The University Center is housing a new scoreboard and will be used during upcoming games. Due to flooding that took place in March, the previous court in the University Center has been replaced and the new court was unaffected by the flooding that took place before the start of classes. 
The Lion's Roar/Larshell Green

The University Center has a new scoreboard and court for this upcoming fall sports season. The old scoreboard had been in the University Center for 16 years before being replaced, and the previous court was permanently damaged by flooding that occurred in March of this year.

“We had been talking about replacing it (scoreboard) for a couple of years now,” said University Center Director Duane Shafer. “Our old scoreboard was 16 years old, and we started talking about it seriously at the beginning of this year. Andrew Bechac kind of led that committee on the scoreboard.”

The same company that designed and created the baseball scoreboard created the new scoreboard for the University Center.

“We contacted Fair-Play which is a company out of Little Rock, Arkansas,” said Shafer. “They just did the new baseball scoreboard. We told them what we wanted and what we did not want, and they basically put together a package for us, showed us a schematic and gave us a price estimate. It did not go through our budget. It went through the athletic department.”

The recent flooding in the south Louisiana area could have led to more flooding in the University Center and damage to the new court, however precautions were made to keep that from happening.

“We took some measures this time to block off the drain that backed up,” said Shafer. “Last time did not have enough time to pick the court up yet. We put several pumps down on the floor, and it took probably about 18-20 hours to get all of the water out.”

The new court and scoreboard has impressed the coaches and players that will be using it this fall as well as the entire athletics staff.

“Everybody loves the new court,” said Shafer. “It was a collaborative effort to design the new court. There were several people involved mainly myself, Andrew Bechac, Jay Artigues and Caitlin Wade.”

The volleyball team will be the first to play on the new court and under the new scoreboard on Wednesday, Aug. 24.

“Volleyball’s green and gold scrimmage is Wednesday, and their first home match is Saturday so that will be the first events on the floor,” said Shafer. “Basketball starts practice in early October, but the goals have not been put up yet. They’re chomping at the bits to get on that court because they can do open gym, and they can do some one-on-one stuff with the kids pretty much as soon as school starts.”

Men’s and women’s basketball will get their chance to play on the new court in November.