Goshen (3,652) Built 1960
December 20, 2025: Northridge vs. Goshen (Boys)
Two years ago during the first season of my blog, I made a stop at my alma mater at Westview to take in a game and get some pictures for a blog post. It was the first time writing about a gym I actually played in during my high school days. Other than peeking in the "old" gym at Northridge while my nieces were playing in a Saturday morning basketball league that same winter, it took me two full calendar years to get back to another one. While I was home for Christmas break last month, I raced over to Goshen High School to watch them take on the Northridge Raiders in what was one of the most competitive and fun games I've attended in a long time. Two undefeated conference foes went at it tooth and nail for 32 minutes, it was awesome. Goshen actually surprised some people and pulled off the upset in front of what was nearly a capacity crowd. It was Indiana high school basketball at its absolute best. It also brought back a lot of memories, as I'm sure all these gyms that I grew up going to and playing in probably will.
My earliest memories of the Goshen gym are as kid sitting packed in tight beside my dad watching my older cousins. I remember thinking the concession stands in the upper level were so cool, those weren't a thing anywhere in the NECC. Going to games at Concord, Northridge, Northwood, and Goshen always felt a little different. That's probably because I heard the adults talking about them in a different way. These were the big schools on the schedule. Maybe the rivalries weren't as personal or intense (except for Northridge), but you knew that beating any of them was a big deal. This carried on into junior high and high school. Sometime between 2013 when I graduated and now, the gym went through a fairly big remodel. We'll go into detail about what it looks like now in a minute, but before the remodel it was probably tied with Concord for the most intimidating place to play in northeast Indiana, at least for my money. It started with getting off the bus and having to walk through those tight back hallways around the outside of the gym to get to the locker rooms. They felt about three feet wide, and you could just hear the crowd and band pounding overhead of you. When you walked onto the court itself, it felt like a spotlight was shining on you. The old school lighting that was around before LED made the court feel bright and hot, and it felt like the crowd was sitting in pitch darkness. It also felt huge, and being from Westview we were used to playing in front of big crowds in a big gym! Maybe it's because of the seating along the baselines, or maybe it was just because it wasn't our home gym, but it felt more daunting. I loved going to games there as a kid, and hated playing there in high school. That might also be because we had a really hard time winning there.
I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that Goshen did most of the gym renovations when they decided to change their mascot name from the Redskins to the Redhawks in 2016. The switch was understandably controversial as the Redskin name was very near and dear to the hearts of so many people in the community for literally a century. It's also become pretty common for schools to distance themselves from mascot names that may be hurtful to certain communities. It's a tricky issue and not one that has a clean and clear cut solution. After the decision was made, a lot of signage and other things in the gym naturally had to be changed. When they made all those changes, they also replaced the original bleachers in the gym. They used to have gorgeous old wooden retractable bleachers all throughout the place that had no obvious breaks where the steps would be. While I would never want these replaced, they at least went the wooden route again with the new ones, which look way better than the common plastic alternative I've come to expect (West Noble and Huntington North are two others who thankfully have done this as well recently). The layout of the bleachers seems to match the original set, the only small difference is I think the upper sections along the sidelines may be a few feet shorter than they used to be. I could be wrong, but there seems to be a little more empty space in the corners up there. There is seating along all four sides on the lower level, it goes up 7 rows behind the baselines and 10 rows along the sidelines. The upper levels have 14 rows along the sidelines and 7 rows behind one of the baselines. The other baseline has what I believe is gear for the wrestling team along that upper wall. The only weird thing about the new bleachers is that one of the upper sideline sections is made almost entirely out of metal except for a thin wooden bench seat on top of each row. Take a look below and check it out. I've never seen anything like it, and I'm not sure what the purpose was of going with that instead of matching the rest of the more traditional wooden bleachers.
There is a lot going on in the rest of the gym, I'm going to try and not leave anything out. Walking up the stairs to the upper level, you can find some cool pictures honoring old Goshen athletic greats. They also left an old wooden totem pole/statue of a Native American which seems to be the only remaining sign of the Redskin name inside the gym itself (there's a nice display case out in the lobby honoring that time period). There are upper level concession stands in two of the corners, one of which is still being used which is uncommon these days and good to see (even if it seems to have been commandeered by Bens Pretzels, which I consider to be the evil empire of the soft pretzel community as I am a charter member of Team JoJo's Pretzels). Goshen has always done a great job of posting athletic records for many sports in the gym. There are huge displays along the upper baseline walls for multiple sports. I remember these as well from my childhood. Above the upper baseline seating is a somewhat feeble NLC conference team display. I wish they did a little more with that. Nestled up on this wall as well are some more classic NLC conference champion banners for different sports that look really good. The opposing upper baseline wall has some bigger state championship and runner up banners for past football teams in the shape of our fine state that look way more unique and colorful than the similar crap you find in so many Indy gyms. While I find the Redhawks mascot name a little boring and the logo at centercourt a little dull, the general color scheme and design of the playing floor looks pretty good in totality. Most of the floor is a classic light-gold color with darker brown hues inside the three point arcs. The whole perimeter is trimmed in red with "Goshen" written in white letters along the baselines. "Redhawks" is written right inside the sidelines diagonally from one another, and a neat NLC logo is written along the sidelines on the opposite diagonal. It all works together pretty well.
While I was meandering around the gym taking pictures, I briefly ran into my old Bible Memory Camp friend and college suitemate Jesse Good. I've known Jesse since middle school. Not only is he a great guy, but he was the point guard and leader of all those Goshen teams that gave us so much trouble over the years (and there weren't a lot of schools that gave us much trouble). I wish I could've talked to him more, but just saying hi to him for a few moments at a game with such an electric environment in this gym really brought back all the feelings and memories that made me rank it so high way back when I started doing this three years ago.. Goshen isn't really known around the state as a basketball powerhouse. In our area I feel like they've always been considered a football school. They've had a modest amount of success for a school their size, 8 sectional titles and 3 regionals over the years. This gym probably isn't well known outside of schools in the NLC and surrounding areas, but to the people who grew up playing in it, even on the opposing side, it's a special place. It made me excited to continue to make return visits to the gyms of my youth and view them from a fresh perspective, while also remembering the things that started my obsession with Indiana high school basketball all those years ago.
