Issue date: 8/17/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brian O'Shaughnessy Sophomore Ashley Petek practices in the Rec Center last Wednesday. The rec will house volleyball practices until Pershing is available.

The members of the Kirksville School Board didn't know it at the time. But in March when they approved the installation of a Kirksville High School volleyball program - set to have its first season this fall - they also created a temporary home for a college team with more than 100 wins in the past three seasons. The floor in Pershing Arena sustained extensive flood damage July 25 (See story, page one). This left the Truman volleyball team without a floor to play on for its three September home matches. With no other available floor options on campus to host a volleyball match, Wollmering said he decided to contact Doug Baughman, director of athletics at Kirksville High School, about the possibility of the Bulldogs playing their Sept. 19, Sept. 20 and Sept. 24 matches - all against conference opponents ­­- at Kirksville Primary School, while the floor at Pershing gets replaced. "It's a god-send that the high school has started volleyball this year," Truman's Director of Athletics Jerry Wollmering said. Baughman did not return calls from the Index requesting an interview. Truman volleyball head coach Jason Skoch said that before this season, the Kirksville school system did not have a gym equipped for volleyball. But because KHS begins volleyball this year, he said the school has been preparing the primary school gym floor for volleyball. "Now, all their courts are ready for volleyball," Skoch said. "We have to go tape the lines this weekend, but they already have the [volleyball] holes, they have the pole systems, they got everything." Wollmering said he told companies bidding on the installation of the new floor that installation must be complete by the beginning of October, before the men's and women's basketball teams begin practice. If a new floor is in place by October, it would allow the volleyball team to host its final seven regular season home games on the new floor and make Pershing Arena a possible venue for the South Central Regional in the NCAA Tournament. Until the new floor is installed, the volleyball team is practicing at the Student Recreation Center. Skoch said that practicing at the Rec Center actually has its advantages for the Bulldogs. "The only con really is we're not in our gym so we have to travel from the training room to here," he said. "The pro is, it's a great gym, and we're getting two different courts to jump off of. We only have one in Pershing. … I can do different things in practice that I can't do over there." The only other gym floors on campus are the small gym in Pershing Building and the gym in Kirk Building. Neither floor is an option for practices or matches. "If our small gym was in good enough shape and had a good enough wood floor, we could potentially be practicing in there," Wollmering said. "But we have no [usable] wood gym. We have nowhere to go. Kirk gym - it's not available. They won't let anybody in there." Wollmering said he hopes the situation proves to be "an eye-opener" that the University needs better athletic facilities. "Again, I think it just shows the lack of adequate facilities to provide the right type of experience we need to provide for our student athletes," he said. Although Truman might lose a bit of its home-court advantage by playing its September home games in an unfamiliar setting, Skoch said the gym at the primary school is "actually a very nice volleyball venue." The gym seats 1,000 fans, and Skoch and Wollmering said it's possible Truman will have bigger-than-usual crowds on hand for its three September home matches. "With volleyball really being new in the community [maybe we can get] these young girls in the community involved and see a high level of volleyball," Wollmering said. "We're actually excited about that aspect of it. We hope that every junior high and high school volleyball player wants to come watch the match. And maybe their parents will come with them." Senior outside hitter Eli Medina said she and her teammates can't let the Pershing situation distract them from their goal of advancing far into the NCAA Tournament. "It's my last year - along with five other [seniors] on the team - and we're not going to let something like playing in a different gym stop us from succeeding," Medina said. The damage to Pershing Arena currently is only affecting the volleyball team, but if the floor is not completed by October, the men's and women's basketball teams also will be affected. Basketball begins practice Oct. 15, which is why Wollmering is adamant that the floor be completed by the end of September. Men's basketball head coach Jack Schrader said the damage to the floor shouldn't affect the conditioning work his team does prior to Oct. 15. "We do conditioning, but we do most of that outside or we can do it on the side courts," he said. "It's not that big of deal." Schrader said the biggest inconvenience of the damaged floor is that his team will have to find another location to play pickup games. "They'll have to find a time and a place," Schrader said. "They could play at the Rec Center or something like that. They've had to do that in the past too because they can't play everyday here." The men's basketball season is scheduled to open at home Nov. 15, and the women's basketball team's first home game is slated for Nov. 19. If the new floor is installed by October, the first game played on it will be an Oct. 11 volleyball match against the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

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