Heritage Christian (1,250) Built *Unknown*
January 21, 2025: Anderson vs. Heritage Christian (Girls)
January 21, 2025: Anderson vs. Heritage Christian (Girls)
Right before Christmas break this year I visited the gym that has hosted so many of Indiana high school basketball's greatest moments. It's not a gym I can review though, because as much as I associate it with high school basketball, it's not a high school gym. Hinkle Fieldhouse was built in 1928 as the home to the Butler University Bulldogs. At the time it was the largest basketball arena in the world, and remained so until 1950. It was actually financed by the IHSAA as they agreed to hold the finals of the greatest tournament in the world there every year, and did so until 1971. At that point the politics of amateur sports got in the way and the state finals were held in a variety of places until they finally settled at the current home of the Pacers for the last couple of decades. I can't even begin to tell you about the number of memorable moments that occurred in this hallowed home of Hoosier basketball. If you're reading a blog about Indiana high school gyms, I'm sure you already know about many of them. I also can't even begin to tell you how big of a travesty it is that the state finals are no longer held here. The sun shining through the upper windows, the original upper level bleacher seats (although topped with fancy padding now), the vaulted ceilings that make it feel like a vastly oversized WPA gym, it's all perfect. Gainbridge Fieldhouse is bigger, sure. It's also cavernous and sterile. It doesn't feel like high school basketball, and it's certainly not representative of what makes it special. Similar to class basketball, it's a wrong that needs to righted, though I doubt it ever well.
If you're wondering what any of this has to do with the gym at Heritage Christian, I don't blame you. I'm getting there. The first time I watched a state finals game, I was 5 years old watching the Westview boys and my cousin Derek Yoder win the second ever 2A title game at the RCA Dome. All I remember is how small the court looked sitting down in the corner of a football field. The second time was the following year at it's current home at Gainbridge when Westview repeated as champs (though I think it was called Conseco at the time). No memories from that one. The first state finals I have a lot of memories from was the 2006 2A girls championship between the Westview girls, which my uncle Randy Yoder coached, and Heritage Christian. I had watched the entire run to the finals, with each round being played at different unique gyms around the northern half of the state. The environments were great at each stop. Then I remember getting to the state game and just thinking how nonimportant it felt. There was no energy to the environment. I also remember hearing how Heritage was a powerhouse even though they were a tiny school. There was a lot of talk about "recruiting" leading up to and at the game from adults in our community in regards to how Heritage and other private schools like it were able to dominate the lower class state tournaments in that era. I didn't know anything about it, but those conversations stuck with me as an impressionable 12 year old. Westview managed to keep it close but ultimately fell short in that game. It was probably the birth of my disdain for private schools when it came to athletics. With school choice now, almost every school whether public or private is able to "recruit" in some shape or form. The legality of it all lives in a grey area. My most recent visit to the Heritage Christian brought up a lot of these old memories (especially the team picture from that state title game). I wish the gym had enough originality to distract my attention from them, but alas, it's everything you would expect at a place like this.
When I originally wrote my short descriptions for each gym I'd visited so far before I started writing full blogs, I described Heritage Christian as "a toddler version of a real two-level gym." Revisiting the gym this week, I stand by that representation. The bottom level of the gym is just your standard middle/charter school fare. There are 9 rows of retractable wooden bleachers on each side. Nothing to write home about there. Above one sideline section there is another level of retractable bleachers that look like they go about 8 high. This section isn't as wide as those below. They also aren't centered in comparison to the bottom level which just looks weird from across the court. Above them are old athletic accomplishment banners from the days when Heritage played in a Christian school organization before they joined the IHSAA in 2001. They look a lot better than the newer and super generic ones that hang above the baseline wall opposite of the entrance. These may be the tackiest I've seen yet with the ClipArt picture of the sport's ball and the random eagle head staring at you from the bottom of each one. That wall also features an emblem for the Circle City Conference and then displays precisely zero signage for any of the schools in the conference. Interesting decision.
There are also two giant projector screens that can be lowered along this wall. They were used for an insanely long hype video that lasted about three minutes before the home team starters were introduced. The best part was that they couldn't get them to go back up or get the projector to turn off, so the game started with the video still up on the screens right behind one of the baskets. One of Anderson's assistant coaches had to use his height to aim the remote at the projector at just the right angle to get everything off and rolled back up. The opposing baseline wall has an amalgam of huge state championship team photos from different sports, but primarily girls basketball. They went on quite a run for the better part of a decade from the mid-2000s on. The sideline wall that only has one level of bleachers has an eagle head mural that looks like it's coming out of a giant letter "H." It's kind of cool. Isaiah 40:31 is written in blue script right beside it. While I do appreciate that Christian schools are able utilize Scripture in places like this, doing it just to tangentially connect to the team's mascot feels a little disingenuous. The playing floor is fine. The majority of it is stained a really light tan that matches the bleachers. It is darker inside the three-point lines and blue inside the foul late. "Heritage" is written in clear letters against a blue background. The most generic eagle logo imaginable sits at center court. The formal school logo is right inside the sidelines on each side.
The first time I came to this gym was actually the last time I played in a high school gym myself. I wasn't a high schooler anymore, but a washed up mid-20s pickup player. Some people from church invited me to play when they needed some extra people. I hadn't played full court 5 on 5 in probably a year, and I had one of the best shooting nights I'd had since high school. I never played with that group of guys again, so I was able to an impression that was maybe not as representative of my actual skillset as it should have been. I was really hoping watching a game at the gym instead of playing in it would give me a better impression of the place than what I remembered from my previous visit. While there are one or two small aspects that give it an ounce of character, it's still consistent with every other charter/private school gym I've been to. I'm waiting anxiously for one to break the mold. This one isn't it.