GIFF JOHNSON
From the opening of the ECC gym in Delap in 1997 to its closure in 2011 due to roof damage, I spent a remarkable amount of time inside it. Playing basketball, coaching teams, refereeing games, running training clinics for coaches and referees, managing sports events. If it had to do with basketball at the ECC I was around, shall we say, a lot.
And then I wasn’t. The roof collapsed in June 2011 and the building was shut down. That was the end of the ECC as we knew it.
Twelve long years later, renovations are well along with a large Pacific International Inc. crew working long hours to have the gym ready for the July 22-August 1 Micronesian Games. Earlier this week, I set foot inside the ECC for the first time in a dozen years. I’m not going to say it brought back a flood of memories. Rather, it simply made me feel good that at long last, the capital city will soon have a national gymnasium.
PII workers are focused on rebuilding the locker rooms and plumbing, renovating offices on the second floor, and gearing for resurfacing the floor before installing a wood playing surface.
This is the benefit of hosting a regional tournament. It gets government support for improvement of sports facilities, and this in turn means the public will have these facilities to use once the Micro Games concludes.