Following the industry's first gym floor sanding school that was held the week of Nov. 4, the ASBA gym floor paint and finish school began in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Nov. 11 at the Destiny Christian Academy.
For those who haven't read the article about our recent gym floor sanding school that was held there, a little information on the Destiny Christian Academy: This school was purchased from the Cheyenne Wyoming School district in the year 2000. The Destiny Christian Academy is a K-12 private Christian school. This Academy is privately funded through the church and student tuition. They do a great job of educating their students, but funds are always short, so doing maintenance to the gym floor has never been in the cards for them. The gym floor had never even been recoated in the 24 years that it has been owned by the Academy. So, needless to say, a little maintenance work was in order.
We had 15 student contractors participate in our class. Twelve of the 15 had never been involved with putting game lines, logos or finish on a gym floor. Kolton Krolow with Western Sport Floors took the lead in explaining “game line hierarchy” and where to start laying out a gym floor:
Kolton took a lot of time to explain in detail how to properly lay out game lines:
Every student had an opportunity to “practice” laying down tape lines in the dining room area. A huge thank you to Norton Abrasives for providing plenty of extra game line tape for our class!
When everyone had the opportunity to practice laying game lines, it was time to go into the gym and do it for real:
We had to pull a few lines up that were not quite up to standard, but in the end everyone got the hang of running game lines:
Tim Young with Basic Coatings demonstrated how to use tinted sealer to stain the keys.
And we laid out the game lines:
Participants had the opportunity to lay down paint stencils for the center logo:
Once the game lines and paint stencils were down, it was time to paint:
When that was dry, the tape was pulled and the floor was cleaned, it was time to pull finish:
In addition to this being a workshop, it was also a job. At the end of this class we turned over a beautiful gymnasium floor to the Destiny Christian Academy.
In the evenings we enjoyed each other’s company at places like this hibachi grill:
We would like to give a huge shout out to ASBA (the American Sports Builders Association) for helping us put on this incredible event.
We also need to thank the sponsors:
We so appreciate everyone who participated in this great event! We will announce dates for 2025 schools as soon as they are available.
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