A broken water pipe dealt Amherst Regional its first loss of the fall sports season.
Water damage from a summer flood will prevent the girls volleyball team from playing its home games at the high school this season in addition to affecting physical education classes, area recreational sports and potentially the basketball season.
Over the final weekend in July, a pipe burst in one of the bathrooms at the top of the stairs near the Amherst Regional athletic offices, Amherst athletic director Rich Ferro said.
“Like in half, not just a little water coming out, like literally he whole thing snapped in half,” Ferro said.
The water poured out for an undetermined period of time until Amherst principal Mark Jackson returned from vacation to find water coming toward his office.
It seeped into the gym and out to the center court’s 3-point line nearest the doors by the hallway. The water eventually went down into the boiler room, “which had the first decent-sized drain that could handle that (the water),” Ferro said.
Inches of standing water sat on the basketball court before Amherst started the cleanup and drying process.
Amherst used a dome-tent like device to dry the floor before assessing the damage.
Sections of the floor bowed and became discolored.
“We’ve been waiting to find out exactly what the full amount of damage is. When you’ve got water underneath the floor there’s the very apparent buckling,” Ferro said. “It’s next to impossible to dry out the surface underneath. We’ve got everything in here to deal with the possibility of mold.”
The plan now is to replace the gym floor.
Amherst brought an architect in Tuesday morning to begin drafting cost estimates.
The insurance company will do its own inspection and cost estimates later in the week.
Ferro is hoping to have an idea of how much the project will cost by early next week.
“For a project that big, you have to go through a full procurement process, which can go to a full three months,” he said. “That’s everything leading up to and including construction. The earliest construction can start is the beginning of November.”
That displaces the girls volleyball team for the entirety of its season. Right now the team will practice and play at the middle school.
“I think the hardest part is rethinking everything — where you store your nets, how to set up the nets,” Amherst volleyball coach Kacey Schmitt said. “You don’t have everything as easy as it was when you’ve done it the same way.”
The middle school features two regulation-sized courts oriented in a way that limits the amount of space around the court.
“The courts are not optimal. You don’t have enough room to pursue a shanked ball,” Schmitt said. “It’s kind of like the Hoosier’s movie. I’m going to measure the court just like Gene Hackman measured the basketball net. The only difference is the physical surroundings, and that doesn’t affect our play unless we let it.”
The Hurricanes have embraced the challenges.
“The team is pretty bummed that we won’t be able to play on our home court this season, but we’re gonna tough through it and still play our hardest no matter what court we’re on,” Amherst junior Amina Torres said.
The construction timeline also potentially affects the basketball teams.
Amherst hopes to have a plan in place by the time basketball season starts. The boys varsity team will play its opening game at Curry Hicks Cage.
“I understand there’s a chance we don’t play our first couple home games (in the gym), but I’m hoping and praying that we do,” Amherst senior Seth Bella-Hunter said. “A lot of our guys are seniors, and we want to have home games in front of our home crowd, so hopefully they get it fixed in time for the season and hopefully a Western Mass championship run.”
Ferro has reached out to UMass and Amherst College about potentially hosting games at their facilities.
“We work really well with Amherst College,” he said. “I know they’re going to do their best to help us out when they can.”
Physical education classes will use the unaffected back portion of the gym in addition to the weight room. They’ll also go outside.
“It’s not ideal, but for P.E. classes, we’re going to make it work,” Ferro said.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.