LYNNWOOD — The energy, noise and field of black and gold were enough to impress any visitor to Lynnwood High School’s pep assembly Friday, Dec. 10.
It brought a lot of excitement to the Royals too. This pep assembly was the first of its kind since last school year, because of flood damage that put the school’s gymnasium out of commission since August.
A setback like that could have affected the most spirited school in western Washington, as Lynnwood has been declared each year since 2001 by viewers of the local television program Evening Magazine.
But staff and students alike did their best to keep spirits up. Although all students could not gather together for an assembly, older students helped show freshmen how the Royals display their spirit. Yet something was still missing.
“It just didn’t have the same pizzazz,” Lynnwood principal Dave Golden said.
Outsiders wouldn’t realize that the pizzazz had ever been missing during last week’s homecoming festivities.
It was a bit later than usual, but the Royals organized homecoming events just like any other year, with day and night happenings, a dance and Lynnwood athletic events. But this year, the sport was not football, it was both basketball and wrestling.
The school still had the duct tape a teacher event, senior pants painting night and the deck the halls celebration.
Although an entire sports season passed without use of the gym, students handled it well, Golden said.
“Kids are tremendously adaptable,” Golden said.
Ryan Murray, a Lynnwood senior and treasurer of the associated student body, said it was tough trying to keep up school spirit.
“It was really frustrating for (student government),” he said.
But Murray said there wasn’t much students could do about it other than wait.
“We had to deal with it, and it all worked out,” Murray said.
Had the water only puddled on the gymnasium floor, Golden said, the fix would have been much easier.
“The problem was, water seeped below the floor on the sides,” he said.
To remedy the situation, there were fans circulating air underneath the gymnasium to help dry out the floor, which literally looked like it had waves rippling through it.
Two months later, the floor was dried out. “As the water dried up, the floor leveled out,” Golden said.
The first week of November, the gymnasium was open to use in P.E. classes, but because of humidity concerns, school officials decided not to have a schoolwide assembly right away, he said.
Jean Kellogg, who’s the coach of Lynnwood’s volleyball team and a P.E. instructor, said the lack of a gym made it necessary to extend outdoor units on sports like soccer and football for classes. The water did not damage the back half of the gymnasium, so classes like aerobics could continue as planned.
The situation was slightly tougher for the volleyball team.
The girls had to travel to the old Edmonds-Woodway High School to practice and host home games, she said. This location is practically the farthest possible from Lynnwood High in the district, but the girls didn’t protest about the extra time needed to commute.
“The kids didn’t complain,” Kellogg said. “I was very proud of (them) for that.”
The lack of gym also affected the number of students who showed up to support the team at home games. Kellogg said it seemed as though they had more support at away games then they did at their home games.
“I thought in spite of it, we played well,” Kellogg said of the team’s third-place finish in the Western Conference South Division.
And in the spite of the gym closure, it seems Lynnwood’s spirit is back on track.
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