Sheridan (2,400) Built 1978
January 20, 2026: Southmont vs. Sheridan (Boys)
January 20, 2026: Southmont vs. Sheridan (Boys)
Have you ever felt extremely annoyed? Like the kind of annoyance where you're going to snap at someone if they just smile and say hello to you? Probably a stupid question, we've all been there. As someone who teaches eight year olds for seven hours a day, and then goes home and wrangles a five year old, three year old, and baby for the remainder of the evening, I have to be very careful or I can easily fall into that state of annoyance by the end of the day. Usually it takes a lot of things building up to get me there, but once I'm there, it's hard to get out of it. I hate that feeling. I'm on edge and generally not a fun person to be around. Basketball games and gym hunting are two things that usually provide an antidote to the aggravation. They generally give me a chance to relax and dive into something that I enjoy. There is one place though that when I think of it, my skin prickles with irritation: Sheridan. That may seem odd, Sheridan is a pretty normal small town school. There are a couple unrelated reasons for these feelings that may seem nonsensical to some, and you're probably right! But here we are.
The first irritation came when we got to the game to watch Sheridan take on Southmont. Sometimes it can be tricky to find the correct entrance to a gym. If it's not obvious, usually I park where the biggest conglomeration of cars are, because usually they are congregated near the correct doors. It was a freezing January night, and I utilized this strategy to no avail. I tried three different entrances which were all locked. Through the last one I could literally see the action from the JV game going on in front of me, but it didn't matter. As I was listening to the chattering of my kids' teeth, a kind soul saw us and let us in. I went in search of the ticket booth/table to pay for my admission. I walked all the way around the gym to the opposite corner and through an extra door and finally found the table next to what I'm guessing was the correct entrance. At this point I was beginning to feel it and just wanted to get some snacks and settle in for the game. The only problem was we couldn't find the concession window. There was one right outside the gym, but it was closed. I had already walked around the entire gym and there wasn't another one, where could it be? Turns out it was back down the hallway away from the gym by the ticket table, down another hallway 3 miles away from the gym, and around a corner. It looked pretty new, and was sitting right outside what I think is a newer auxiliary gym. Whenever you get the chance to move your concession stand away from a space right outside the gym to one in another county, you have to do it! Great stuff. By the time we finally sat down to watch the game I was ready to leave, which was a shame, because the gym and the team were actually decent.
Before we jump into talking about this gym, I want to touch on the last thing that annoys me when I think of Sheridan, and it has nothing to do with anything at the current high school. I first heard about Sheridan when reading Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hoosier Gyms. On one of the last pages of the book, Sheridan's old gym and high school which sit in another part of town are featured. It shows a beautiful old gym that was actually pretty big for that time period. It talks about how much it meant to the community and all the memories that were made there. I was so excited when I decided to start going to all the old gyms to check this one out. Then I start researching and found an article about the company that recently bought the school to turned it into apartments. They decided to keep the gym for their residents to use, which is great! But they completely mutilated it to the point that it's unrecognizable. It went from a classic Hoosiers era gym to one that looks like it belongs in an elementary school built in the last five years. I've been to a lot of old gyms that have had things taken out of them over the years and still reviewed them because you can still feel the sense of history and see portions of the character that made them special. Not here, it's all gone. I threw it in the Fading Gyms section of the blog immediately. I was again, severely perturbed. Sheridan had a lot of success playing in that old gym. 12 sectional and 3 regional titles. They've only won one sectional since leaving it, and zero in the last 40 years. I'd be lying if I said I don't feel at least a small sense of satisfaction in that.
I'm not here to talk about the old gym though, let's look at the newer one. Today, Sheridan's gym looks pretty much like every other multipurpose one that was built in the 70s. It has a lower and upper level along each sideline featuring 11 and 12 rows of red plastic bleachers. What's interesting is that this hasn't always been the case. Looking at older pictures, one sideline used to only have the lower section. This means at some point the upper wall was removed, moved back and an upper section of bleachers was added. This is almost exactly what I found at Wabash earlier this year. It makes me wonder what used to be behind that wall before it was moved back. The upper baseline walls here are covered with some kind of paneling that looks like the wainscoting my parents used all throughout the the downstairs of my childhood home. It gives it a unique look. One baseline wall has a nice Hoosier Heartland Conference team display along with some decent state championship and runner up plaques. They're in the shape of Indiana like at most places, but they're big, and the red and black color scheme makes them pop. The other side has a ton of sponsorship plaques, but there's also a really cool mural of a Sheridan Blackhawk. The little details in the mural are incredible. It's one of the best I've seen in awhile. The baseline walls also have little tiny windows in them with sliding wooden doors covering them. I can only imagine what's behind them. A 1,000 point scorer sign also hangs up here as well. The playing floor is simple but really well done. There's a black band around the perimeter with "Sheridan" written along one baseline and "Blackhawks" along the other in white lettering. The actual out of bounds line is red which is cool. "Hawks" is written right inside the free throw lines. The foul lanes are painted black and the areas inside the three-point arcs are slightly lighter than the rest of the floor. At center court is a big "S" with Blackhawk talons grasping around it. My favorite feature though is right inside both sidelines. There are little circle insignias with a Blackhawk on them and Larry Hobbs' signature (who the court is named after) running across it. It looks really classy.
Once we actually got settled into our seats and the varsity game started, my boys and I had a good time. The pregame light show was fun. I got to watch a really good Sheridan team dispatch Southmont. The tension I was feeling slowly dissipated. Basketball helped me relax as it usually does. For whatever reason I was just more agitated than usual that night, and a few things pushed me over the edge. Honestly, I'm probably a little more agitated than usual tonight as I write this and that's probably why this blog has taken the tone that it has. I hope the fine people of Sheridan don't take it personally. The gym they play in today is perfectly fine. The gym they used to play in was top of the line. I wish I would have gotten to see it in person. I didn't though, and that's okay. Life goes on. It's full of frustrations and annoyances. That's just part of it. The sun will rise tomorrow and the Lord's mercies are new every morning. I thank God for that.
