West Potomac gym gets makeover, including new 40-foot mural

A few years back, West Potomac boys basketball coach David Houston III gave a DVD of one of his team’s games to a college coach. When the college coach called a few days later to discuss the game, one of his questions caught Houston by surprise.

Where was the game was played?

Houston, who’s coached at West Potomac since the 2004-2005 season, knew the Wolverines’ home court was bland compared to other nearby schools. But the fact that a college coach could watch a game and not realize it was the Wolverines’ home court?

“That kind of prompted me,” said Houston, who’d first met with an artist about painting a mural in the gym in 2011. “We had to do something.”

After years of discussions, planning and fundraising, Houston’s vision for a gym that proudly represents West Potomac has finally come to life. Nicknamed “The Wolverdome,” West Potomac’s Mary Fiedor Gym got its big makeover earlier this month, complete with a 40-foot by 40-foot mural featuring the school’s mascot.

Additionally, the court now sports a wider baseline — featuring the correct shade of blue — along with larger lettering for the school’s name. Center court now has a Wolverine claw and “WP” painted on it, and each corner of the court — which was refinished after the paint job — has “West Potomac” and “Wolverines” in cursive lettering.

“It pops,” Houston said. “It’s hard to grasp how big [the mural] is until you walk in and see it.”

West Potomac’s girls volleyball team, which starts its fall season on Monday, will be the first team to use the new gym after the makeover. One of the players on the team, Annika Munson, is the daughter of West Potomac booster club president Lester Munson, the group that has fundraised to pay for the improvements.

Munson, along with Houston, directed credit for the makeover toward principal Tangy Millard, who started at the school last year. Once Millard put her leadership behind the project, it finally began to take shape, Munson and Houston said.

“Without her, we couldn’t have done it,” said Munson, who also has a son who plays basketball at West Potomac. “She’s been a big help for the whole project.”

Stacy Ridgeway and his son Stace are the talent behind the mural and other improvements. They co-own a Georgia-based company called Mural Mural on the Wall. The elder Ridgeway was an art teacher when he started the business in 1986, and he estimates they’ve painted more than 40,000 murals in 15 states. They’ve done murals in around 30 schools in Fairfax County alone, including ones at nearby Edison and South County.

The Ridgeways and their helpers completed the job in three weeks, working around a sports camp the first week and then knocking out the rest of the job in time for the fall sports season.

“He works his tail off,” Munson said of Ridgeway. “He’s like the hardest working guy I’ve ever met.”

Much like the Ridgeways’ business, Houston’s coaching job is a family-oriented activity. Houston’s 76-year-old father has been by his side as an assistant coach for West Potomac since he started at the school, and Stace Ridgeway and Houston bonded over the shared experience of working with their fathers.

“We must have talked about what that was like for an hour,” Houston said. “[The Ridgeways] are hard workers; they are really amazing guys.”