Northridge (New) (2,500) Built 2024
February 8, 2025: Jimtown vs. Northridge (Boys)
February 8, 2025: Jimtown vs. Northridge (Boys)
When I first heard Northridge was getting a new gym, I laughed because I was reminded of how poor planning forced them to scrap the plans for a new gym in the first place when the new high school was built over a decade ago. Then I thought, well they do really need one, I've always despised the old gym. I then got excited about the prospect of having a brand new gym I could make fun of. I realize how childish my pettiness is, but I just can't shake it. I feel like I'm a pretty mature adult at this point in life for the most part, having kids kind of forces you to grow up and put things that don't really matter behind you. I've been able to do this in a lot of areas in my life, but my hatred for Northridge and Fairfield still simmers somewhere deep inside of me and I cannot shake it. After seeing initial pictures of the gym, I had to admit it looked better than I imagined it would. I wanted to reserve judgement for when I saw it in person though. I made it over to watch the Raiders on a Saturday afternoon as they took on the fighting Jimmies of Jimtown. It's pretty tough to design a new gym that I actually like, especially when you're Northridge. The nicest thing I can say is that they didn't do a terrible job. It still suffers from many of the pitfalls that most new gyms do, but I have to begrudgingly admit that it has some juice to it.
The gym is named after the Jayco RV company which was the primary source of funding for the whole place. It's weird as someone who grew up knowing a lot of people who worked there. Corporate sponsers are nothing new in gyms, but I've never seen one actually purchase the naming rights to the whole place like one would with a professional sports team's arena. Jayco is largely the reason this place got built though, so I figure they've earned it. It feels like no expense was spared. The first thing you notice when you walk in is the giant Jumbotron with video screens on all four sides and some kind of disco ball-like cylinder sitting beneath it. It's definitely the flashiest one I've ever seen and it admittedly brings some wow factor to the place. What irks me to no end though is that it doesn't display any useful information during the game whatsoever. No score, no fouls, no point totals for the players on the floor, nothing! Just random cheers and catchy phrases throughout the game. Why have something this fancy and not make it functional?! They did the same thing at Elkhart and it makes me want to pull my hair out. The floor underneath this shiny monstrosity looks fine. The majority of the court along with the inside of the foul line semicircles is stained a really light-beige color. The interior of the wings are a dirty brown color, and the foul lanes have been painted green. "NLC" for the Northern Lakes Conference is painted right inside the free throw lines. Center court has a plain green "N" outlined in yellow that is very similar to what was featured at the old gym. "Raiders" is written in green along the baselines and a silhouette of the Jayco logo is right inside the sidelines. There's a good amount of space between the out of bounds lines and the bleachers, but it's not egregious.
The gym feels a lot bigger than the seating capacity would indicate. That's not always a good thing, but they've managed to make it feel like a big and important place to watch a game even though it doesn't hold 3,000 people. The lower levels have seating on all four sides. The sidelines go up 12 rows and the baselines go up 10 rows. Each section tapers off at an angle in the corners. It looks kind of cool I guess. All the bleachers are bright green plastic. The upper levels also have seating on all four sides but the bleachers only go up 9 rows in each section. The baseline bleachers are also pretty short up here and don't come close to spanning the width of the wall. The four corners of the gym all have a nice grey and yellow painted "N" on the walls by the stairs. Other than that there is a ton of empty space in the upper corners. The only other thing worth pointing out here are the little press rows above the lower entrances. One upper sideline wall has an NLC conference team display with long narrow banners for each school. Beside it is a similar looking display honoring all the schools that make up the Northridge school system which is a nice touch I suppose. Giant videoboards hang in two corners of the gym which thankfully actually do display the score and number of fouls. They should've gone with normal scoreboards in these spots, the screens look a little tacky.
They did a good job of making the new gym very shiny, bright, and big. It looks expensive (which fits Northridge's general vibe). I left feeling a lot like I did when I left Barr-Reeve's new gym, they just could have done more. There aren't any unique murals or displays. They didn't bother to bring any of the old athletic accomplishment banners to the new gym or even put up new ones. There's absolutely nothing honoring the school's past or traditions. It's all just as new and sparkly as can be. I feel like you could pull a Hannah Montana and have the best of both worlds if you really want, but they've elected not to here. I'm sure some people like it this way, and that's fine. When you have a blank slate to create something really unique and special that fits the identify of your school, to me it just feels like a missed opportunity to play it safe. Nobody asks me though. My consulting services are always free (but if you're building a brand new gym, my advice will probably be to just keep the old one, so maybe I wouldn't be as much as help as I like to think). The offer always stands nonetheless.
