The Gym Floor With a Second Life

The gym floor where Dual Language Academy (DLA) students learn and play has a story to tell. 

It’s in the grain of wood, worn smooth by years of footwork and free throws. And it’s in the fact that the floor – every plank of it – once belonged to another Catholic school entirely.

Before it was home to DLA students – and the St. Joan of Arc (SJA) students before them – the floor saw more than a few school assemblies and basketball games at Creighton Prep. The floor is the original maple wood from Prep’s old gym, built in 1958, and it even lasted through the 1975 tornado. Then, in 2008 when Prep was beginning a new addition, the architect behind their renovation had the idea to repurpose the floor instead of demolish it, so it could keep serving students.

That architect was Joe Brudney, who graduated from both Creighton Prep and St. Joan of Arc, which is now home to the Consortium’s Dual Language Academy. 

How a High School’s Old Floor Found a New Home

“Brud,” as most people call him, first got the idea after attending his son’s basketball game against St. Joan of Arc. One of the players slipped and fell on the then-tile floor and injured his head. That led to Brud asking Prep’s president, Fr. Merkel, for permission to salvage the existing maplewood to donate to SJA.

He says he “became an ombudsman for this project,” working with representatives from Prep and the SJA Men’s Club.

 It was an effort that took years – and the help of many. 

After permission was granted to salvage and repurpose the wood, Brud says he had kind of a “now what?” moment. That’s when he talked to Marilyn and Denny Mailliard, a former SJA basketball coach. The couple offered to store the wooden planks on their personal property before construction could begin. So a volunteer group from the SJA Men’s Club worked to carefully rip up, bundle and load the wood planks onto a truck trailer. And there, on the Mailliard’s property, they sat – for six years. 

“I remember calling them every year or so and making sure everything was still okay,” said Brud. 

During that time, the SJA Men’s Club worked to raise the $25,000 necessary to finish installing the recycled gym floor. Slowly but surely, they raised the money and began working with a contractor who specialized in gym floors.

“Being a SJA Crusader myself, I just wanted to help the school so badly,” Brud said. 

In 2015, it was the same crew who originally helped load the wood returned to re-load the planks and bring them to their new home. Brud recalled that they put the decades-old wood in piles on the SJA gym stage before the contractor to lay them all out like a jigsaw puzzle. 

After that and a good sanding, it looked brand new, he said. 

He also shared that if you look closely, you can still see spots of blue throughout, from the former basketball lines painted on by Creighton Prep. 

The design on the floor now has the SJA logo, a signature fleur-de-lis, which Brud designed. 

“The whole thing was certainly a labor of love,” he said. 

This past September, Brud and his classmates from the Class of 1970 visited SJA to get a tour of the school and see how it looks now that Dual Language Academy resides inside. 

In fact, his class has remained close since they graduated, planning a reunion every five years. While it may look different these days, he said he’s proud that SJA is still being used as a school. 

At their 2025 reunion, the group stopped in the gym as part of their tour. There’s now a plaque outside the gym featuring the floor’s story. And they walked down memory lane with newspaper clippings about various events held in the gym. Alumni were also able to hear school updates from Angie Gonzales-Smith, the current DLA Principal and Consortium Executive Director, Shannan Brommer, during their visit. 

What This Means for Students Today

The wooden floor has improved safety for student athletes for over 10 years now, not to mention school pride. 

The Dual Language Academy opened its doors in 2018 and moved into St. Joan of Arc in 2021. The DLA is home to 295 students in the 2025-2026 school year, with a strong athletics program. 

This project is the perfect example of an alum giving back in a meaningful way that helps preserve legacy and create something lasting for the next generation of Catholic students to enjoy. The DLA is so grateful!

Learn more about the Dual Language Academy.