The AHS gym floors are becoming a concern, and a hazard for student safety.

AHS’s gym floors need to be renovated or waxed regularly because they are a hazard and negatively impact the performance of student-athletes. For example, the hazard of basketball, volleyball, and dance team athletes taking a fatal fall on the gym floors.

According to the HomeAdvisor Company, to wax a gym floor costs around 13,000 dollars. Wouldn’t a better, more cost-effective solution be to use other non-slip alternatives such as moping?

Though this is a good argument, temporary non-slip solutions only work for a short period of time. After mopping down the court before basketball practices, the team can start to feel the effect of the mop wearing off after an hour. During an interview with James Nottingham, a Freshman on the boy’s C-team basketball team, he brought up this concern.

“Mopping the floors or sweeping them really does not do the best job. The floors just really need to be waxed” said James Nottingham.

Many athletes are affected by the hazardous gym floors such as students and the dance team. Matty Mae Mulberry, a Freshman on the dance team, has expressed concern over how the floors have been affecting her sport.

“It can be really slippery sometimes and it makes us not want to go full out due to the fear of possibly slipping,” said Matty Mae Mulberry.

Not only is the safety of the dance team put in danger by the slippery floors, Luke Balko, a Freshman on the boy’s C-team basketball team, has noticed that the gym floors create bad conditions for basketball.

“The floors are honestly dangerous because sometimes people will jump and they’ll just slide out … You could definitely slip and mess up something,” said Luke Balko, Freshman.

Max Sherman, a Freshman on the boy’s C-team basketball team, feels as if the quality of his practices has been heavily affected by the floors.

“If I am trying to guard someone while playing basketball, I start sliding. Firstly I could hurt myself, making myself unable to play. Second of all, I’m sliding so I can’t guard them to the best of my abilities. Same with offence, if I slide while I’m stopping a travel is called,” Sherman said.

Audrey Solberg, a freshman on the girls volleyball team, has realized the threat that the floors have posed to her volleyball team.

“One problem the volleyball team had is that the floors were really slippery and it was hard to maintain traction while moving around the court… Also, to the athletes it can be really scary because if something goes wrong and it’s due to a slippery floor it can mean the end of your season”, Audrey Solberg, Freshman at AHS, said.

The AHS gyms are something that students use every day. The Gym floors at the AHS have not been waxed since Homecoming! Something of such significance to the student body should be of extreme importance to AHS.