August 29th marked the first home volleyball match for the Lewis School’s girls’ volleyball team. The Falcons hosted the Knights from Rocky Bayou Christian School for the game. Mixed in with the fans and parents were the trademark red shirts, blouses, and coats of the Niceville Chamber of Commerce members. 

The chamber, along with the Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Marcus Chambers, came to cut the ribbon on a newly completed half-cent sales tax upgrade. 

“51 years ago there was a floor that was placed down in this gymnasium,” Superintendent Marcus Chambers told the crowd of about 200 students, parents and Lewis School volleyball fans, “it was made of concrete and a rubberized surface. At that time, this floor was kind of revolutionary.”

But, as everyone knows, life – and gym flooring technology – moves quickly. The update on the floor in The Lewis School’s Taylor Haugen Gym puts the school on the cutting edge of technology for gymnasiums in the United States. 

The green Lewis Falcon at the center of the arena, newly buffed and ready for basketball and volleyball games and all 8 grades of physical education, looks sharp. 

“Sports is one aspect of this district that I believe makes us the A+ district that we are,” Chambers added, “to have a floor like this and to have a Taylor Haugen Gymnasium like this is something that we can all be extremely proud of.”

Principal Lindsay Smith, The Lewis School’s new principal, says the new floor buoys the pride and self-confidence of the children in the school and the community as well. 

“We have middle school sports because you learn so much from middle school sports,” Smith said. “You learn character, you learn time-management, you learn what you like to do and what you don’t like to do. It’s a time to try things out and experiment, that is what middle school is for, and it’s really important for our kids for the district to keep supporting that.”