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Over the summer and fall, Carlisle School raised money and installed a new hardwood floor in the school's gym, replacing a rubber floor that was installed nearly 40 years ago.

Carlisle School officials hope to complete needed improvements to the school's gym in the next few weeks before the start of basketball season.

After installing a new floor and making improvements to the gym, Carlisle School officials plan to rename the court “Coaches Court” to honor all of the Chiefs’ previous coaches.

When Gracie Agnew took over as the Head of School at Carlisle in 2018, she knew the school was situated on a beautiful campus, but many of its facilities were in need of upgrades.

One of those facilities was the gym.

“My first volleyball game I noticed just how dark it looked in the gym,” Agnew said. “And it all boiled down to the fact we needed to look at the lights and look at replacing that... I knew we needed to paint the entire facility, but the gym, especially, was in need of a new coat of paint. The gym floor, I’ve been at Magna Vista and Bassett and other schools and they have these wonderful gym floors, so of course I wanted the same for Carlisle because I thought we deserved it.”

The previous floor in the school’s gym was a rubber compound that Carlisle Athletic Director Melinda Brightwell estimates was installed close to 40 years ago. It had been resurfaced several times over the years, but Brightwell said, “It was due a facelift, for sure.”

Agnew said every time she turned around she was talking to somebody about the needed improvements, and heard others echoing those sentiments.

So, the school’s board decided to do something about it. They began a fundraising campaign over the summer, and within a month they had received nearly $120,000 in donations.

“That is what is so remarkable,” Agnew said. “We decided that we didn’t want to extend over a long period of time, so we made the decision that if we put it out there we would say that within a month we wanted to raise the money.”

“It was fabulous,” Brightwell said. “We had alumni, we had new families, we had past families. Some of them we probably have not had communication with in several years. Some of the alumni that have played sports, some that have not played sports. It’s just been remarkable.”

The finishing touches are now being made on a new hardwood court that school officials hope to be finished by the time the basketball season begins.

The project also included new lights that have been installed, and a fresh coat of paint on the walls. The basketball goals were also raised to accommodate for the higher floor boards, and a new sound system has also been ordered.

Early this week, the only parts left to complete were putting the final floorboards along the perimeter of the room, which Agnew said should be installed by the end of next week. The final touch will be installing padding on the walls and around steel beams around the room, which the school is waiting to arrive from the manufacturer.

Once the project is complete, Carlisle plans to use the new gym for much more than just sports. Agnew called the gym, “The heartbeat of the whole school.”

“The people realized it’s not just used for basketball and volleyball. Really my third grader, he’ll have P.E. there,” Brightwell said. “Our preschoolers will come in and use the gym for physical education classes. Sometimes we’ll have, like, AAU teams use the court. It’s something that we use for assemblies and homecoming festivities. The whole school uses it.”

Carlisle received help with the court in more ways than just monetary donations. Chiefs girls basketball coach Jason Niblett helped install much of the flooring and sat in on planning meetings.

“He is really giving new meaning to the term ‘sweat equity,’ as far as physically putting in the effort to put that floor down,” Brightwell said of Niblett. “I don’t even know how many hours he has spent over here working on that.”

Carlisle officials plan to name the new court “Coaches Court,” a suggestion from board member Harrison Hamlet, who Agnew said has also been instrumental in the project.

The name is meant as a way to honor all of the school’s coaches who have brought success and a sense of community to the program.

Once everything is completed, school officials are planning an event that would take place ahead of a girls and boys basketball doubleheader sometime in November to christen the court and invite all the former coaches to see it and honor them for their past accomplishments.

“We pride ourselves on helping to form our leaders of tomorrow, and coaches play a critical role in that,” Agnew said. “Even when they weren’t winning, it was the pride of playing here at Carlisle and being a Chief, just giving it your all.”

Agnew said thinking back on the alumni, parents, and grandparents who gave to the campaign gives her “a warm feeling inside”. She sent a special thank you to all who helped turn the dream of a new court into a reality.

“I have no words because it’s just amazing,” she said. “The support that we have for those things that are important to Carlisle School and keeping it alive and flourishing, they all just come together for Carlisle School.

“If it’s important we make it happen. And when we speak about it we speak with passion, so therefore people believe in it, too, and they want to help us out. And it’s not just frivolous things. I would never go to anybody for that. It’s for those things that are important for students and for Carlisle’s continued existence.”

Cara Cooper is a sports writer for the Martinsville Bulletin. She can be reached at cara.cooper@martinsvillebulletin.com

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Over the summer and fall, Carlisle School raised money and installed a new hardwood floor in the school's gym, replacing a rubber floor that was installed nearly 40 years ago.

Carlisle School officials hope to complete needed improvements to the school's gym in the next few weeks before the start of basketball season.

After installing a new floor and making improvements to the gym, Carlisle School officials plan to rename the court “Coaches Court” to honor all of the Chiefs’ previous coaches.

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