Marple Newtown Opens New Gym in Grand Fashion

NEWTOWN SQUARE–Fairness, trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, caring, and citizenship. Those are the words lining the walls of the new gymnasium at . They are the pillars that the school will strive to uphold during sporting events held in the brand new, state-of-the-art facility.

On Friday night, students, parents, faculty and alumni packed the new gym for an evening of events to help christen the project. Children with painted Tiger faces–courtesy of the art club–ran around a much more spacious seating area, while faculty and students played an exhibition game to kick off the ceremonies.

"We're thrilled with the opening of the new gymnasium," said Marple Athletic Director Dennis Reardon. "We believe that for years, the efforts from our students have been a great source of pride by the community. Now we have a tremendous platform to show off what our students do on a daily basis."

After the students versus faculty game, the before the girls' basketball game against Springfield. The game was the first official game played on the court. After falling down early, the lady Tigers rallied to beat the visiting Cougars 46-42 in front of a packed house.

It was the students who were the stars, quite literally, of the show. Following a post-game recognition ceremony of dignitaries, the students presented a viral video starring more than 500 participants. The video was shot in one day, and shows students walking through the school's campus lip-syncing to the popular song "Magic" by artist B.o.B. featuring Rivers Cuomo.

"We saw a lot of schools doing similar videos," student director Jake Shapiro said. "We thought, in order to boost school spirit, we would try it ourselves."

The Marple Newtown senior said that more than 500 people, including students and faculty, showed up to help create video after a few weeks of planning. Forty-five minutes later, they had what they think might be the next viral hit.

After the video premiere, the boys' basketball team topped off the night with a 54-38 drubbing of Springfield. The match-up was the first Central League game of the year for both teams.

Despite a somewhat contentious process, the mood on Friday night was light and celebratory. Administrators seemed excited and relieved that the project was finally done.

"Tonight is really exciting because we've been in this project now for over two years. We still have almost a year left, but this a benchmark along the way," Principal Ray McFall said.

The new facility has a capacity of 1,250, which is an additional 500 from the old gym's 750. McFall said the extra space makes a huge difference and better fits the needs of the expanding student body.

"Now we can just have a little more pride in the facility when people come here," he said.