, discussed the changes, which will take place over the summer.
“Wrestling is such a big sport for us as far as the number of kids,” he said. “Being able to go down there and occupy that gym and the wrestling room that is attached to the LWEC allows middle school and high school boys and girls to all practice in the same place. Since it’s already equipped with rest rooms and concessions, they can also host matches.
“The way we thought about it was Noah Harris was a wrestler and football player here, so it’s also right next to the football stadium. He went on to cheer at Georgia. So it’s all going to be right there together. To me, it exemplifies all Noah Harris did as an athlete.”
The current location of the NHC — next to the GHS gym — housed cheerleaders in the summer and fall months, while the space was occupied by wrestlers in the winter. That structure is transforming into the new weight room, and flooring is being installed this week.
“The new weight room is much larger and will be able to house more students safely,” said county athletic director Paul Standard. “We can potentially have two weight training classes going on at the same time with two sets of coaches. It will also keep all of our students on our school campus, meaning they won’t have to drive back and forth to Larry Walker.”
The old bus maintenance building above Huff-Mosley Memorial Stadium is being transformed into a multipurpose athletic facility. It will have a rubberized floor and contain two basketball stanchions. It has not been designated for any specific sport or activity, but will be available when needed.
“It was an existing building, and it’s the exact same size of the current Noah Harris Center,” Griffith noted. “We thought, ‘Why tear this down?’ We can always use another indoor space.”
The parking lot next to the multipurpose facility, as well as the adjacent lot, have been rerouted. The new traffic patterns have resulted in more parking spaces, and Griffith said there are currently 300 spots above the stadium.
CCMS is making changes as well. The weight room inside the gym will now occupy a larger room that can accommodate up to 50 students. The practice space for cheerleaders has also been relocated.
The 16-year-old sound system at the stadium was replaced, and a new scoreboard is on the way. The track’s asphalt will be resealed and painted. The field’s undulations will be laser leveled in the coming weeks, and the Bobcats will finally enjoy a flat playing surface.
“That field has never been very level,” Griffith said. “It’s got a lot of ruts and stuff in it. We’re going to till that entire thing down, laser level it and put new Bermuda sod on it.”
An asphalt pad near the stadium’s entrance will contain two full basketball courts for gym classes.
Future athletic facility changes could be in the works, according to the map on the school system’s website.
One project includes the installation of an artificial playing surface at the GHS baseball stadium. It would also be used for softball in the fall, and the current site of the softball field would be converted into Gilmer High’s tennis courts. The system is exploring the idea of building an auxiliary gym at the site of the current tennis courts. The GCSS also plans to alter the gym at Mountain View Elementary.
All aforementioned future construction projects will require approval from the Gilmer County Board of Education, which has yet to formally discuss them in a public setting.