The Meridian High School boys basketball team will take the court Tuesday for a fairly routine fall practice.

One thing that will be different is the floor, which the school unveiled Monday morning following work done over the last month to give the school’s gymnasium a modern look. The design includes a new center logo and claw marks, and new lights installed during the offseason only make it look better, Wildcats head coach Ron Norman said.

“We’re excited about (Tuesday),” Norman said. “We’re ready to get on the floor. As you can see, we have better lighting, we have air (conditioning), we have this floor… this place is going to be the real Wildcat den in a few minutes.”

MHS athletic director Cheyenne Trussell said the new floor is phase three of four planned phases that will give the school’s volleyball and basketball teams a gymnasium of which they can be proud. Phase one was installing air conditioning, which was completed in February, followed by the second phase, which was updating lighting in advance of the new floor.

“When I arrived I knew we’d get the gym floor completed one day,” Trussell said. “We just didn’t have the funds at the time.”

Trussell was hired in January 2020 to be the school’s athletic director and worked immediately to plan upgrades for the gym, meeting with Norman, girls basketball coach Deneshia Faulkner and volleyball coach Jamie Buxton. They drew inspiration from the University of Memphis’ basketball arena, Trussell said.

“Even though our floor isn’t patterned after the University of Memphis, they had a stain on the floor, which we really liked,” Trussell said. “We got the go ahead from (Superintendent) Dr. (Amy) Carter as far as the finances went and started putting the design into work.”

After seeing it Monday morning, Carter said she thought the new flooring turned out well and that Wildcats fans would enjoy seeing a more modern gym during volleyball and basketball games.

“The new floor is amazing,” Carter said. “With the addition of the new floor, lighting and air conditioning, I look forward to our gym being one of the premier high school venues in the state. Special thanks to the board of trustees for supporting this investment in our gym and our students. One of our goals is to provide healthy, safe and attractive learning environments. With the enhancements to our gym, we have given our students a great venue to play in that shows our commitment to their well-being and provides a sense of pride in our students.”

Junior girls basketball player Symia Harbour said she was excited when she first heard about the plans to upgrade the gym floor, and seeing the new floor Monday only adds to that excitement.

“I looks wonderful,” Harbour said. “I want to say thank you to Dr. Trussell. It’s so pretty. It’s nice because we never thought we’d get a new gym floor, and it just feels great to have it.”

The school will now focus on phase four of the upgrades, which includes new matching wall pads, a new shot clock the MHSAA will allow to be run during tournaments, electrical motors for the gym’s side baskets that will raise them more quickly before games, an upgraded trophy case at the entrance and new paint jobs for the walls.

“Very seldomly do you have your (pre-rendered) picture match the outcome of the actual court, but I think we may have exceeded that, and we wanted to get that feel of when you walk into the ’Cats’ den, you’re walking into an arena,” Trussell said. “Everything is coming together, and we’re very grateful to Dr. Carter and the board of trustees.”

As they get ready to finish the upgrades, Carter said she’s already heard plenty of compliments on the work done so far, and she can’t wait to see the gym when it’s 100% completed.

“I’ve received nothing but positive feedback in regard to the new gym floor,” Carter said. “One of the things that I keep hearing is that the new floor, lighting and air conditioning make the gym feel like a college gym. I think that is something that should make our students, faculty and community proud to say they are a Wildcat.”