CHEBOYGAN – Jason Friday has been around the Cheboygan High School athletic environment for decades.
Throughout his time as a student, teacher, coach and athletic director, Friday has seen the same when it comes to what the inside complex looks like. But finally, significant changes and upgrades are being made to benefit student-athletes, coaches and supporters of Cheboygan athletics.
“It’s about time,” Friday, Cheboygan’s AD, said on Monday. “It’s probably 20 years overdue, but probably better late than never.”
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Right now, those changes include bleachers in the high school basketball gymnasium and improving the locker rooms for boys and girls.
One of the biggest upgrades is replacing the wooden bleachers, which have been present for several years, and installing new retractable bleachers, which will provide more safety for spectators in attendance. Spectators will have their places to sit, while students will occupy their section in the gym, something that benefits all parties.
“You don’t have to worry about dropping your keys or jacket or a kid falling through or getting slivers,” Friday said. “It’s just going to be a first-class facility, which is great for the whole community. The number of events that we have in our gym from band events to obviously athletics and graduation, and I know they hold a yearly concert in here in the summer, so it’s going to be nice to have a first-class facility.”
Also, a current project is underway to improve Cheboygan’s locker room area, which includes bathrooms, showers and space in general. When it’s all complete, Friday said it’ll look top-notch.
“The main goal is to make this equal with the boys instead of how it was in the past,” Friday said. “It was very unequal. The showers are going to be individual showers with their own stall and curtains instead of how it was before with an open shower.”
Friday said the new gymnasium bleachers are expected to be complete by the end of June but didn’t provide a timetable for when the locker rooms would be finished.
The upgrades to the gym provide momentum for Cheboygan athletics, which now has a new fitness center for athletes to work in, along with a new sound system used mainly for the gameday environment.
“New windows, new roofs, they’re needed but it doesn’t get the kids excited at all,” Friday said. “When kids come into the gym, they see changes that benefit them, whether it’s a new science lab they have going on now, or the new fitness center, which we have a ton of kids using it, way more than in the past, and the new bleachers. That’s what gets kids excited.”
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With the Chiefs moving to the Northern Shores Conference soon, it’ll make Cheboygan’s facility as strong as many of the other schools it’ll be competing against.
At the same time, Friday has others to thank for making it all possible.
“Our superintendent (Spencer Byrd) talked about how this needs to happen, and he was able to find the money for that, so shoutout to Mr. Byrd for getting that done,” Friday said. “Steve Fleming, over in the maintenance, he worked a lot with the architects. Matt Mlynarchek, my assistant coach, is also on the (schoolboard), so he was a huge proponent of getting these things moving forward, and of course the whole board has to approve the funding.
“It’s a huge team that came together, and we’re all just very thankful.”
Contact sports editor Jared Greenleaf at[email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter@sportsCDT
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