Gym-tastic: BREC and the Baton Rouge Basketball and Volleyball Association will celebrate the groundbreaking of a new gymnasium, the Team Automotive Group Sports Complex, Monday at noon at Perkins Road Community Park, 7122 Perkins Road. The Team Automotive Group Sportsplex will house the largest indoor basketball facility in the parish and the largest indoor volleyball facility in the state. It will include three tournament-play basketball courts, six youth basketball courts, 12 basketball half-courts and five competition volleyball courts. BREC is providing $1.5 million toward the $5 million project. Per the agreement, BREC programs will receive 30% of the gym’s use time.
Action! Sections of Main and Laurel streets will be closed Monday from 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. to film a chase scene for the television series Breakout Kings. Both streets will be closed between North 13th and North 19th streets while the filming takes place. The suggested detour is onto Florida Street. The TV show, which is produced by Fox and airs on A&E, is scheduled to continue filming in the Baton Rouge area through early 2012.
Oklahoma community mourns: Oklahoma State University women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke—who formerly coached at Louisiana Tech—and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed Thursday night when the single-engine plane they were riding in during a recruiting trip crashed near a wildlife management area in central Arkansas. The university said the pair died in the crash near Perryville, about 45 miles west of Little Rock. The Winona Wildlife Management Area is in steep terrain in the eastern Ouachita Mountains. A cause of the crash was not announced. The Perry County Sheriff’s Department says the crash occurred just before 7 p.m. about four miles south of Perryville. FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said an immediate search revealed that at least two were dead. The school’s statement today put the death toll at four. Read the full story here.
