Chris Bieri/PCT The newly renovated floor at the Memorial Hall is shown in this photo. The basketball gym has received a face lift, fresh with new baskets and a newly waxed and lined floor.

When the Rugby Basketball Boosters held its annual tournament last spring, they needed an extra gym and played games at Memorial Hall.

It’d been years since the basketball court was used on a regular basis, as the Rugby High School team last played a game there in 1955.

The gym is already used by local gymnasts and physical education classes at Little Flower Elementary.

But tournament organizer Greg Foster saw how some slight improvements could turn the gym into a bigger asset.

With the help of volunteers and local families, the basketball gym has received face lift, fresh with new baskets and a newly waxed and lined floor.

“We were happy just to have another place to use last March to add another floor to our tournament,” Foster said. “We knew we could make a better place and for maybe some other things during the year.”

Foster said around 15 families chipped in $100 each to purchase new fiberglass baskets and crews of volunteers helped wax the floors and paint the lines.

The work started in the middle of July and ran into August on the upgrades.

“It looks pretty good,” said Pierce County Commissioner Duane Johnston. “It’s been quite a while since it’s been used for basketball.”

The result is a fresh new gymnasium, and Foster said it should be another nice facility for local basketball players to practice their trade.

“When it’s available it’s going to be a better facility for basketball with the improvements everyone helped make,” he said. “It’s nice for a community of our size to have another facility available.”