Sylmar Floored by New Digs

Sylmar High’s gym has a new look, one worth the $150,000 cost.

“It’s really beautiful,” Sylmar girls’ basketball Coach Cody Carter said. “It looks a lot bigger, it’s immaculate, and it gives well. I can be on it all day.”

Now, so can Sylmar athletes.

Although refurbishing began in August, the gym was not completed until the middle of last month, and the new floor had its first game played on it when the girls’ basketball team played Grant on Wednesday..

During renovations, no physical education classes were held in the gym, the girls’ volleyball team practiced in a campus multi-purpose room and played matches at Poly High, and the basketball teams practiced on campus outdoor courts and at Sylmar Recreation Center. The basketball teams did not have a home game scheduled during the first half of the season in case the gym was not completed.

“We’ve been shuffled from floor to floor for a while now,” Carter said.

Work included the removal of an antiquated rubberized asphalt floor and installation of an oak hardwood floor.

“We’re back into the 20th century now, going into the 21st,” said Dan Wyatt, Sylmar’s assistant principal in charge of athletics.

In addition, a large blue “S” with the word “Sylmar” to the side of it was painted at midcourt, the gym walls were painted, new basketball rims were installed and the backboards leveled and straightened.

“We put in the new floor, and all of a sudden, the walls looked pretty bad,” Wyatt said. “It’s like when you paint one room and end up doing the whole house.”