Parish gyms suffer hard hit in Gustav

The gymnasiums at Ellender Memorial, South Terrebonne, and Vandebilt Catholic high schools endured severe roof and floor damages due to Hurricane Gustav.

All three gym floors will have to be completely torn out and replaced. They became warped after inches of standing water remained for over a week after the hurricane hit.

This is the second time the floors at Ellender and South Terrebonne have suffered significant damage in three years. They were renovated after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Vandebilt just had a new gym floor installed last year.

“Part of the roof went away with Katrina, not the whole thing,” said Ellender principal Marilyn Schwartz. “They were able to salvage a good part of the floor and just redo it. This time it all has to be replaced and all the offices and locker rooms underneath.”

The third base dugout of Ellender’s baseball field was also destroyed by gusting winds.

South Terrebonne Memorial Stadium, shared by the Gators and Patriots, sustained some damages that will effect when or if football games can be played there.

“In the football stadium, the scoreboard is gone,” said Richard Curlin, South Terrebonne athletic director and head football coach. “One goalpost is torn down and the other is twisted up pretty bad.”

Ellender and South Terrebonne have older, smaller gymnasiums that survived the storm with less damage. It has not been determined if the volleyball or basketball teams will use them this season.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” Schwartz said. “The small gym still has a little bit of leaking a issue if there’s rain, but we’ll probably have to play in there.”

At Vandebilt, the fieldhouse and weight room took on water from leaking roofs. Contractors were not able to get inside the fieldhouse until Friday to check for molding. Large portions of the outfield fences and backstop netting were knocked down around the baseball and softball fields and dugouts were damaged. Buddy Marcello Stadium fared better.

“Lights and signs in the football stadium came down, but the field and stadium structure are in tack,” said Walter Dupre, Vandebilt assistant principal and head football coach.

H.L. Bourgeois High School had minor gym roof damage but no leaking. Terrebonne High School survived Hurricane Gustav without damages to its sports facilities.

Tom B. Stadium, which both schools use for football games, came through unscaved.

“We were fortunate. We were blessed,” Terrebonne Principal Graham Douglas said.

The Tigers had rescheduled its football game against John McDonough for Monday at 6:30 p.m., but it was cancelled because students could not return to classes until yesterday.

With students returning to school, administrators hope football games will be played this weekend.

Scheduled prep football games involving Terrebonne Parish schools include Friday games South Terrebonne at Comeaux, Vandebilt at Central Lafourche, Terrebonne hosting Destrehan, and Ellender hosting Jesuit, and H.L. Bourgeois at L.W. Higgins on Saturday.

Decisions on whether these games will be played had not been made as of press time.

“We need to get back to some normalcy. Kids have been out of school for over two weeks,” Douglas said. “Extracurricular activities like football, volleyball, swimming are all part of high school life. It’s almost like we’re coming off a summer break again.”