To the editor:
I read Dave Facinoli’s recent commentary about the spookiness of empty gyms with a smile on my face. However, as a coach’s son, I have a different perspective.
Empty gyms are like old houses you grew up in. Every sound’s a memory. There’s nothing like walking in a quiet gym and hearing every strike of your shoe echoing throughout the gym or bouncing a ball in an empty gym.
It even smells better empty. Or, even better, when you open the gray metal light panel with the switches, the sound the button makes when you go down the row and click them on and when you click them off when it’s time to leave.
An empty gym is your dad saying, “That’s enough for today. We’ll shoot again tomorrow.” It’s the house you grew up in. Every room has a memory and knows all that happened in that place. The place speaks to you.
I can still hear my dad telling me to don’t forget to put the rack of basketballs away, turn off the lights, and don’t forget to lock the doors.
Not scary at all.
Mike McCall, director of communications, Virginia High School League
