Elwood (3,100) Built 1973
December 20, 2024: Blackford vs. Elwood (Boys)
December 20, 2024: Blackford vs. Elwood (Boys)
I've seen enough new gyms and gym redesigns to know that it's inaccurate to paint them all in a negative light. New usually isn't better, but there are definitely some aspects of modern designs that have caught my eye. The entire setup over at Barr-Reeve stands out. The rectangular ring of banners at Lapel is noteworthy. The bleachers at West Noble really pop. A contemporary reset of a gym gives you the chance to do something really cool and unique. It's a risk though. It also provides the opportunity to strip away any of the history that was there, and replace it with dull nothingness. I live right outside of Alexandria, and last year I heard their gym would be shut down all summer in order for it to be completely redesigned. I was nervous. Their place has always had a classic 70-80s throwback feel to it. I haven't seen the finished product in person yet, but by looking at pictures it seems like they did a half-decent job. Around the same time, I saw someone share a picture from the Elwood athletic director of their gym. At first I didn't recognize it, then I read the caption celebrating the work that had been done in revamping the gym. I didn't even know they were planning on remodeling. When I looked closer at the picture, my heart sank. I had seen photos of the gym before and was actually excited to get over to see it at some point. The new visual didn't resemble anything from what I had seen before. A year later I finally drove the 10 minutes over to see it, and all my initial fears were confirmed.
Elwood is another example of a small town school that was just big enough to avoid consolidation. They've been competing in the state tournament since 1917. There is a lot of history (although much of it is admittedly complicated) to recognize. Looking at old pictures from the always invaluable Greg Alexander on his Flickr page, you can see that the school previously really put effort into displaying their heritage and traditions in the gym. Classic red cloth athletic accomplishment banners hung from the walls. There were retired jerseys hanging on the other side of them. In the middle was a beautiful old mural of a black panther head growling menacingly at the opposing team below. At center court was one of the coolest mascot logos you will ever find for a member of the big cat family: a symmetrically painted panther pouncing straight ahead looking like it was about to fly off the court itself. On each side of the court were two big sets of retractable wooden bleachers that went up quite a ways. It wasn't spectacular, but the red/blue color scheme worked well and there were a lot of nice, subtle details. Walking in last Friday night, I saw exactly none of this. Banners, jerseys, mural, cool logo, classic bleachers, all gone. You're probably thinking they at least replaced them with something new and unique right? Nope!
The only thing that is really recognizable about the gym pre and post operation is the general setup. There are still two big sets of retractable bleachers that go up about 20 rows, now they're just made out of bright red plastic (Side note, it is unreal how cheap the wood feels underneath a lot of the newest plastic bleachers that are being put in places when you walk on them. I first noticed it at Michigan City last year, and it seems to be a bit of an epidemic). There is enough room between the bottom row of bleachers and the out of bounds lines all the way around the court for me to safely drive a NASCAR around the perimeter and never actually cross over onto the playing surface itself. Courtside seats or courtfaraway seats am I right? The hardwood design is actually the only piece of the remodel that I can give them props for. There is a lot going on. The court is primarily a really light wood color. The inside of the foul lane is red, and inside the three point wings is a very dark brown. There is a enormous blue "E" at center court with two little sections of slashes through it that I presume are supposed to represent the damage from the claws of a panther. The whole court is trimmed in red with "Panthers" written in a nice clean white script along the baselines. I still prefer the simple design from before, but this one is pretty cool. They took a big swing and I think it paid off.
When you compare the rest of the gym to what they did with the floor, it makes absolutely no sense. They didn't just avoid taking a swing, they never even made it up to the plate to take an at-bat. Where all the banners and retired jerseys used to hang on the walls, there is absolutely nothing. Just white walls everywhere. The only single wall adornment they have is a vinyl banner listing sponsors in a font so small you don't have a prayer of reading it from the bleachers. The most damaging blow though without question is that they painted over the old panther mural for seemingly no reason. There is no other signage, writing, or mural, just more white wall space. It is absolutely infuriating. Painting over old murals is the cardinal sin of gym remodels. Doing it and then replacing it with nothing makes it even worse. There is a big fancy new scoreboard hanging on this baseline wall, but they weren't even using the side sections that tell you how many points each player on the floor has. Again, why?! The opposite baseline wall is just as bare. There is a tiny mystery door high up on wall which gives off a little air of mystery. A red, blue, and grey stripe stretches across the wall near the bottom. The only thing underneath it is a new section of red mats. The mats do have the old retro panther logo on it which I guess is cool, but isn't enough to redeem anything. The final thing worth pointing out is that at the very top of the baseline walls, you can see a gap between the cinder block and the ceiling. The metal roof supports seem to fasten into the wall here. I'm not sure why that matters, but that gap stuck out to me.
Walking out of the gym, I happened to see an old center court logo hanging up on the wall inside one of the entrances to the gym. It was pretty neat, and reading the plaque above it I found out it actually belonged to the old Elwood high school building that sat in the heart of downtown before it burned down. I'm thankful they valued that piece of history enough to display it in their current gym. The last thing I saw on my way out was a disorganized photo section of all the 1,000 point scorers in the school's history. It was poorly executed, but again I was glad to see the effort being put into honoring their history. When you juxtapose it to what they did inside the gym with the remodel, it's striking. I just don't understand it. If you want to replace the bleachers with cheap plastic crap and put in a new floor design, fine. Plenty of schools have done that for better or (mostly) worse. Why do you have to completely strip any of the other small things that pay tribute to the school's past achievements though? Minimalism has its place, but an Indiana high school gym is not one of those places. The current Elwood gym is a living example of why.
