Cottrel: Enon community gets one last shot to view old buildings, bringing back memories

As the Greenon Local School District gets closer to moving into its new facilities in Enon, current and former students, employees, and community members have had opportunities to formally say goodbye to the old buildings.

The last tour of Indian Valley was on May 27, and demolition began during the first week of June.

It’s been difficult to see those walls come down, but as more than one person told me it is so encouraging watching the walls of the new schools revealed as the old is leveled.

Greenon’s Walk Through was June 8, and the reality of seeing the beginning of the demolition of IV made that last tour all the more urgent for many.

The Crabtree sisters, now Sarah Suarez and Stacie McConehea, ran into each other at the event. Both enjoyed their memories of playing sports at Greenon and took time to look around the gym and posted lots of photos for friends.

Stacie checked out the track team records and was thrilled to see that her high jump record from 2001 still stood at 5 foot 2.5 inches.

She really hopes a new track records wall display will be made for the new high school since the old one was damaged. I hope the swim team and cross country records make it to the new building too.

Both were happy to see those championship banners listing their years and hope those will be moved on to the new high school.

A 2006 Greenon graduate, Sarah had lots of memories from playing basketball and volleyball in the gym. She was so energized she got out all the high school scrap books when she got home.

As one anonymous person told me, it may have been an old style gym but many of those who played there loved it. Part of the fun was that other teams really hated the closeness of the crowd and the noise, which of course we loved.

Talking about noise, one of my favorite memories of the Greenon gym was working for a local weekly newspaper and covering the championship men’s basketball team with Bill Smith as the coach. It was around 2002 or 3. Those were exciting games.

I’d never covered basketball before and I had a great time learning how to share the excitement and details of the games.

Marcus Franck was on that team and last week I was happy to learn that Marcus had come to the Greenon Walk Through with a plan. He was going to shoot one more 3-pointer.

He told me that it took a couple of times but he got one more basket in the old gym. He wasn’t the only one shooting baskets for memories.

Marcus also said he wished there was some way that the gym could be kept for a storm shelter for outside events or something else like that.

I think that would be a great idea since the gym portion of Greenon was built of reinforced concrete like a World War II bunker.

If it is going to be so hard and expensive to tear down, maybe keeping it for a storm shelter and perhaps a community basketball court would not be such a bad idea in the long run.

I was relieved that the fairly new gym at Indian Valley has been saved from demolition and attached to the new school.

We remember watching our girls play sports in both gyms but those gyms also brought back wonderful memories of drama productions and concerts.

Speaking of Indian Valley, bricks are now available as keepsakes for free. Some uncleaned bricks from the IV demolition have been left by the bus drivers’ yard sign near the front of the property, according to the district’s Facebook page. They were originally supposed to be left by the electronic sign but it has been removed. The first batch has been taken, but more should be put out this week. Greenon bricks will be available later. (Remember these are keepsakes and not a new patio.)

Looking at photos of the old science laboratories at Greenon and IV and talking to others I found myself pleased that there will be new up-to-date science labs in the new buildings. As a former science teacher, I could see that it truly was time to update.

Having all new schools is a fantastic opportunity for this community. I look forward to the teachers and students moving into their new “digs” and making them home.

Once they are all settled in, the big “G” is on the walls, and the school songs echo in the hallways, the new buildings will become Greenon and the sky will be the limit.

Go Knights.

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