Say goodbye to the recent shadowy past of the area’s grandest arena for high school basketball.

Bright lights, big city?

Almost.

Ernie Kivisto Gym at East Aurora has had a face-lift of sorts, complete with brand new, bright red plastic bench seating to replace the old, mood-darkening wood rows. Veteran season ticket holders can take advantage of a four-row section behind the south basket featuring stadium seating.

Better yet, the gym is now Americans with Disabilities Act compliant and everything is illuminated by new, improved lights.

“It’s a brighter atmosphere now,” East Aurora coach Rick Robinson said. “We needed to make a change.”

It was definitely time.

Luis Umana also was ready for his time in the spotlight Thursday night when the Tomcats opened their home and Upstate Eight Conference schedule by hosting Streamwood.

A 6-foot-2 junior forward, Umana scored just three points while three teammates — Jalen Bealer, Kenneth Cooley and Davion Tidwell — had 18 apiece in an 83-43 rout.

Umana still managed to have a big impact on the outcome for East Aurora (1-4, 1-0), grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds against the Sabres (1-5, 0-1).

Tidwell, a 6-2 senior, joined him on the front line and they were backed up by 6-2 sophomore Davion Jackson, who had eight points and seven rebounds.

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do, get rebounds,” Umana said. “It’s what I like to do. Go out there and work and put a box on people and get the ball.

“Like all these guys, I like to score, too. But I’ll get ‘em when I can.”

East Aurora was winless in its season-opening Thanksgiving week tournament at St. Charles East that featured much tougher, as well as taller, competition.

Going against a 6-5 opponent, Umana did have an 11-rebound game in that tourney.

“Boxing out is the biggest thing,” Umana said. “Coach makes sure we work on that and our post moves all the time.

“I think we all have a certain role and we’re all capable of doing our part. I think we can have a very good season.”

Robinson agrees, despite the slow start.

“I told them they have to realize we’re fast,” Robinson said. “All they saw was the losses up there in St. Charles, and I got to see the bigger picture. We were able to run with those guys and compete with them to a certain extent.

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“I feel very confident going into conference, knowing what we have. We can run, and I don’t see too many teams that are going to be faster.”

Robinson said Umana, who played up with the sophomore team as a freshman and started last season on the varsity, continues to make strides.

“He was up at first and was a little skittish at Thanksgiving and wasn’t getting a lot of time, so I had him go back to the sophomores,” Robinson said. “He got his confidence back and started doing positive things and finished the season with the varsity.

“He used to shoot from the corner and shoot a lot. He’s got a little size now and is becoming a very valuable stretch post. He can step out and shoot it, but we need him to get in there and battle for boards and guard some of these post players.”

As far as the gym goes, being handicap accessible with the upgrades will also allow the program to again host the sectional, which East Aurora hasn’t done since the 2018-19 season. From 2012 to through 2016, the Tomcats hosted the sectional in four of five years.

“It was a long time coming,” East Aurora athletic director Fil Torres said. “As far as we know, they were the original 1957 bleachers we replaced. The best we can figure, seating was originally about 3,300.

“We’re down to about 2,900 now. There’s some loss. But we weren’t using all the seats at the end with the old bleachers. You couldn’t sit on the top three rows, so we weren’t able to pull them out all the way. It’s probably a wash.”