Coupeville Sports

Lyla Stuurmans brings the pain last year while playing in a very dry Coupeville High School gym. (Jackie Saia photo)

If you see an ark floating by, it’s probably headed towards Maxwelton.

Two flooding incidents during the summer have left the South Whidbey School District under water and will force a change in venue for Coupeville High School’s first volleyball match of the new season.

The Wolves are slated to head down island this coming Tuesday, Sept. 10, for a non-league matchup with the Falcons.

JV is slated to tip at 5:15 PM, with varsity following at 6:45.

But because of a wrecked SWHS gym, thanks to a pipe that burst in August, the contests will not be held at the high school.

Instead, they’ll be played at the South Whidbey Community Center, which is located at 723 Camano Ave. in Langley.

The August flood, which left the high school gym under a solid quarter inch of water, happened during a weekend and was not discovered for several days.

The Whidbey News-Times reported the incident is believed to have “originated from an old pipe that surrounded a 500-gallon water heater” located in a mechanical room.

It came on the heels of district workers “repairing the pumphouse, and the well that feeds the high school, and other district buildings located on Maxwelton Road.”

The high-pressure fire system “pushed water into the domestic lines of the high school, (likely) weakening the already old and failing water pipe.”

The water leak went on for approximately 36 hours before being discovered, affecting the gym floor and rooms connected to the girls’ locker rooms, with floorboards “cupping and curling.”

The district will have to “replace the floor, remove and demolish the water heater, tear out the sheetrock behind the water heater and replace the plumbing, while the oldest water heaters and attached plumbing will also be replaced.”

Superintendent Jo Moccia said insurance should cover all repair costs, and the district hopes to have the gym ready for use by basketball season, which begins in November.

School officials told the WNT they believe the incident was not related to an earlier accident, where a company doing soil testing on school property punched a hole through a pipe.

Those who worked on repairing that boo-boo estimated the loss at upwards of 150,000 gallons of water, though school officials declined to confirm that when asked by the WNT.

A pipe on South Whidbey School District property gushes water after being breached. (Photo courtesy Anania Trucking & Excavating)

Young spikers also switch gyms:

The middle school volleyball opener Sept. 26, with Coupeville traveling to South Whidbey, will also be affected, with the match moved from the SWHS gym to the community center.