Slip Slidin’ Away, in the Albany Grade School Gym

When I started teaching, the Albany Grade School gym was in another building. To conduct boys PE classes, my buddy, Gerry, had to walk the boys across the large field to the old building. This was also where basketball games were played. In addition, he had to double up his social studies classes to allow time to teach PE. I believe his 7th grade class had 48 students.

Obviously, this was not a great arrangement. The main building was only a year old. It was approved when the  Cordova Nuclear Power plant was  under construction and located within the boundaries of the elementary school district. The gym was left off construction, in order to make sure a quality building with well-equipped classrooms was built. The resulting gym-less building was indeed a quality school. However, the lack of a gym needed correction.

When I arrived, the neighboring district had formed a unit district which included all the area served by its high school. This included the power plant still under construction. Having lost a huge amount of tax base, any gym construction would be based on farm and home property taxes. The business manager was quite conservative (re a tightwad) and he reluctantly agreed to have a gym attached to the school.

During my second year, construction was begun. The good thing was Gerry was able to teach social studies full time and with much smaller classes.The goal was to have the gym open after winter break. Thus began the construction of the very poor quality gym at Albany Grade School. Every shortcut was taken to keep the price down. Instead of brick exterior, the exterior was to be painted cinder block.

The showers in the locker room were so low, even the shortest junior high student had to crouch to use them. The only storage was on top of the locker rooms, but no stairs were built to reach the area. For the first year, a ladder was left leaning against the wall.

To save cost on basketball backboards, the old metal ones were moved from the other gym. Because of the gym floor configuration, these had to hang from the ceiling rather than be attached to the walls.

To attach the backboards, the principal had the local blacksmith (yes we had one in 1970), construct a pipe frame of his design. Volunteers installed these over winter break. Unfortunately there was no provision to add tension to the backboards. A ball hitting them would have its energy absorbed and the ball would not have a true bounce. The result was  just a thud as the ball hit.

With all of these shortcomings, the two worst were the ceiling and the floor. The ceiling was  sheet-rock, with no acoustic tile. The echo in the gym was deafening. High pitched voices from primary students would pierce one’s ears like a dagger. The PE teachers had to wear earplugs. 

On the night of the first home basketball game, the parents were in agony at the echoing sound. Everyone likely left with ringing in their ears. They were not happy.

The floor was tile, not wood as was standard for junior high age students. The length of the floor was so small, the 10 second line for basketball was drawn on both sides of the center jump circle to make enough space to play.

The worst hazard appeared unexpectedly one warm game night in January. The  tile floor gradually started to become very slick. Players could barely walk slowly on the floor let alone run. Running basketball players would, without warning,  lose their footing and fall down or slide into the wall or bleachers. 

The cause of the danger was moisture. A northwest door emptied directly outside instead of the normal two door entry system. Cold air could easily maneuver under the door. On foggy nights, moisture condensed on the floor beginning near the doorway. As the night got cooler, the moisture would appear further onto the basketball floor. Albany was a river town and foggy nights were common.

Parent and staff complaints eventually convinced the business manager to authorize retro fit to the ceiling. Acoustical tile was glued over the sheet-rock over spring break. The only solution to the floor moisture was to place a towel on the floor by the door to cut down on cool air entering and absorb moisture. It did not solve the problem.

While I was in the army, a wall was placed above the locker room and metal stairs were purchased. At least one had access to storage.

Gerry was amazing at raising funds, and eventually acquired glass backboards for the gym, and this solved the rebound problem He also added a display for the players’ names, donated in memory of one of his players, and  is in the photo of the two of us above the locker rooms. Gerry's efforts made the Albany gym feel like home.

Rick and Gerry BBall coaches

Sometime after I left Albany the glued up acoustic fell. Fortunately no one was injured. A few years later, the school district closed the school and sold it to a church. It was a sad end to a building that served students so well, except of course, for the gym.

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