Schedule court repair for different times than Carlos Strong Basketball Academy

Everyone knows I am a big proponent of the Oconee County Parks and Recreation Department. I have also been very critical of some of the aspects of the Oconee Veterans Park facilities in terms of some design and execution, and to the OCPRD's credit, they have generally responded favorably of at least taking my suggestions into consideration if not out and out remedying the situation. Somehow on the north end of the new gym, when we would receive a particularly ferocious storm coming in from just the right angle, water and rain would seep in under the doors and got under the wonderful wooden basketball court.

Now the swollen water-logged basketball court was a long time in developing with the precipitation and a short time in correcting, but why on a Sunday during the first attempt at the new Carlos Strong Basketball Academy? A former NBA player and McDonald's All American should not have to be pushing a broom around the court mid-session to remove the sawdust from the basketball court. But I understand the workman in the corner having to chisel out the soggy flooring at a time when he can. And Sunday was when he could get out their a start removing/replacing the warping court.

Now my son missed the first session (due to a previous commitment to Perfectly Polished at the YMCA), but I drove out to Veterans Park to scope it out where I saw a couple of his old football teammates competing furiously (along with a dozen or so other boys and girls of various degrees of basketball talent) to win the knock-out competition. I know the person working on the court will get it finished and sealed in time for the next week's practices as the rec teams have begun their skills and scrimmages to get ready for the regular season. There is always a demand for the limited amount of court time this time of year, and there are never enough courts during this time of year.  Now if we can get rid of the old dangerous rubberized torn ACL waiting to happen floors at Malcom Bridge and Colham Ferry schools....but I guess we could still be playing or practicing on the dead spots at the old Rocket Gym, which they were still doing well into the the 1990s. We went to an OCAF art sale there instead this busy weekend.

In other semi-related local basketball news:

• They kept a chilly Clarke County Middle School team out in the cold early Saturday morning at a tightly locked up Oconee County High School during the Premier League preseason tournament while Oconee County High School students took the SAT test. 
• Athens Academy's 6th grade boys beat Clarke Middle and Oconee Middle but lost to Madison in the elimination round of the tourney.
• Oconee County Rescue vehicles and fire trucks responded well to an apparent false alarm Sunday night at Athens Academy. 
• Apparently someone pulled an alarm in the big gym on the other side of the lake
• Thank goodness for the Emergency Response workers, the blue collar guy working on the floor, and Coach Carlos Strong and his assistant working with the kids to improve their jump shots. 
• Work should be done by February on the outdoor courts thanks to two checks of $17,500.00 from Sprite and as much in house work as possible on the courts located where the oldest tennis courts were/are at Herman C. Michael Park.
• We can work better together to coordinate everybody having a chance at those precious few basketball courts and gymnasiums when they need it.