Venom Basketball gym ready for players

Young ball players have a new gym to play in on the north end of Tea thanks to Venom Basketball.

Venom has been running as full basketball academy since last June. The basketball organization serves players in Tea and the surrounding communities and was started to give athletes in the area a competitive outlet for basketball while keeping the costs family friendly.

Venom Basketball co-owner Bob Lundin said he and co-owner Jordan Boots bought an old cabinet shop building north of 271st Street a few months ago. Since that time they have worked to remodel it into a gym.

“We closed on this a month and a half, two months ago. Trying to get everything done in a month and a half, two months is challenging,” Lundin said.

They laid a new floor, using the same company from Hudson, Wis., that laid the Tea Area High School gym floor. They did not have to do any work to the walls, except adding red padding under the hoops.

Earlier this year, Lundin was planning to build a new gym downtown on Main Street in Tea. Then this building at 27083 Katie Road became available.

“What we were looking at before was Main Street. This just came up so I could purchase this instead of building new. With this I was able to get more space. There’s almost three acres here,” he said.

While the building is not completely finished, Venom basketball teams were able to start practice the last week of November. Lundin said they plan to have their first tournaments at the facility by the end of January.

In addition to the basketball court, they also have space for an office for their executive director, bathrooms, locker rooms, coaches’ conference room and a room overlooking the court. Those areas continue to be worked on.

Spectators can watch practice and games from above in a room over the court. Lundin hopes they can also have events at the facility.