It’s 7:45 pm, and Sophia Robertson (‘25) steps off the court. As a player on the Varsity Girls’ Basketball team at AGHS, her team must share gym time with the five other winter sports teams. This means her practice times fluctuate based on the schedules of the other teams, which impacts her academic life as well.
“This definitely affects my homework and sleeping schedule,” Robertson said. “I come home and I am so tired and I just want to shower and go to bed; but, instead, I need to stay up late and do homework.”
AGHS’s sports program has many teams that need to accommodate each other to use the gym for practices and games.
“There are a lot of teams sharing the gym every single day. We have three girls teams, three boys teams trying to find practice slots,” Ryan Glanville, AGHS Boys’ Varsity Basketball coach, said. “We’re stretched. Gym time is difficult to find in this area.”
Glanville’s team has canceled practices due to the lack of gym time. This has teams using gyms outside of the one at AGHS.
“Many of our basketball teams and volleyball teams—they outsource to the junior high gyms: Paulding, Judkins, Mesa, sometimes we’ll use the PVA gym to run practices,” Mike Wolstenholm, AGHS Athletic Director, said. “So, space is very limited for the amount of teams that we have and the time that they need in there.”
In addition to the limited amount of space, the times that teams can run practices are limited as well.
“We will have teams that practice at 6 in the morning before school and sometimes practice at 8 at night just trying to be in our gym, and then we still have teams out at the other gyms,” Wolstenholm said.
The Boys’ Freshman Basketball team at AGHS faces this challenge of practice times.
“[Practices are] 6:15 to 8:15 [in the morning],” Cooper Ensign (‘27), Freshman Boys’ Basketball player, said. “Last week we didn’t have any games, so it was Monday through Friday practice.”
Ensign notes that early practices impact his sleep schedule, but it’s manageable. Robertson experiences a similar problem.
“Sometimes I’ll be getting home at 9:30 pm and that’s not good for my four AP classes,” Robertson said.
Luckily for future athletes at AGHS, teams will not have to deal with this scheduling dilemma.
Plans to add a second gym to the campus are already in the works to benefit the athletics at AGHS.
“100% our team would benefit from having access to a second gym,” Robertson said. “Just splitting it up—even girls and boys—or having a couple nights a week [with] an earlier practice would be better.”
Having access to a second gym is a goal valued by both the players as well as coaches.
“[The new gym] will be used every single day by our teams: volleyball—boys and girls—as well as basketball in the winter,” Glanville said.
The second gym will be useful in the summer for local groups, clubs, and programs.
“Not only will it be a benefit to [keep] teams here on campus, but we’ll also be able to let it be utilized by the community,” Wolstenholm said.
In terms of helping the community, sports programs such as 5 Cities Youth Basketball will also benefit from the new gym as soon as it is available for public use.
“The construction has technically already started. There are plans in place,” Brad Grumbles, AGHS principal, said. “We’re probably three to four years before that gym is actively being used.”
When finished, the gym will have distinct upsides such as two courts. Located across the AG building, it will be a beneficial addition to the AGHS campus.
With the development of a second gym, AGHS athletics hopes to see the opportunity to host more tournaments and make practices easier to schedule for all teams that utilize the gym.
