Amory High School builds back stronger than before
AMORY, Miss. (WCBI) – Amory High School is still in its recovery period from the EF-3 tornado that struck in March 2023.
Amory’s school Superintendent, Brian Jones, says the damage was unbelievable.
“I did not expect it to do that much damage. Especially to our athletic facilities,” Jones said. “It wiped them completely out.”
Jones says the campus that had the most damage was the high school – the gym and athletic complexes took a hit and the school building needs to be re-roofed – which they’re looking to do this summer.
The district’s Director of Operations Coty Cox says going into this project, they’d thought the gym would be a relatively quick repair, and they’d have it done by Christmas, but it ended up taking the longest.
“Once we took up the old floor, we ran into a lot of issues with older construction,” Cox said. “The building was built in the 1960s, so there was tar on the floor, we had to remove it, everything was really off-square, and it wasn’t level, so there were a lot of repairs we had to do with bringing in new concrete, leveling up the floor.”
Right now, the plans are to have the football field and gym ready to go at the end of August.
They are still working out details with baseball and softball. They hope to get those projects started when school starts.
Principal of Amory High School Leigh Stanford says the recovery process has not been easy for the students, but she says they have been warriors.
“I think they’re seeing these things going up, and it’s giving them hope, they’re getting excited,” Stanford said. “I think this is going to add on because it’s going to be a way to enhance our school, enhance our athletic facilities, and make people want to come here.”
Faculty members say this was tough on the students, but it proved how resilient they were, and through the unfortunate circumstances, they can come together and see a silver lining.
“For us to be able to have the upgrades we’ve always wanted, and to bring the school back a lot stronger than it was, a lot more up to date than it was, which only just adds to our community, having them to have pride in what we have going on here,” Cox said.
“It brings back what Amory is, I mean, we are a high academic place and we compete in athletics in every event, so this is just part of bringing the community back together,” Jones said.
The faculty at Amory High School says they are thankful for the surrounding communities that have helped them in the process and welcomed them to their facilities when they needed it.
