‘Like a Division I basketball arena.’ Central Kentucky high school shows off new gym.
Clark County has built a new basketball arena so nice, the host Cardinals and visiting Madison Southern Eagles decided to stay on a little extra Tuesday night, battling it out over two overtimes before George Rogers Clark High School could claim a sweep of the girls-boys doubleheader to christen it.
And who could blame them?
With bleacher seating for up to 4,750 and an estimated crowd of maybe 3,500 gathered for its debut — a pair of out-of-region regular season high school games — Clark unveiled a long-awaited glittering showpiece of a gym.
As one fan said to another taking it in: “It’s crazy, ain’t it?”
The players admitted goosebumps from the first moment they stepped on the new floor in practice last week and more when they came out to the fight song Tuesday.
“All day there was a lot of hype around it,” said senior Shelbi Wilson whose team opened the evening with a 63-26 win over Woodford County. “It was sort of like going back to state. That’s what I felt, honestly. It was like I was going back to Rupp Arena.”
For fellow senior Kennedy Igo, the moment was also bittersweet.
“I was very emotional all day, just because I will only get to play five games in here,” Igo said. “I was just very excited to play the first game in the new arena.”
The boys will be able to play a few more games if they fare well in the 40th District and 10th Region tournaments. Clark is the host.
“The atmosphere, the crowd was crazy,” said senior Lincoln Bush, who scored a team-high 22 points in Clark’s 72-70 double-overtime win. “I can’t thank the crowd enough for coming out.”
‘A long time coming’
GRC Arena is part of Clark’s $33 million project that has already built a football field and is making progress on new fields for baseball and softball, tennis courts and a fieldhouse all on the campus of the high school that was completed in 2013.
“The people around here just have good things to say about this and the athletic complex over there,” said Clark radio play-by-play man Joel Bennett. “The community’s behind it.”
Clark County Schools decided years ago that the athletics facilities would be built down the road to ease funding pressures, and its teams had been playing at the old high school (now middle school) in the interim. Intended to be ready by the start of basketball season, weather delays pushed the the timeline into February.
“It’s been a long time coming. It’s a dream come true, really,” said Clark Athletics Director Jaime Keene. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a better high school facility in this state. We’re excited to show it off.”
It seems worth the wait.
“We didn’t want to rush it at the expense of getting it right,” Keene said.
Old-school feel
Exposed glossy black steel beams support the roof and give the new basketball arena an old-school feel despite the smell of fresh paint. The band has its own loft in one end zone and the students section gathers below them at floor-level on risers like in Rupp Arena’s E-Rupp-tion Zone. They were packed solid Tuesday with chants and cheers all night.
Each sideline has two decks of bleachers: solid Cardinals Red on the upper level, black and red on the lower, with the signature “GRC” in a giant pattern visible on them when fans arrive.
In two corners, there are giant HD screens. In the other two corners, there are giant scoreboards. Beneath all four are a few small rows of black bleachers.
Opposite the band in the other end zone there’s a standing-room area with bar-top tables that looks out over the court on one side and over a two-story glass-walled entryway on the other. Three of the possible four concession stands offered ribeye sandwiches for $7 and a grilled pork chop sandwich for $5. But sure, you could have a cheeseburger if you wanted.
Girls’ basketball coach Robbie Graham and boys’ coach Josh Cook each weighed in with the architects and designers on many of the features in their offices, locker rooms and even the pattern of the gym floor, which has GRC’s Cardinal head center court bookended by deep-shaded three-point areas and surrounded by a black sideline.
“I think it’s classy,” Cook said. “I think it pops. From all points of view in our gym, you look at that floor, and I think it’s first class.”
Graham admitted the seven-year wait for the new gym has been trying at times with the commute back to the middle school and various conflicts associated with that. But never mind that, now.
“It’s very special for our community, for our school, for our players ... ,” Graham said. “To finally have a true home court and have everyone come out and see this facility and for us to finally get to play here is unbelievable.”
‘What a way to open’
The boys got to play a little extra Tuesday night, albeit unintentionally. Madison Southern jumped on them early and wouldn’t go away late — coming back in the fourth quarter despite trailing by five points with 30 seconds to go in regulation. They almost spoiled the party more when Samuel Lee’s half-court heave looked true and beat the first overtime buzzer, but it bounced harmlessly off the back iron, drawing only a gasp.
“What a way to open it up, right,” Cook said, smiling. “That would have been something for people to talk about. ‘What about the game where as soon as you think we’re going to win it, we give it back. Then we were going to win it again, and give it back.’ But then we have to find a way just to do it.”
The win came thanks to a Jeremiah Mundy-Lloyd offensive rebound and putback attempt that drew a foul. He made both free throws with 29 seconds on the clock. Madison Southern could not answer. Game won. Crowd happy.
“That’s going to take some getting used to for our kids,” Cook said of the game’s atmosphere. “We’re going to have district and region in here, so we’re going to have to figure it out really fast. Tonight was great for us just to learn how to be in that moment and to learn that, yes, you can find a way to do it.”
Madison Southern Coach Austin Newton relished the big-game feel, as well.
“Coach Cook called me a few weeks ago and said ‘hey, you’re going to be the first game in our new gym,” Newton said. “I had mixed emotions to be honest with you. But what a beautiful place. … I coached at (Eastern Kentucky) for a lot of years, so I’ve been in a lot of Division I facilities, and this is like a Division I basketball arena.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 8:18 AM.
