The gym floor at Joppa High School has been there since the 1950s.

It's a hardwood surface inside a gymnasium with a beautiful barrel roof and ‘cherry cobbler’ rafters with the kind of character you can't manufacture anymore — the kind that comes from seventy years of basketball games, volleyball matches, graduations, homecomings, awards nights, and a community that uses one room for just about everything that has mattered over the decades.

The floor has always had a reputation. Superintendent Dr. Greg Goins, who played on it as a student and coached on it as a young head coach in 1998 and '99, says visiting teams have talked about it for decades.

"They think they can dunk when they get here," Goins said. "It's always been known as the best floor to jump on in Southern Illinois."

His father graduated from Joppa in the late '50s and played on that same floor. So did Goins's brother. So have generations of athletes from schools scattered across the region.

This summer, the floor is finally being replaced.

It can't be sanded anymore — the wood has worn down to the nails. The dust is impossible to fully manage. The surface has simply reached the end of its functional life. The project, funded through settlement money connected to the former EEI power plant closure and administered by the Massac County commissioners, represents a roughly $100,000 investment. It's part of a broader renovation that includes a window replacement project this fall backed by a state matching grant, fresh paint, and the removal of old end-zone bleachers for safety. By the time it's finished, the gym will look like a different room — but it will still be the hub it's always been.

Before the contractors arrived, the district formed a preservation committee. The center-court logo is being carefully removed and will be framed and displayed inside the gym. Additional sections of the floor will be made available to community members — the committee is still working out the details, but interest has been immediate.

"We've already had a lot of inquiries," Goins said.

The district also held a community walk — a Saturday event where anyone could come to the gym one last time, walk the old floor, buy a commemorative T-shirt, and remember. For a community this size, that kind of gesture matters.

"It's the one place the community comes for all the big things that happen in Joppa," Goins said. "We felt like it was going to have the greatest impact for the community as a whole."

For current students, the last season on the old floor was just that — a season. Junior Aiden Messer and freshman Bella Emery both played on it this year, and both left their mark. Goins says Aiden had games where he made a lot of threes. Bella was named all-conference. She had some big nights.

When asked what the old floor meant to them, neither reached for sentiment. Aiden, who moved to Joppa from Columbus, Georgia, in sixth grade, was honest.

"I guess it's exciting," he said.

Bella, who came from Lincoln Park in Chicago, was honest too — but she landed on something warmer.

"It's fun with the right teammates," she said. "The opportunity to play with them and grow with them — that's the best part of it."

Aiden's standout memory: a rivalry game against Egyptian this season. Joppa was down. The clock was running. The Egyptian's point guard drove in, and Aiden popped the ball loose into the air. His teammate grabbed it, got fouled on the layup, and hit the free throws. Joppa won.

Ask Aiden what basketball taught him, and the answer comes in two words: discipline and leadership. Ask what he's doing after graduation, and the answer is just as direct. Toyota, in Evansville. "My parents kind of just told me what I was going to do," he said.

Bella is still deciding. Cosmetology and business management interest her. But her coach has been talking to her about continuing basketball at the next level. She hasn't ruled it out.

Aiden's seven-year-old brother plays T-ball. His little sister does gymnastics. Both may end up on the new floor someday.

"This is kind of a neat project for me personally," Goins said. A kid who played here, a coach who paced the sideline here, now a superintendent who gets to be the one to lay down something new for the next generation.

The old floor held seventy years of Joppa. The new one starts this fall.