WATERVILLE – Carol Anne Beach will stand by the door and look down the hall. But she can’t bring herself to walk down the hall.

The Colby College women’s soccer and basketball coach once had an office down that hall. Today, it is an empty shell.

Nearly six weeks have passed since an arsonist started an early morning fire in Wadsworth Gymnasium that resulted in a million dollars worth of damage to the gym, squash courts and three coaches offices.

Former athletic director Dick McGee’s second-floor office, directly above Beach’s, was destroyed. His floor, once her ceiling, came crashing down onto her floor. Standing in her doorway now, you can see the roof.

Coaches Beach, Sheila Cain, Laura Halldorson, and sports information director Andrea Solomita sat in a second-floor office last week and talked about the experience. Beach sat behind a desk that, a few weeks before, belonged to Cain, as did the office.

Laura Halldorson, working out of her home for five weeks, dropped her duffle bag beside the couch and pulled out colored photos of what had been her office, down the hall from Beach. The predominant color was black: black, wet soot.

They passed around a book from Beach’s office, and everyone’s hand was covered with soot. Pick up a phone, they said, and you can still smell the smoke. Hallways hold file cabinets, desks and couches. Phones are where you find them.

“It was a sick feeling,” Halldorson said, “but it could have been worse. Nothing was burned in my office, just covered with soot.” The college has rented a copier, and she spends her spare time duplicating material at home.

“I couldn’t get in my door, the way Dick’s ceiling came down,” Beach said. At first she thought everything was lost. “But it was interesting the way it fell, because a lot of things, like my computer, were somehow protected and didn’t get damaged. I had just moved in with only a couple of years of stuff, but Dick’s been coaching 33 years and he lost everything. For me, anything was better than before, when I thought I had nothing.”

Halldorson, head coach of women’s ice hockey and softball, and assistant volleyball coach, finally got into her office on Sunday, two days after the Aug. 28 fire.

“We all agreed that whatever you had in your office, you had to get rid of, or copy,” she said. “The smell was so bad, and the reminder of it.”

Halldorson momentos (a softball glove her dad bought her in junior high; her hockey game hat) were saved, but they have black marks and smell of smoke.

The fire did not reach the area of Cain’s office. The volleyball and swim coach still doesn’t understand why anyone would commit such an act. Beach couldn’t think of anyone who would want to destroy the field house, and Halldorson thinks the act was just plain stupid.

Whatever the reasons behind the crime, coaches at Colby are coping with the experience, and making the best of a bad situation.

The White Mule athletic program is alive and well, sports information director Solomita pointed out, thanks to the spirit of cooperation exhibited by staffers such as Beach, Cain and Halldorson.

“Getting office space was a scramble, ” Halldorson said, “but everyone just helped each other out.”

Cain knew there was a little office by the pool. “It had a desk and a phone jack, and I knew I could work there so Carol could have my office,” she said. Halldorson made an office at home.

Cain’s move was a sacrifice, because her team was coming in that weekend. She called everyone to delay a week, and canceled out of a tournament.

Volleyball has moved to Waterville’s Gilman School (the old high school) and is doing better than ever with a 14-3 record.

“There was some thought kids might not come out, since we had to move, but that didn’t happen,” Cain said. “I think they find it annoying and inconvenient, but it is not a daily concern.”

“We’ve learned to roll with the punches,” Halldorson added.

Reflecting on that weekend, Beach said the timing was horrendous, with first-year student/athletes coming in the following Monday.

What the coaches discovered were not problems in terms of getting athletes ready for competition, she said, but in terms of doing things for the program.

“One day you’ve got a desk, and the next day it’s gone. There was just so much to do in a very short period of time.”

But her team is doing well, taking a 6-3 record into a Wednesday game with Plymouth State.

Halldorson had another scare when it was discovered the fire was smouldering on Sunday, and the fire department had to be called. “It was bad enough at first, especially with so many fire fighters injured (several required medical attention), but to find it still burning worried me.”

The coaches had high praise for Athletic Director Dick Whitmore, and for Waterville city officials.

“Dick made absolutely sure we would keep our seasons going,” Beach said. “And the city has been very helpful with space. At first we thought we’d have to go to the Augusta Civic Center for our (basketball) games, but now it looks like we’ll be here.”

Halldorson recalls “a lot of confusion” in the hours following the fire, but, she said, “Dick was just great the way he handled everything himself. And then, we just worked together and did what we had to do. It wasn’t any problem.”