Batavia's gym getting a makeover

There's no doubt whenever it's deemed safe to return to high school athletics, everyone will let out a huge sigh of relief and be smiling from ear to ear.

Those smiles might be just a little bit bigger at Batavia.

When the Bulldogs return to their home court for volleyball and then the basketball season, they will be doing it in a renovated gym.

Batavia is replacing a floor that was originally installed in 1985 and much needed replacing. Boys basketball coach Jim Nazos said the last couple years they have done a lot of work patching the floor and gluing parts down to keep it playable.

"We are long overdue," Nazos said. "It's been earmarked to be done for two years. Two summers ago we patched almost 200 spots on the floor. The floor is paper thin, it couldn't have been sanded down anymore. It was less than a quarter of an inch thick. We were constantly monitoring it."

The new floor will be installed in a couple weeks. There will be a Bulldog in the middle with the state of Illinois outlined.

Nazos said the middle of the old floor will be broken into sections and auctioned off as a fundraiser for the boosters. He also has a few extra small scraps to give to former players.

In addition to the new floor, walls are being cleaned and repainted, banners and scoreboards reconfigured and a new video board will be put in the southeast corner of the gym.

The video board can be used for pregame announcements and also PE classes, pep rallies and more.

"It will be really nice," Nazos said. "PE classes can stream whatever they want. Definitely will be used for more than just basketball."