North High unveils restored field house
By CHUCK BALLARO
The Ron Hoover Field House at North Fort Myers High School had seen better days. It was crumbling and appeared uninviting thanks to 35 years of use.
On Saturday, North High officials, the head football coach, and Ron Hoover himself, cut the ribbon on the newly renovated field house, which will serve as an example for other Lee County high schools to follow.
The restored field house, a dream of principal Debbie Diggs and athletic director Joe Bowen since Diggs became principal four years ago, was accomplished with the help of the local community.
“It just goes to show there is a tremendous amount of support in our community for North Fort Myers High School, but for students in general, and focusing on what we can do to continue their growth,” Diggs said.
The field house was built in the early 1980s. While the school did its best to keep up with the maintenance, it had fallen into disrepair.
The Tommy Bohanon Foundation, and Ronnie Johnson (Class of 1974) were the main contributors to the project, with their plaques at the entrance to signify their generosity.
It was Johnson who helped get the ball rolling after visiting his brother last Thanksgiving. They happened to visit the field where his brother had run track when Bowen came by on his golf cart.
“He showed us the facility and the field house was in disarray. He said they were going to do renovations and that they needed help,” Johnson said. “My brother said he would contribute $10,000 if they put his name on the building. Bowen said if we gave $25,000, he would put a plaque up.”
Johnson gave another $10,000 later when one of the other big contributors was unable to help.
“I started to call some people to see if they would contribute and decided I couldn’t do that. I have a plaque on the wall, and I’m asking them to contribute $10,000 and my name is on the building and their’s isn’t. It would put me in an awkward position,” Johnson said.
Katie Bohanon said the foundation had a very good year in 2019 and decided to pitch in monetarily and with the connections they had made within the community.
“When we learned about this in December, we jumped on board. I remember being here in 2008 for Tommy’s senior season decorating his locker before football games as a cheerleader,” Bohanon said. “I remembered the place looked the same then as did now but with many more years on it.”
Bohanon contacted their friends in the construction field to donate their time, labor and treasure to help. They also dipped into their sports equipment grant and got a matching $5,000 grant from the NFL Foundation to go along with the $15,000 they gave.
Diggs said that originally, $23,500 from athletics was budgeted toward the renovation of the field house that is designed to be a multi-use facility for several sports (football, baseball, softball, track and soccer).
Typical of renovations of older facilities, several structural and safety items needed to be repaired, replaced and brought up to code. Additional exterior restrooms were added, so North wound up spending a total of $33,000 from the athletics budget.
The balance of the $116,000 project came from fundraising and donations of alumni and local businesses.
Entering the field house, you see the wall of heroes, with the names and numbers of all the legendary Red Knights in lights, as well as their district and regional championships and individual records.
“When the kids come in and see that. It shows the tradition this program has and the expectations,” coach Dwayne Mack said as he gave a tour.
There are also numerous TV screens, where the team can meet after practice and watch how they did. There is also a locker room with another TV where the players can play video games or watch a game on a Saturday afternoon to hang out.
There is also an equipment room, trainers room, coaches office, shower area and storage for football and other sports. In the back, there are two restrooms for baseball fans watching the game nearby, so they don’t have to walk to the school.
“It’s a great facility. The community should be proud. We had a vision and reached out to the community to come together with a plan to finance something the community can be proud of,” Mack said.
Several of the players saw the new digs for the first time, and their looks resembled those from “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” except without the bus.
“It’s better than I could even ask for. It goes beyond any expectation I had for any field house,” said Paxton Walker. “I think this is better than most of the colleges in South Florida and definitely the best in the county. We have the best of everything.”
As for Hoover, who was the first head football coach in Red Knights history and who was coach when the facility was built in the early 1980s, he was very impressed. Maybe too impressed.
“Oh, my God. Isn’t this wonderful? It’s a great facility. I actually think it’s too fancy for football. The kids will really enjoy this. It’s got everything you need here,” Hoover said. “They turned the coaches office into the officials dressing room. But they made a lot of changes for the better.”