KELSEYVILLE — After spending an entire summer teaching teens how to construct a building properly and responsibly, Supervisor Rob Brown Wednesday dedicated the new Kelseyville High School (KHS) wrestling team”s mat storage and practice room in honor of his old coach.
The new “Wm. Miles Turner Wrestling Facility” came about after Brown, the current KHS wrestling coach, and his team had been holding practices in spare classrooms. Calpine Corp. had donated a full-size wrestling mat, of which Brown said he was grateful but quickly realized the team had nowhere to store it.
He said he began to discuss the idea of a storage facility for the mat with KHS Athletic Director Steve Olson and Principal Matt Cockerton. Several options were considered before they settled on the current facility.
Brown said he decided building the facility would make a good regional occupational program (ROP) project.
With help from Brock Falkenberg at the Lake County Office of Education, County Superintendent of Schools Wally Holbrook and Kelseyville Unified School District Superintendent Dave McQueen, the facility became an ROP project over the summer.
Brown said the facility represented more than 6,000 man hours put in by volunteer contractors and ROP teens from Upper Lake, Kelseyville and Middletown. Brown worked with local contractors and vendors to secure the materials and supplies the teens used to construct the facility every Monday and Thursday from June 22 to Aug. 19. Brown said with donations and materials, the facility has a monetary value of nearly $300,000.
In dedicating the facility, Brown said all who participated in the project were “not building a building, we were building a program that thousands of men and women have benefited from and will continue to benefit from for many years to come.”
When speaking about Turner, the original founder and coach of the KHS wrestling program, Brown said he would “consider myself successful if, at the end of my career, I can look back and know that I had influenced only half of the young people that this man has influenced.”
Turner said he was honored and had trouble putting how he felt into words. Turner said Brown is doing a great job, adding, “I belong in his shadow.”
Cockerton also honored Brown for his dedication to the project by presenting him with a piece of severed electrical conduit that Brown had “accidentally” cut during construction. The conduit contained the school”s Internet, fire alarm, phone and public address system wires.
Brown extended his “deepest gratitude” to the people and businesses that contributed to the project.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
