IT'S OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH NEW AS CANYON HIGH GETS GYM FLOOR : LEAKY ROOF.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

After years of puddles, warped flooring and dry rot - blamed on a leaky roof that has since been fixed - the Canyon High School main gymnasium is getting a new floor.

So thrilled are the student athletes, parents, coaches and booster club members about the upgrades to their 1960s-era gymnasium that, starting today they will volunteer in shifts to help rip out the old wooden floor - all 12,400 square feet of it - and dismantle the bleachers, too.

Thanks to $200,000 from the William S. Hart Union School District and a $100,000 grant from the city of Santa Clarita, Canyon High's main gym will have a new maple floor and a new set of motorized bleachers in time for the boys' basketball season this fall, according to city and school district officials.

The bleachers will be similar to those in the gyms at Valencia and Hart high schools - mechanically powered, with steel structures and molded plastic seats.

Greg Hayes was the boys' basketball coach at Canyon High for 14 years, during which he spent lots of time in the Cowboy gym at games and practices.

``The biggest problem with the floor was the roof,'' Hayes said. ``Some people theorize that the 1971 earthquake, the Sylmar one, caused structural problems that made the roof leak.

``We had countless practices in there with trash cans on the floor and plastic tarps,'' recalled Hayes, who became the girls' basketball coach at Valencia High last fall.

He remembered a severe rainstorm in the mid-1980s that flooded the Canyon gym floor, warping its interlocking wooden planks.

In the years since, the custodial staff has sanded down the floor to minimize the unevenness - but there is only so much wood that can be stripped off.

Canyon High boys' basketball coach David Humphreys said Cowboy teams can't wait to play on the new surface.

``It's one of those things that has been needed for a long period of time,'' he said. ``We were the only school in the whole district without a new gym floor, so we're pretty pleased.''

About 55 volunteers, Humphreys included, will help crews tear out the old floor and take apart the bleachers. The floorboards that are still in good condition will be salvaged and used to replace bad planks in Canyon's 8,000-square-foot auxiliary gym, said Dale Lundgren, whose Valencia company provides construction management to the Hart district.

Besides the boys' and girls' varsity, junior varsity and freshman basketball teams, the Canyon gym also is used by the same number of Cowboy volleyball teams - and by youth and adult sports leagues sponsored by the city Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Service.

City funding

It was because of that widespread use that city funds will help pay for the improvements, said parks Director Rick Putnam.

``The school district has been such a tremendous partner with the city in providing facilities for (community) use,'' he said.

The Hart district school board approved the expenditure May 28. In a report to the board, Lew White, the district's coordinator of facilities, outlined the need for the improvements.

``The folding bleachers at Canyon are in very poor condition, and there is a common perception that they are unsafe,'' White's report said. ``This perception comes from those who have used the bleachers and found that they move around, as if not securely fastened together.''

Repairs and replacement of ``bent and worn parts'' would be insufficient because of the bleachers' ``obsolete and discontinued . . . design,'' White said. Setting up or putting away the accordion-style tiered seating is time-consuming, he added.

``The process of extending and retracting the bleachers requires three custodians, working together for 2-1/2 hours . . . a very costly expenditure of the limited custodial time available for cleaning and other services to the school,'' White's report stated. ``Canyon's gym - which is also Canyon's auditorium - will be a nagging district problem every year until new bleachers are installed.''

Money-saving bleachers

In an April 23 letter to White, Canyon Assistant Principal Richard Freifeld said the bleachers become ``more difficult to get into adequate set-up shape as they become older,'' he said. ``I am estimating at least 438 custodial hours per year are needed to be put into the bleachers to run our activity and athletic programs.''

During a typical school year, the Canyon gym is host to nine school rallies, 38 basketball and volleyball games, five band and choral events, eight special events like blood drives and awards assemblies, and the school's homecoming and winter formal dances, Freifeld's memo said.

The district spent about $27,000 reroofing the gym two summers ago, said Mike Bahnmaier, director of maintenance.

The new bleachers - still awaiting approval by the state Department of Education - were bought from a North Berwick, Maine, manufacturer that also built the ones in the Hart and Valencia gyms, Lundgren and Bahnmaier said.

They will hold as many spectators as the old bleachers, which had a capacity of 1,200, Bahnmaier said. The district has contracted with a Northridge firm to install the new floor and a Torrance company to assemble the new bleachers.

Bahnmaier said spectators may not think the new floor looks much different than the old one, but the athletes running and jumping on it will be able to tell.

``I think it might be a little more resilient than the existing floor. It'll have more spring to it,'' he said.

That's because the new floor will be mounted on a foundation of rubber padding, as opposed to the aluminum track under the old floor, Bahnmaier said.

The new bleachers will be 15 rows high on one side of the gym and five rows high on the other, Lundgren added. The old seating was 20 rows high.

Hayes said he hopes the gymnasium improvements may convince local athletes to stay at Canyon instead of requesting transfers to Hart, Valencia or Saugus.

During his 14-year coaching tenure, Hayes and team boosters spent lots of time and money painting walls and floors and putting in new backboards to keep the gym looking nice, he said.

``With open enrollment, you don't want to lose kids just because they don't like the facility,'' Hayes said.

``I have incredibly wonderful memories in that gym,'' he added. ``That was home for a long time. It means a lot to me.''

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Photo: (color) Lalo Roslales, a custodian at Canyon High School, sits on bleachers that are being replaced.

Terri Thuente/Daily News