Traditions and Conditioning

First off, I haven't posted in a while.  I have been over-the-top busy!  Long story made short - we had a sudden departure of our senior boys basketball coach at work, and a new coach was found but wasn't a school district employee.  Therefore, a sponsor from the school was needed, and I volunteered (as in, answered the phone and agreed).  I didn't know exactly what I was agreeing to... and as it turns out that's almost all I've been doing for the past several weeks!  My life now consists of: 
- wake up
- possibly get a workout in
- go to work
- training after work
- back to school and hang out in the gym (Sometimes even bringing my bike and trainer to practice and riding in the corner.  I imagine the boys think this is weird).
This is my new routine. Every. Day.  But it's all good; they're a great group and we're having lots of fun.  I am, however, looking forward to the end of the season!

All this time watching basketball has made me nostalgic, as basketball was "the" sport at my high school.  However, my old high school gym had a different tradition than the school I work for; the gym floor was absolutely sacred and you didn't step onto it unless you were playing a game or in PE class.  You walked around the playing surface, and if you accidentally stepped onto it, the entire student body would yell "GET OFF THE FLOOR!" - pretty traumatic as it happened at least once to almost every grade 9 student.  You lived in fear of being yelled at.  But, you also had respect for the tradition of preserving the gym floor and showed reverence for it, the players, and the games.  

LCHS basketball game, 1986.  Notice the pristine gym floor.
And how no one is even close to stepping on it.

It's not quite the same at the school I teach at.  There is not a tradition of respect for the gym floor, and people walk across it in outdoor shoes, shoot hoops at half time during a game (absolutely unheard of at my alma matter), and pretty much do anything they want.  I understand that each place has it's own traditions so I'm not lamenting this lack of reverence for the floor, but it's just different.   However, I must be pretty conditioned to the idea of staying off the floor.  Even though I only went to high school for 4 years (and that was more than 25 years ago) and have been teaching at Cowichan for over a decade, I still cringe when I see people cutting across the floor.  I find I still walk around it most of the time, and brace myself in preparation to be yelled at whenever I do cut across.  Funny how something fairly minor, so long ago, can still resonate.  

I wonder if my old high school still upholds the tradition of not walking across the floor?