Fort Wayne Wayne (3,200) Built 1971
March 1, 2025: Anderson vs. Fort Wayne Wayne (Boys)
March 1, 2025: Anderson vs. Fort Wayne Wayne (Boys)
City high schools have a track record of naming themselves after famous historical figures rather than directional designations. It typically leads to more interesting names than simply what part of the county they are located in. The only downfall is that the historical figures often are not very diverse, so you get a lot of Washingtons, Lincolns, and Jeffersons. The other thing that happens when you have a lot of schools from a big city is that the name of the city gets attached to the front of school name, even if it isn't really officially part of the school's name. This is how you end up with Fort Wayne Harding or Fort Wayne Elmhurst (RIP to both). Typically this isn't a problem, and it actually is helpful when trying to ascertain the location of a school with a name that otherwise wouldn't give any indication of where it is. The one exception in the state of Indiana is Wayne High School in Fort Wayne. When you utilize this process here, you end up recognizing the school as Fort Wayne Wayne. If you weren't familiar with it, you would probably think there was just a typo, and rightfully so. It's an unfortunate name for a school with an unfortunate gym.
I visited Wayne on the very last day of the regular season. The Saturday before boys sectional week is always the same day as the girls state finals, so there are only a handful of boys games even scheduled on this day each year. The game with Anderson was only being played because it had to be moved from the previous weekend. I had visited Lewis Cass the night before, and to say the differences in the two gyms were night and day from one another would be an understatement. I had an agonizing time cutting down all the pictures I took at Cass to just 18 for the blog. At Wayne, I had the hardest time finding 10 pictures even worth including in this blog. There's just nothing here. What conference do they play in? Not sure. Have they won anything of note in any sport? I have no idea. Have there been any great basketball players come through their program in the past? Beats me! The only thing I know for sure is that Willie Knox has held the school record in the 200 meter hurdles since 1973. The gym has definitely been at least repainted in the not-so-distant past. I don't know if they had more wall adornments before that and they just never put them back up, or if they were never there in the first place. What I do know is that a cartoonish color scheme isn't going to save this place from how dull it is.
The color scheme is actually probably a good place to start. I don't mind the light blue/red aesthetic usually. I actually like it at Lakeland and Maconaquah. The problem here is they're combining it with another shade of deep blue. When I was a kid my mom told me red on red doesn't match, it clashes. It didn't make sense at the time as I thought matching meant two things that are essentially the same. I understand it now. The worst example is on the court itself. One sideline and baseline are one shade of blue, and the other baseline and sideline are the other shade. The center court logo that features the General logo also utilizes both shades. The interiors of the free throw lanes are the darker shade of blue. "Wayne" is written alongside some stars in the corners of the baselines. It all looks like it was designed by someone from Nickelodeon in the 90s. Each baseline wall has the same design of a big red stripe and light blue stripe going across and intersecting one another at different points. On its own it looks kind of cool, but there is nothing else to go with it. One wall has the old track and field record board that I touched on earlier, and the other wall has a big section that juts out and has the General logo on it with "Home of the Generals" beside it in red script. There's also a nice scoreboard on this wall. That's it. The bleachers are all grey plastic, (which may be the worst color of plastic) except for a single red and light blue row in the middle of the upper and lower sections on each side. The lower levels have 10 rows of bleachers while the upper ones have about 15. The stairs to reach the upper levels are on the interior of the gym.
I ventured out into the foyer at halftime hoping to find some sign that actual human beings have played sports at this school in the past, and found absolutely nothing. Luckily, there was evidence of life inside the gym as the game between Anderson and Wayne was one of the best I witnessed all year. Two top 15 teams in the state going right at each other for 32 minutes was a perfect way to get tuned up for sectionals. There was even a fun moment when the speaker system quit working right before the national anthem and the cheerleaders started leading the whole crowd in an impromptu rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. The gym didn't hinder a great game from being played on this Saturday afternoon, but it certainly didn't help. If there's two lessons to be learned from this visit, they are: 1. Honor your school's and teams' past in some form or fashion. They've earned it. 2. Your gym design shouldn't look like something that was created in Microsoft Paint. I try not to be too harsh, but there are just so many red flags here that it is hard to look past them.
