Catalina Island Ballroom Gets a Workout as a Ball Room for High School Squads

When the elegant Casino ballroom was built on Santa Catalina Island in 1929, no one ever dreamed the name would be taken literally.

Not until September, when Avalon High School’s basketball team found itself with no place to play.

That is when the ballroom became the ball room.

On Friday night, both boys and girls teams played their first games beneath the chandelier of the ornate casino’s ballroom. The school’s regular gym has been closed for asbestos removal, and all home games have been scheduled at the casino.

The bounce of basketballs, the screech of tennis shoes and the cheers of the home crowd echoed across the hardwood floor where, in the 1940s and 1950s, couples in tuxedos and gowns swayed to the big-band music of Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton.

When the Lancers took the court, it marked the most unusual use of the ballroom since Gene Autry’s horse Champion took the casino stage in the late 1940s.

“This will be the definite season to remember,” said forward Roberto Tejeda, 16.

The ballroom’s atmosphere of sports in the round is “like being inside of an arena, and no one else has a view like that,” said boys’ basketball Coach Dave Lassiter.

On Saturday, the Avalon girls’ varsity team defeated Marymount 45-41 in double overtime. The boys’ varsity team, meanwhile, lost to Santa Margarita, 68-61.

“The lighting is not perfect, but the athletes and fans and coaches from both sides were thrilled with the experience,” Avalon Principal Jon Meyer said.

Housed in the round, columned casino building on the north side of Avalon, the ballroom has a panoramic ocean view, an elegantly appointed interior and a maple dance floor surrounded by tables and chairs--some elevated for a better view of the dance floor and stage.

Transforming the dance floor into a temporary basketball court was a long shot from the beginning, said Ron Doutt, a spokesman for the Santa Catalina Island Co., which owns the casino. He was approached by Meyer with the unusual request.

Some of the problems were obvious, Doutt said.

“We’ve got a beautiful chandelier,” Doutt said. “How do you protect it from someone throwing a length-of-court ball or, in his exuberance at the end of a game, throwing the ball up in the air? And does a basketball bounce true on a floor made for dancing? How do tennis shoes work on a floor made for dancing?”

But Meyer, Doutt and Santa Catalina Island Co. President Paxson Offield tackled the problems, working with casino operations director Billy Delbert and Ron Tessada, maintenance director for the Long Beach Unified School District. Avalon schools are part of the Long Beach system.

To brighten the subdued dance floor lighting, theater lights were suspended from a ceiling truss that surrounds and protects the chandelier, Doutt said. Tape instead of paint was used to outline the court. A portable scoreboard was installed.

Then the goal became installing the baskets.

Two professional-quality movable basketball goals, each weighing 3,200 pounds and costing $8,000, were ordered from a firm in Seattle. While being shipped from the Northwest, however, the backboards were shattered in a freeway accident.

A second pair of goals made it as far as San Pedro before they too were shattered, this time in a dock mishap. Finally a third pair made it all the way to Avalon, arriving a week after practices were scheduled to start.

The school paid for the new goals, and the Santa Catalina Island Co. is picking up the remainder of the costs, said Doutt, who declined to specify the amount. There is no charge to the school for use of the building, he said.