Eastern (Greentown) (2,796) Built 1967
January 31, 2026: Wabash vs. Eastern (Greentown)
The one question I'm faced with each week in the winter is, can all five members of my family make it through a full week without getting sick? With three kids in school or daycare and myself in a room full of 22 eight year olds every day, the odds are not in my favor. Getting sick sucks. What sucks even more is that basketball season lines up perfectly with cold and flu season. There's nothing more depressing than looking forward to a specific game all week, and then Friday rolls around and you feel like you're on your deathbed. I made it through this season relatively unscathed, except for one fateful night in January. My wife and I had a rare night without the kids, so we planned to do some shopping, go out to eat, and then go to a game. While we were out, she started feeling sick, so I took her home. I felt fine, so after she went to bed I headed back out to Greentown to watch Eastern play Wabash. When I got in the gym, I took my seat and everything seemed fine. Next thing I know, I'm sweating. I was burning up like a Jonas brother. I even wrote down in my notes that I keep at games to remind me of things for my blogs "Eastern (Greentown)-very hot." Then a few minutes later, I felt it. That feeling down in the pit of your stomach and the back of your throat, I was getting sick. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. I went and took my pictures, stayed for the first half of the varsity game, and split. I was probably there 45 minutes, which is the shortest time I've ever spent at a game. So Eastern, I'm sorry. I know I didn't get the full experience. But from what I saw, it's a pretty nice place to watch a basketball game.
Howard County was at the forefront of the consolidation movement. They didn't wait around until the 60's, they took care of it all right in the middle of the 20th century. Eastern, Northwestern, and Western were all formed between 1948-1951 (whoever the township trustees were that came up with these names must have been some really bland dudes). Eastern was a consolidation of Liberty, Jackson, and Union township schools. Between 1951 and 1967, they played their games somewhere else before the current high school and gym were built (if anyone can tell me where that old gym was, I'd be very grateful!). They've had very little postseason success on the boys side, just two sectional championships in their history, one during the single class era and one in the class basketball era. The girls haven't had much more luck, but when they have won, they've gone far. In 1999 they won a regional, and in 2013 they won a semistate, but that's it. This doesn't mean that they haven't had more good teams, and from what I gather they've had pretty good crowds to accompany them when their teams are winning.
Of the three Howard County schools with directional names, Eastern has the best mascot. I'm not sure how they landed on the Comets, but I dig it. The gym the Comets play in is unique in that it reminds me of the old 1950's gyms that had the big hulking metal beams running up the walls and across ceiling the from sideline to sideline. Eastern has something similar, but they run baseline to baseline. This kind of segments the baseline walls into little sections between the beams. The beams are exposed in the ceiling which gives it a kind of cool industrial look. The gym has two levels along each sideline, with 13 rows of seats in the bottom level and 11 in the top. The top bleachers are not as wide as those on the bottom. The bleachers are retractable, plastic, and a not very flattering brownish-tan color. In the upper levels, the ends of the bleachers have little pieces of wood screwed into the walls which I've never seen before. Who knows what they're for. The stairs to reach the upper levels are wide which shortens the uppers bleachers a bit. Above the stairs in a couple corners are the huge HVAC systems, and in the others are a couple of walled off rooms with a door accessed by the bleachers themselves which is interesting.
Speaking of random doors, there are a couple high up in the baseline walls that would open up to a long fall if you stepped out of them. Doors like this usually have a wrestling room behind them and are used to lower mats down to the gym floor for meets, maybe that's the case here. Between those two doors along this wall is a 1,000 point scorer display. On the right of them is a nicely laid out Hoosier Heartland Conference team display. The opposite baseline wall is littered with vinyl athletic accomplishment banners for various sports. They're nothing special, but the green and gold color scheme with the comet swooping across them make them pop a little bit. A thick green stripe is painted all the way around the gym halfway up the wall. The floor design is one of the simplest in the state, but I really like it. There is nothing at all at center court which is extremely rare in today's day and age. The court is a solid, very light-gold color with a green band around the perimeter. The only embellishment is "Eastern" written in big green letters inside the sidelines with the Comet logo swooshing in front of it on each side of the court. It's awesome.
Looking at old pictures of the gym, I think I may have liked the place even more with some of the older banners and wall adornments that used to be hung up here. It looks like there may have even been a mural that's since been painted over which I always mourn. I can't fault them too much though, it still has a little more spark to it then a lot of other cookie-cutter multipurpose gyms from the 60s. I hope Eastern is able to find a little more tournament success in the future. I'd like to come back and watch a full game when they have a good team and I don't feel like the walls of the place are slowly caving in on me. I'm writing this blog in April. The sun is shining, the days are getting longer, and I'm not constantly worried about sickness running wild in our home anymore. The basketball season ended last weekend though, and a new kind of malaise is setting in. It's going to be a long seven months until November rolls around again.
