In 2019, I was tasked with designing the new court for the WVU Coliseum.
This playing surface would be used by both Men's and Women's Basketball teams,
as well as the Volleyball team.
I began by exploring the history of court designs housed in the WVU Coliseum. I wanted to include a gentle nod to each generation of court in our new design. Upon researching our history, and digesting several options with senior staff, we settled on the above layout. Simple, clean, and classic.
This playing surface would be used by both Men's and Women's Basketball teams,
as well as the Volleyball team.
I began by exploring the history of court designs housed in the WVU Coliseum. I wanted to include a gentle nod to each generation of court in our new design. Upon researching our history, and digesting several options with senior staff, we settled on the above layout. Simple, clean, and classic.
The next step was to measure everything out to determine the scale of the text and design elements. A situation unique to our venue is the placement of the scorers table and hoop-base. Since the VIP seats come out to the edge of the court, the base of the hoops intrude slightly into the baseline area. Same for the scorers table. The "feet" of the scorers table are locked into affixed positions, so we wanted to be sure that none of the text would be covered on game day, once those elements were locked into place.
Next, the company installing the court (Ledford Sports Floors) sanded the old design away from the wood, cleaned, and prepped for resurfacing.
Following that; time to pick out paint color and a stain for the state-outline "watermark." The guys at Ledford would go on to hand-mix the paint colors and airbrush the mountain elements you see at the bottom of the finished design.
Once colors were selected, it was time for the installation team to take it home.
They laid out stencils and began to apply the paint and stain.
The final result:
