Pendleton Heights (2,500) Built 1969
January 2, 2024: Anderson vs. Pendleton Heights (Girls)
January 2, 2024: Anderson vs. Pendleton Heights (Girls)
When you visit a place twice, the second occasion either confirms what you thought you felt, or makes you wonder what on earth you were thinking in the first place. Pendleton is one of the many places I had visited in the past before I started blogging about my various travels. In my head it was a nice, two level gymnasium to watch a game with almost zero distinguishing features. With the right crowd and action on the court, it seemed like a lovely place to take in a game. My second visit tonight confirmed this almost precisely. Almost nothing unique about it jumped out to me. The place was almost full though for the first round of the Madison county tournament, the game came down to a few plays at the very end, and my enjoyment throughout was immense.
Pendleton has a fairly small gym for a 4A school. It has two standard sets of rollaway bleachers along each sideline. The two levels are identical on each side with about 12 rows on the bottom and 8 on top. The bleachers are your standard wood fare, though they do have Pendleton green numbering which is a nice little touch. The second level has a concourse that wraps all the way around the playing floor, though there are no bleachers at all along the baselines on either level which is a little odd for this kind of set up. It does allow you to be right along the railing above the court on the baselines for a cool vantage point if you don't mind standing. The court itself is really well done with a glossy, modern finish. The court is named after the current but legendary coach Joe Buck, son of legendary Madison Heights coach Phil Buck who also has a court named after him. The conference team display isn't bad though it's kind of hidden in one corner of the gym. The athletic team accomplishment banners are a bit drab and are split between the two upper baseline walls. One has your standard list of sectional and conference titles, the other focuses just on state titles and runner-ups in various sports, of which there are many. Other than the green lettering on bleachers, I suppose there are a couple small details that help it pop. There is a very nice painting of an Arabian horse in the center of one baseline wall, though it's kind of hard to get a great view of it anywhere in the gym because it's hidden at different angles behind basketball hoops extending from the ceiling and oddly enough, a projector screen. The floor around the upper deck is also hardwood like a basketball court which is a little different. If you look closely at the ceiling, you can also see a skinny track running in a giant oval around the court. There used to be some gigantic curtains that could be pulled to wall off the upper deck, but those seem to have been removed. I'm having a hard time thinking of a situation where that would be particularly useful or practical anyways.
Inoffensive is a term I've realized I use too much to describe things that are "just fine." They're not bad, they're not great, but you really don't mind them. I'm going to use it one more time too many here. The gym at Pendleton Heights is the definition of inoffensive. I'm always going to crave a little more nostalgia, creativity, or just plain weirdness, but it does the job just fine. Sometimes in life that's all you can ask for.
