Centerville (2,160) Built 1967
December 4, 2025: Northeastern vs. Centerville (Boys)
Christmas time is just the best. I've always loved everything about it. The tree and decorations go up the second Halloween is over. The Christmas music playlist is curated to perfection and played at all hours leading up to it. All of the movies have to be watched (Year Without A Santa Claus takes the top spot). As corny as it sounds, the time with family and celebrating the birth of our Savior is my favorite thing. As a kid, one of my earliest basketball memories is driving uptown to Shipshe with my dad for his church league basketball games that were played at the elementary school. Back then, Shipshe had a really cool small town light display at the center of town. My favorite feature was a little light up train that sat on top of an old-timey toy store called Dad's Toys. Everything seemed to twinkle in the most magical way. If you're familiar with Shipshewana nowadays, or have been there in the last few years during December, you know that what started out as a quaint light display has turned into the gaudiest spectacle you've ever seen. Imagine Clark Griswold's house display from Christmas Vacation only a million times brighter and in your face. My mom calls it "Amish Vegas" which is the most apt description possible. It's so over the top that it takes away all the charm I used to love when I was a kid. I miss it. Driving through true small towns across the state when I go to games as an adult now gives me a chance to travel back in time to those nights in the car with my dad. The simple roof lights, window displays, and shining Christmas figures on streetlamps are just perfect. I got to experience it all a couple weeks ago when I went to Centerville. It was the perfect Christmas moment as I drove down mainstreet. That warm, classic feeling only continued when I stepped inside their gym.
Centerville is a little town that sits on the Old National Road just a few miles from Richmond and the Ohio state line. They've been competing in the state tournament since 1913, just two years after its inaugural season. While they didn't have a ton of success in the single class era, their lone sectional title was in 1944 (which I was able to find a great picture of after much searching in the lobby), they've found a good amount of success since switching to class basketball. I wasn't sure what to expect when I decided to go watch them play Northeastern on a cold Thursday night. What I found was a team who came out and played like their hair was on fire and ran Northeastern right out of the gym from the second the ball was tipped off. They nearly initiated the 35 point running clock rule in the first half! I was thoroughly impressed. What was almost more impressive was the crowd. Once again, I could barely find a tiny pocket of empty seats where my boys and I could sit without being right on top of people (I've been on an absolute heater lately of picking games with great crowds). The student section was nearly 15 rows deep. It was an incredible atmosphere considering the game turned into a blowout within the first eight minutes. Later I realized that these same Centerville Bulldogs went 0-22 just four years ago. They will be a legitimate contender in 2A this year. That is an absurd turnaround.
The cool thing about driving throught Centerville at Christmas time is that it seems like not much has changed in the last 50 years. This is also what I thought when I got to the second level of the gym and realized what the bleacher situation was. There is a variety of seating that I affectionately refer to as the "bleachers of death." These kind of bleachers were primarily used during the advent of the multipurpose gym in the 60s and 70s. They earn their name because they are wooden, retractable, and have open slats where you put your feet. This means the toys of small children (and hopefully not the children themselves) can easily fall through to the depths below. They're pretty rare to find in active use these days, the only ones that come to mind immediately are North Montgomery, Highland (Anderson), and here at Centerville. While it's really cool to see them still in use out in the wild as a basketball and old gym fan, as a parent they are terrifying. Since the place was so packed, we had the pleasure of sitting at the very top in the corner which made it even better! All in all, my three year old only dropped one car through the cracks which we were able to retrieve underneath at halftime. While this style of bleachers are used throughout the gym, the two sides of the gym are not congruent. The home side of the gym features one big section of continuous bleachers that go up 19 rows. The side we sat on features a two-level setup with 7 rows on the bottom and 14 rows up top.
The rest of the gym does a good job of matching that 60s-70s consolidation era feeling that the bleachers bring about even though Centerville is a school that never had to face the dreaded "C" word. The baseline wall above the main entrance features a nice old Bulldog mural in the center of it. I do wish that not all schools who have this mascot would use the same exact same cartoon Bulldog logo, but it is well done here. The wall also has a tidy Tri-Eastern Conference display with all of the schools surrounding the logo in the middle. The opposite wall has some really clean athletic accomplishment banners that are much nicer than the new vinyl crap you see everywhere else these days. Using dark blue for conference champions and white for IHSAA tournament champions is a nice touch. The bottom section of the wall is painted a dark blue that goes all the way around the gym, following the curves of the floor and stairs which I always like. The floor design looks newer but still maintains a retro feel. Most of the floor has been stained a really light gold color with darker shades inside the three point lines and blue inside the foul lanes. "TEC" is painted right inside the free throw lines with "Bulldogs" written in fancier script inside the sidelines. "Centerville" is written in transparent letters against a blue background along the baselines. A silhouette of the Bulldog head sits at center court.
As I looked for a picture of the 1944 sectional team out in the foyer, I also found a cool mosaic of a bulldog that was much more original than the one inside the gym. Then I found some neat painted basketballs that honor the 1,000 point scorers in the program's history for both girls and boys. Finally, I found a great picture of that sectional championship team in the very corner of the hallway. This was a team that predated this gym and the "new" high school. They actually played in a building that was torn down just a couple years ago. When I realized this, I was deeply disappointed that I missed out on checking it out before it was razed. While that disappointment still stings a little, it's helped by the fact that I was so pleasantly surprised by what I found in Centerville's current digs. I got to watch a great team, play a great game, in a great gym. Then I got to share the joy of Christmas through the eyes of my two boys who got excited with every single Christmas light they saw on the ride home. I wouldn't trade these little trips for anything, and I'm grateful to Centerville for providing a night that reminded me of the ones I used to spend with my own dad all those years ago.
