JEFFERSON COUNTY, Texas — Hamshire Fannett High School is hoping to get a helping hand from a locker manufacturing company after Imelda damaged two of the district's schools.
This is the second time the districts schools have sustained damage in the last three years. This time the middle school was forced to combine with the high school while repairs are made, and the high school locker room is now shared by students ranging from seventh graders all the way to seniors. About three students are sharing each locker.
"Our locker room was small to begin with, and then Harvey it was used as a refuge so we had people who were having to stay here because their homes were gone," Coach Blake Waggoner told 12News.
On top of the storm damage during Harvey and Imelda, the overuse has caused a lot of wear and tear to both the boys and girls locker rooms.
High schools from various states entered to win the chance to get a new locker room, and Hamshire-Fannett is among the top five finalists. Waggoner approached sophomore Lincoln Edwards to help create a YouTube video to enter the contest.
"I'm just a kid making videos, since I was 10 I've just being doing film-making and videography, so to have it on a national level is pretty crazy," Lincoln said.
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The video highlighted the many issues with the current locker rooms. Because of all the repairs needed at the other schools, fixing them is low priority. Most of the doors to the lockers don't close, and some don't exist all together. The sinks aren't functional, and the lights are broken.
Several students, like Masons Stutes, talked about how the storms affected their families. The senior football player's mom and dad both lost their homes in both storms. Because of Imelda, Stutes can't even retreat to the school.
"Well, I love half-days, but my senior year is not what I wanted it to be at all, my sophomore year was not what I wanted it to be at all, it just kind of affects everything because hundred year floods don't happen every three years, but here they do," Stutes explained.
His classmate, Rinnah Edwards, agrees, the storms changed everything.
"It kind of brought everything into chaos, and it's not really a workable environment for us to be in," Edwards said.
Despite the difficulties they've faced, Stutes says the students appreciate the nicer things more. To him, going to newer facilities during football season was like going on vacation. He says having something like that would mean the world.
"I know what having a new locker room would be like because of our second playoff game, we actually went to a locker room and everybody loved it, it was amazing," he said, "everybody was just jaw-dropped the whole time, even though we lost it was still a fun time being in a locker room, and if we had that everyday it would be amazing."
Waggoner says the kids do a good job of taking care of the lockers they have, simply having the opportunity to compete for a Hollman locker room is a blessing. The coaches want to give their athletes a facility they can call their own, and makes them feel special.
"It's just the idea of being able to put your stuff in something that closes, and not having to share a locker with a kid who'd six years younger than you and them not keep it as tidy as you do, those are things that can affect your high school experience, especially with athletics," He said.
Hollman, the "world's largest and premier manufacturer of team sports, fitness, and workspace lockers" is looking to transform a locker room for a deserving high school. The company has created lockers for collegiate and professional teams, including the Chicago Bears, Dallas Mavericks and Texas A&M.
The contest will be decided by votes, and voting will be open from Jan. 21 until Feb. 3 at 9 a.m. The winner will be announced on Friday, Feb. 7.
"I know all of southeast Texas backs each other, there's nothing like the lone star state and I want to show the rest of the nation what it's like when Texans ban together," Waggoner said.