The East Gym floor underwent an overhaul this summer, the lastest improvement in a facilities revitalization project spearheaded by athletic director Mr. Nic Kearfott.

After over two decades of continual use–countless physical education classes, hundreds and hundreds of volleyball and basketball games–the refresh was “absolutely a welcome addition,” veteran P.E. teacher Mr. Marcus Mann said.

While the gymnasium’s floor has been waxed, resurfaced and refinished during Mann’s 18-year tenure at Community, it was time for more drastic maintenance.

The overhaul, head girls basketball coach Mr. Dave Feeney said, was “beyond the point of needing to be done.”

Twenty years of seal coats couldn’t revitalize a dented and dinged floor that had suffered the abuse of thousands upon thousands of pairs of sneakers.

Prior to Kearfott’s series of updates and upgrades, the East Gym had well earned the reputation of a “dungeon,”—it was dark, dreary and worn down.

“It needed to be uplifted,” Kearfott said.

The improvements were gradual, beginning with new mats lining the gym walls.

Prior to Kearfott’s hiring, Community’s athletic teams and facilities lacked cohesion, a mishmash of shades of orange, fonts, icons and logos.

The mats, emblazoned with the slogan “Iron Sharpens Iron,” “NCHS,” and the school’s helmet logo, were the first step in trying to create a cohesive “Ironmen” brand to make Community and its athletics department in a word, uniform.

Next came the East Gym’s new lighting system.

But the most significant hurdle for the athletic director was resurfacing the gym’s floor—a project that called for sanding the layers of varnish down, removing the original logos and wordmarks from the center court, and applying a new design.

“The hold up,” Kearfott said, was funding.

With a limited facilities budget each year, the project six years of “working” and “figuring,” coordinating at the district and school level to be able to afford the undertaking.

At that work has paid off.

Gone is the dated yellow and orange-tinted laminate and the blocky orange rectangles along the baselines and framing in the court. The new-look floor features two tones of light and dark-stained wood accented with black and orange, a design that is seemingly modern while still celebrating Community’s storied history.

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The volleyball team, Konopasek said, plays against smaller schools with significantly better facilities than Community. That includes Big 12 opponents like the Champaign schools, that "had these gym renovations" or "auxiliary gyms built," the coach said. Image Courtesy of: Mr. Sean Kerr // Community Athletic Department

The “facelift,” head volleyball coach Ms. Christine Konopasek said, was a complete transformation.

“It doesn’t even look like the same space,” she said.

Where previously the gym was more orange than black, the revamp is more representative of the school colors. The large “N” at center court employs the same font as those elsewhere in the gym.

While the work was transformative, the A.D. was careful not to get carried away.

“We could have gone very, very extreme,” Kearfott said, “with staining and painting and designs.”

But, “if we stained the entire floor black, or painted it all orange, or something extreme like that,” he said, “it loses some of the other things that we want to have stand out.”

Nothing stands out more than the Ironmen helmet at center court, a design element noticeably absent on the old floor.

Now, rather than a generic “N” representing the home team, the school’s logo adorns the floor, an image unique to Community.

For the first time, the floor has a real identity; it puts a face to the name: this is the home of the Ironmen.

And still, the floor manages to celebrate the small details: like the additions of the Big 12 Conference logo to the playing surface and the school’s unofficial motto: “Iron Sharpens Iron” along the sidelines.

The upgrades aren’t just cosmetic, Kearfott said, as the revamp helped the gym “get up to date,” offering practical improvements for the athletes that call the East Gym home.

Over the last 20 years, the floor’s traction had deteriorated, making the floor slippery and “almost unplayable” at times, Coach Feeney said.

And in a sport like basketball, where players make quick movements and fast stops, traction is vital to performance—and safety.

With the new resurfaced floor, Community’s athletes don’t “have to worry” about injury, Marco Reynolds, a girls basketball player, said.

Letting them feel safer and play less inhibited on the floor.

The gymnasium updates are far from the only project Kearfott has been tackling in his tenure.

A collaborative effort between the district office, Normal’s athletic office and building principal Dr. Adam Zbrozek, the school was able to renovate the weight room this summer.

As Community’s enrollment tops 2100 students this year, the revamp was necessary, as the enrollment increase is reflected in larger Personal Development classes and athletic rosters.

“The weight room is not very big,” Kearfott said, “and we’re overgrown and overpopulated and can’t fit in there.”

Budget constraints meant it was unrealistic to expand the actual square footage of the facility, so Kearfott prioritized maximizing the effectiveness of the current space.

“We were looking at ways to utilize the space in a better manner,” he said.

By purchasing more compact equipment and optimizing its layout, the weight room’s usable space was effectively “doubled,” the athletic director said.

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"It would be great if we could figure out a way to make the weight room larger," Konopasek said—something that isn't a financial possibility. Image Courtesy of: Community Athletic Department

This project was significantly more meaningful than the gym renovation for Mann, who spends four hours a day teaching classes in the weight room

“This is kind of my heart and soul,” Mann said, “here in this weight room.”

The improvements also offer an aesthetic upgrade.

The weight room, Marco Reynolds said, was “boring” and outdated before the changes; now, it is “vibrant” and new, something she said that makes students and athletes “want to be in the weight room more.”

“Everyone loves something that’s new, right?” Coach Konopasek said.

The recent investments in school improvement communicate a positive message.

One that the school is invested in its students, a message that Community cares.

That sense of pride is one of the first things Coach Feeney notices when he walks into other schools and other gyms.

“When I see a place that is nice,” Feeney said, “I immediately think ‘oh, they care a lot about this.’”

That’s the thought people can have now when they enter Community.

“We know that we care a lot,” Feeney said, “but you just want the public to see that, too.”

Kearfott hopes to show this pride, this “care” with future facilities projects, targeting the West Gym where freshman and Junior Varsity teams play the majority of their contests, a location that’s on display when the school hosts tournaments.

Later this year, the “small gym,” Kearfott said, is scheduled to receive new lighting—and, in the coming years, its floor sanded and refinished, as well.

Just how long is Kearfott’s wish list when it comes to improving the Ironmen image?

Kearfott’s answer to the Inkspot: “How long do you want to sit there?”

The shortlist: new gym, pool, baseball and softball scoreboards.

His fantasy? A turf field, something that could serve a variety of athletic programs–hosting football, soccer, lacrosse and flag football games and serve as a training field for all sports.

But that isn’t something the Iron are likely any time soon.

That isn’t stopping some of Community’s coaches from wishing, though.

“Hopefully,” Konopasek said, “the work done in the big gym, the lights and the floor, what we’ve done with the weight room are those initial steps of making this an extended project.”

Steps that, the volleyball coach said, that “everybody can benefit [from].”