Valparaiso University to install Connor athletic flooring
Valparaiso, IN -- Valparaiso University will become the first NCAA® Division I College to select Connor Sport’s Flooring’s new environmentally and performance-designed GreenPlay™ athletic flooring system.

“With the subfloor manufactured from recycled engineered polymer, Connor’s GreenPlay system not only is the most environmentally friendly sports surface, it meets and exceeds the most demanding DIN standards for athletic floors,” said Ron Cerny, President and CEO of Connor Sport Court International.

“The subfloor panels offer the capability to be recycled again when the life of the floor is complete.” GreenPlay also helps contribute toward building LEED certification, Cerny added.

First grade maple hardwood will be used on the surface of the main floor. Total floor size will be 25,000 square feet.

The Valparaiso project will be installed by Kiefer Specialty Flooring, based in Lindenhurst, Illinois.

Mark LaBarbera, Valparaiso’s Director of Athletics, will oversee the project, due for completion in August. Working with him LaBarbera are Rick Hacias, Wood Sales Director at Kiefer, and Jay Perri, Kiefer Regional Sales Manager, and Ron Dudzik, Midwest Regional Manager for Connor Sports Flooring

“We are excited to be installing the GreenPlay flooring system in the Athletics-Recreation Center here on our campus. Our coaches were impressed with the overall feel of the floor and the quality of Connor installations. This system is a great opportunity for Valpo to provide our student-athletes with a better practice and competition environment in a more ecologically friendly manner,” said LaBarbera.

“Connor’s new GreenPlay sacrifices nothing in terms of performance,” said Dudzik. “In fact GreenPlay’s unique Impact Isolation Panel design controls the ‘area of deflection’ for optimum shock absorption across the entire floor.”

GreenPlay also offers “Two-Stage Resilience,” with specifically-located isolation ridges that provide quick response for lighter loads, and a second stage response for more aggressive impact, said Dudzik.

Valparaiso University is home to the Crusaders, who compete in the Horizon League Conference. They played their first basketball during the 1917-18 season. Valpo’s basketball team has appeared in seven NCAA Tournaments. Under Men’s Head Coach Homer Drew the men’s basketball team became a conference power beginning in 1988.

Connor Sport Court International is headquartered in Salt Lake City. The company’s Connor Sports Flooring manufacturing facility is in Amasa, Michigan, and sales offices for Connor are in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

About Connor Sport Court International

More athletic events are played on Connor Sport Court surfaces than on any other sports flooring in the world. Founded in 1872, Connor sports floors have established themselves as the standard for professional and collegiate sports. Connor is a member of the Maple Flooring Manufacturer’s Association. Connor also offers wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which identifies products from responsibly-managed forests. Hardwood used in the courts is from a renewable resource, with the U.S. growing six times more hardwood than is harvested each year. Sport Court® is a registered trade mark of Connor Sport Court International. Since 1974, it has identified the original and authentic modular sport surface, continuously improved and patented to provide the highest levels of quality and performance. Connor Sport Court is proud to be the only sports surfacing company in the world that is independently audited and verified as “Zero Waste” and fully ISO 9001:2008 certified.

SOURCE: Connor Sport Court Intl.

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