Heltonville (750?) Built 1950
March 25, 2026
I think every former high school basketball player who ever loved the game enough to really work at getting better, has a gym somewhere that sticks in their mind as the place where they put the work in. For a lot guys from a different generation, that gym may have actually been an uneven driveway or a court at a park. For many farm kids growing up in rural Indiana that gym may have even just been a hoop hanging up in a haymow. For others maybe it was an old elementary or middle school gym. For many it's actually the high school gym where they played on Friday nights. For me, it was the old Westview gym. That's where I learned to shoot on a 10 foot rim while my dad coached 7th grade girls basketball. That's where I would shoot on the side baskets at 6:00 a.m. while my dad played Friday morning basketball with other teachers. That's where my 8th grade coach ran us to death as we survived an entire season with morning practices that started at 5:45 sharp. That's where my dad would rebound for me before school in junior high. I would complain as he would try to help me improve my jump shot because I thought I knew everything, even though he was known as one of the best shooters to ever come through Westview. That old gym was hot, miserable, and had the most unforgiving side baskets in the state with the old wooden backboards and fixed rims. I didn't always love the process as it was happening, but I really loved what I was aiming for, to play varsity basketball at Westview. What did it net me? 80-something career points as a two year varsity role player on a couple of really good Westview teams, and I wouldn't change it for anything. I look back on that gym with a lot of love now because of the lessons it taught me that go way beyond basketball.
I was the furthest thing from an Indiana high school basketball star. When people think of great basketball players from LaGrange County with the last name Yoder, I'm probably like 27th on the list of people who come to mind. But my experience as an Indiana high school basketball player shaped me, and that old gym was a big part of it. I know this has been the case for people all over Hoosierland for generation after generation. What's really special about Hoosier Hysteria is that things like this can connect a player as insignificant as myself to one of the greatest Indiana high school basketball players who has ever lived, Damon Bailey. I don't have the time or space here to rehash the entire Damon Bailey story, but I also don't need to. If you're reading a blog about gyms in Indiana, you already know it. To sum it up briefly, Damon Bailey grew up in Heltonville. He was obsessed with basketball just like every other boy in Indiana, except he worked at it in a way that was maniacal. In fact it was never really work for him, it was just all he wanted to do. This drive, couple with his natural abilities, propelled him to superstardom at a young age. Bob Knight came and watched him at Shawswick when he was in junior high. Knight told the media he was better than any guard on his current Indiana University team before he was old enough to drive. By the time he graduated from Bedford North Lawrence and headed off to IU, he was the all-time leading scorer in Indiana high school basketball history and won a state title in front of over 40,000 people at the Hooser Dome. Along the way he and his team consistently drew the biggest crowds ever seen at high school basketball games. All of it started in a little school and gym where he attended elementary and later refined his game and tirelessly played pickup games against guys a lot older than him. All of it happened right where the journey started for him, in Heltonville.
Heltonville sits on the southwestern doorstep of the great forest that canvasses all of Brown County and beyond. State Road 58 runs right through it, but in a weird winding way (it makes a 45 degree angle turn right around the gym and Damon Bailey monument). It's somehow very accessible while also feeling very rural. It's a school with a history filled with resilience and community pride. My guides for my visit to Heltonville were actually the current owner of the gym Mike Swango, and his sister Loretta Bailey, who also happens to be the resident town historian. From them I learned that the original Heltonville school was built in 1908. That building tragically burned in 1942. With World War II raging on, new building construction was very rare. For the next eight years, students attended school wherever it could be held: Odd Fellows homes, churches, private residences, and other community buildings. It probably would have been easier to pack it in and be absorbed into another nearby school, but they persevered. In 1950, their hard work and patience paid off. A new school and gym were finally built. The Blue Jackets had a home again. Heltonville High School played in this lovely gym for 24 years before they consolidated into Bedford North Lawrence. During that time they never were able to to bring home that evasive sectional title, but they had plenty of great teams to cheer for along the way. After the high school closed, the gym served the elementary school for a few more decades before it closed as well. Mr. Swango owns it now, and he rents out the gym and portions of the old school to the community. Mrs. Bailey has done a wonderful job of documenting the school's history, much of which is displayed in parts of the old school. One of the biggest events that is held here is the Heltonville alumni banquet, and I cannot think of a better use for the space.
Mr. Swango has done a really nice of job caring for the Heltonville gym over the years. It looks like it could easily host a game with a nice crowd tomorrow if they wanted to. The gym has beautiful arched metal trusses that span the length of the court from baseline to baseline. The original permanent wooden bleachers are still intact along one sideline. They've been painted grey and go up 12 rows. The original blue scorer's table still sits at the bottom of the bleachers with a nice little mural of a Blue Jacket on the front. Up above the bleachers are a neat row of windows all still intact running across the top of the wall. The baseline walls are pretty bare except for a scoreboard. One of the main baskets has a couple of practice hoops hanging off the sides which I always enjoy. The playing floor has been stained a shade that looks as close to a pure gold color as I've ever seen, it's pretty. On the side closest to the stands, "Heltonville" is written right inside the sideline on one half of the court and "Blue Jackets" is written in the same spot on the other half. The greatest oddity in the gym sits right across from the bleachers along the opposite sideline. Over here you'll find a stage unlike any other. It isn't outlined in fancy brick, it isn't even built flush into the wall, but it still serves the same function. The stage was made out of wood and built out from the back wall. It runs up right against the out of bounds line and has two practice hoops hanging off the ends of the wooden walls. It's probably about 15 feet high and has a big green curtain running across it. It's maybe not the ritziest stage, but it's very unique and adds a lot of character to the place. Right inside one of the main entrances to the gym is a big picture of the 1954 team. While they didn't win the sectional (they were runner-up that year), they did win the county championship which was a huge deal in its own right.
Right outside the gym and right inside the very tight corner that State Road 58 wraps around is a tall limestone monument in Damon Bailey's honor. It has all his accomplishments chiseled into the stone and stands as a permanent reminder of the kid who took Hoosier Hysteria to heights it had never seen before. It's so fitting that the monument is a stone's throw away from the gym where it all started. It represents the relationship between a basketball player and their gym, a kid and a dream. It's a relationship that anyone who played high school basketball in Indiana can understand, even if it seems silly to the outside world. A friend of mine who grew up outside of Indiana recently discovered my blog and was so confused. "You go around taking pictures of and writing about high school gyms? Why?" He was legitimately incredulous. There was really no way to explain it to him. If you're not from here, it seems absurd. If you're from here, I don't need to explain it. You just get it. In 49 other states it's just basketball...
