For years, playing basketball or volleyball in the gym at the University of Hawaii at Hilo has involved a level of concern not shared at most schools.
For years, playing basketball or volleyball in the gym at the University of Hawaii at Hilo has involved a level of concern not shared at most schools.
Some have said the floor was installed on the cheap, without a proper subsurface to help contain humid conditions that often created moisture bubbling up to the surface, turning the floor into something that acted more like an ice skating rink.
Over the last two months, the school attempted to alleviate the issue by resurfacing the floor and repainting it with an oil-based solution that is expected to minimize the moisture.
The new surface is getting its first use this week as a collection of youthful volleyball players are at the school for a summer camp. In the past, former coach Tino Reyes was often called to the mainland to help in larger, traditional summer camps that allowed him to see hundreds of high school players considering their collegiate options.
This week, new coach Gene Krieger and his assistants have been instructing keiki, and the majority are in their pre-high school years. According to a school release, 92 campers are participating the three-day camp that ends Friday. The release said there are 50 elementary and middle school students and 42 high school players, with 40 of the youngest from the Big Island, while 15 local players were a part of the older age group.
Many of them were on campus for the first time, but all had a new surface on which to perform.
“Honestly, it looks about the same, doesn’t it?” said Marley Strand-Nicolaisen, now a student assistant after completing her senior year of competition for the Vulcans while earning PacWest all-conference first team recognition. “It’s a little shinier, but it basically looks the same to me.”
More important than its looks is how it performs in the moisture-heavy air in Hilo.
“It was pretty bad at times,” Strand-Nicolaisen said. “I remember at the start of my junior year, we lost two girls from injuries on the floor. We played Azusa Pacific once and it felt like every step you took, you would slide. It wasn’t good.”
Assistant athletics director Kula Oda said the new surface will require only dry mopping to keep it in shape, while in the past a machine was used to suck up the moisture.
“We’re hoping the new paint will work better than the water-based that was used,” Oda said, “but the proof is in the pudding.”
The cost for refurbishing the gym floor was $99,720, according to a school spokeman. Substantially less than the second bidder.
A more comprehensive solution would be to rebuild the floor with a suitable sub-surface and then completely close off the gym to the outside and install air conditioning, but Oda said those approaches were “cost prohibitive.”
“Let’s hope it works,” said men’s basketball coach GE Coleman. “There were some times that the condition of the floor caused us to have to move practice. The thing is, you could dry it out at the start (of practice), but we tend to work hard, our guys sweat a lot, and when the sweat would hit the floor, it just magnified the problem.
“It got to be serious at times,” Coleman said. “I mean, when you can’t practice in your own gym, that causes issues, but we worked around them.
“I’m hopeful this will solve the problem.”