Lawrenceburg (2,700) Built 2015
June 13, 2025: Indianapolis Shortridge vs. Terre Haute North (Boys)
June 13, 2025: Indianapolis Shortridge vs. Terre Haute North (Boys)
Jumping to conclusions can be a dangerous game. There's a certain saying about what happens when you assume things that is pretty apt. I did a lot when I was younger, and in my weaker moments I know it still happens occasionally as an adult. Usually it happens when I get myself riled up and ignore the logical part of my brain that is trying to tell me to calm down and assess the facts. I talk to my third grade students and my own two boys about it all the time, so when I find myself start to slip into it, it makes me feel pretty silly. The worst part is knowing you made someone else feel bad or attacked for absolutely no reason. I found myself doing this recently when I made plans to go down to Lawrenceburg in June to watch a summer tournament at their "new" gym that was built a decade ago. I had forgotten that they built a new gym, even though I later remembered reading extensively about it on the old Hoosier Hardwood Project blog that Chris Smith and Michael Keating kept as they crisscrossed the state photographing different gyms and teams. They documented the whole process of demolishing the old Lawrenceburg gym and the building of the new one. As I was going back and jogging my memory of all this, I found some pictures of the old Bateman Gym. It looked like an old horsehoe or bowl gym with permanent bleachers and incredible lighting. What's the first thing I did? I jumped to conclusions. I started mumbling to myself about administrators just wanting new stuff and no one caring about heritage and tradition. I even started complaining about it to my wife. Then the next day I read a little more about it and realized the old gym was torn down due to severe structural issues. You can work on and repair a lot of parts in old gyms, but significant foundation issues are pretty much a death sentence for any building. I felt silly. A new gym was built because one had to be built, and they did one of the better jobs in recent memory.
Gyms built after 1990 have a dubious track record. There are way more that I don't care for than ones that I do. I'll admit it's not easy to build something brand new that has much character or a unique style, but I also don't think the people in charge of designing gym recently have really tried that hard either. Lawrenceburg deserved a gym though that went beyond the normal cookie cutter nonsense that's become prevalent. This is a school with a longstanding basketball tradition. Dating back to 1923, they've won 30 sectional championships and 5 regional titles. Some of those earliest sectional victories came in the original Lawrenceburg gym (which I've been told still exists in some form in the current school building, but I haven't been able to confirm it. If anyone knows the truth, please reach out!). The old Bateman Gym was then built in the 50s to bring the sectional permanently back to Lawrenceburg, and it did for awhile. When the bedrock of the old gym finally started to crumble, the decision was made to go bigger with the new one, but not necessarily in terms of seating capacity. The new place is tall, airy, and has some some flash around the edges. It does the job just fine.
I wouldn't say the new gym at Lawrenceburg is dripping with character, but it has enough flair to make it a little interesting. At a basic level it's nothing crazy. There are two levels with seating on all four sides along the top and along three sides on the bottom (new bilevel gyms have become much less common over the last two decades so it's actually a bit of a throwback in that way). The bottom bleachers run 12 rows along the sidelines and are black with some orange spots spelling out "LHS". There are four more rows behind one baseline on the bottom and none on the opposite side. The orange and black baseline walls go up quite high before the second level starts. The upper level isn't very symmetrical. Along one sideline there are 13 rows of bleachers, along the other there are only 7. Behind one baseline there are 8 rows, and along the other there are 9. These upper baseline bleachers are very steep as well, it reminds me of climbing the steps at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indy. Some of the bleachers are off-centered which always bothers me more than it should. There are bathrooms built into two of the upper corners. There are some mental attitude award banners above the shorter baseline bleachers. Above the upper baseline bleachers that back up against the school are rows of black and orange athletic accomplishment banners. I like these. I think I'm partial to rectangles instead of pennant shapes. There are also banners hanging from the rafters recognizing old Tiger greats that have had their jerseys retired.
The upper baseline walls on the opposite side only have an American flag hanging and an Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference team display, but it's still a lot more tantalizing to look at. That's because there is a giant glass skylight along the very top of the roofline and huge glass windows looking out into the beyond in the corners. This is the flair I was talking about earlier. I can't think of anything quite like it in other gyms I've been to. Right under the skylight and above the bleachers (which jut into the wall a bit) is a thin banner of sorts with menacing tiger eyes looking out at the crowd. The floor way down below is a light-gold color throughout except for black inside the foul lanes. There is also a EIAC logo right inside the charity stripes. "Lawrenceburg" is written in orange across each baseline against a black background that goes around the whole court. A big orange tiger paw rests at center court. "Tigers" is written in black cursive font inside the sidelines. A smaller jumbotron hangs above center court as well. I almost forgot to point out there are a couple of basic press boxes in the upper corners of the gym in front of the bathrooms. Overall the place feels really big even though it seats less than 3,000. Much of it is pretty standard, but there is enough pizzazz that it made my two and a hour drive down to see it worth it.
I really wish I would've been able to check out the old gym here before it was torn down. It looked like a real classic. The low ceiling, the dungeon lighting, the wraparound seats, it looked like it had real aura as the kids say. Lamenting being too late to see an old gym is a feeling I'm all too familiar with at this point. In this case I was mostly just excited to see a new gym and catch some good basketball in the middle of the summer. I was able to do both those things while also driving through Franklin and Dearborn County which are two of my favorite places to travel through anywhere on Earth. It was a good day. That's something Indiana high school basketball consistently provides.
