by Elaine Ziegler (Posted on March 11, 2026 @ 12:23 p.m.)

Why do we need a new gym? Will there be room for any more sports? What challenges will they face along the way? I will answer these questions in this article. People have been wondering about the gym renovations and how they will affect us. I interviewed Dr. Guthrie to get some insight on why we need a new gym: “So if you go into our current gyms you can smell how old they are, and it’s not that it’s dirty, it’s just after so many years of putting a finish on top of the gym floor, it just makes the whole gym smell old.” This observation highlights how years of floor refinishing have created a distinctive, musty odor that immediately signals the age of the facility to anyone who enters.

The new gym will be a huge, well-deserved upgrade; we have an amazing athletics program, and we need a gym that reflects that. I interviewed a 7th-grade girl named Kenley Reno, and she gave her perspective on how the new gym will improve the Athletics program: “I think that the new gyms will give students the opportunity to try new sports that are not currently offered at our school, such as dance, softball, cheer, etc.” Kenley’s perspective illustrates how the new facilities will broaden opportunities for students to explore new activities, which is a key part of the middle school experience.

I have heard from many students saying that they would love to have softball, lacrosse, etc., as a school sport. So, I asked Dr. Guthrie if there would be any room in athletics for more sports. Here is what he said: “The problem with adding more sports is that often the boys will ask me about starting baseball, and other girls ask about starting softball. It’s really not whether or not we want to. It’s whether or not it becomes a UIL sport. So, until they approve, you know, baseball or softball at the middle school level, we really can’t do it. It could be a club or an organization, but it can’t be a school function.” Essentially, the decision to add sports like baseball and softball isn’t up to individual schools but depends entirely on UIL approval at the middle school level.

There is always something that can go wrong or something to work around during construction. Dr. Guthrie said that the challenge they will face most likely will be recess. This is because while the gyms are getting redone, the football field will move to where the track is, so that means there will be limited space for when the kids come outside for recess.

The new gyms are going to make our school even better than it already is!