NEW CASTLE Gym renovation work forces schedule changes

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- New Castle High basketball fans will have to travel this fall to see their teams play.
John Sarandrea, high school principal and boys basketball coach, said renovation work on the field house will not be done for the first month of basketball season.
The boys and girls teams will play their first three home games at the other schools' gymnasiums.
The annual Tip Off Classic will be at Westminster College this year, he said.
The New Castle teams will have extra home games in the second half of the season to make up for the earlier scheduling change, Sarandrea said.
Humidity problem
He said there is a humidity problem in the gymnasium that has prevented workers from putting in the new floor and the plumbing in the locker rooms is not complete.
He noted that some additional classrooms being added to the gym also require some of the steel beams to be reinforced.
Superintendent George Gabriel said the gym will be ready by Jan. 6.
The boys basketball teams are practicing at the Community Y Sports Zone in Neshannock Township and the girls teams are practicing at Westminster College, Gabriel said.
Gabriel said the district got special permission from the state to offer physical education theory classes while the gym is being worked on.
The work on the gym is part of a larger high school building project.
Pupils will start classes in a new education wing when they return to class in January from Christmas break.
The current high school will mostly be demolished and an arts wing will be built in its place.
The field house and the education wing will eventually be connected to the arts wing.