With no games, PCHS coaches focus on look of facilities

The COVID-19 pandemic may have shut down the 2020 spring sports season and delayed the start of fall sports, but Wolverine coaches have remained busy since March improving facilities around campus.

With no practices and games, staff members turned their focus to PCHS athletic venues. The building, cleaning, painting and other projects have those facilities looking their best in some time.

“It shows a lot of pride by our coaches and a lot of pride in their programs,” said Polk County athletics director Rex Wells. “This is why we’ve won the Wells Fargo Conference Cup the past two years (recognizing the top overall athletic program in the Western Highlands Conference).

“These coaches are very dedicated. They don’t make a whole lot, but they do it for the love of the kids and the love of the game.”

The school baseball and softball fields received dugout upgrades and some field improvements. Polk County’s soccer practice field received extensive weed removal as well as fresh paint for its storage building / restroooms. The ticket booth adjoining the tennis courts also received a repainting.

Cross country / track coach Alan Peoples and his staff tackled the locker room located behind the football concession stand, completely repainting that area. Peoples also built a new shelf for the office in that area and built a similar shelf for the Polk County wrestling practice room located in the gym complex. Golf coach Pat McCool spent a couple of days sorting through numerous clubs and bags that had been donated to the program in recent years.

The track program’s storage building adjacent to the track received a makeover, with the shot put area also the site of work. The football field house and volleyball storage area also received some upgrades.

Wells and Peoples also led a project to put new asphalt down in the area in front of the football concession building in G.M. Tennant Stadium. Wells bought every five-gallon bucket of sealer from five Home Depots in the area to complete the project.

“We probably used 150 five-gallon buckets,” he said. “We did a lot of work, but it looks unbelievable. It’s almost like we paved again.”

New school logos, printed by Yetees Ink in Mill Spring, also now adorn nearly every athletic door and building.

“We’re a small school but we want things to look right,” Wells said. “We’re constantly trying to upgrade as we can.”