Southridge (6,092) Built 1951
December 15, 2023: Jasper vs. Southridge (Boys)
December 15, 2023: Jasper vs. Southridge (Boys)
When you're traveling south of Indianapolis down I-69 and reach Martinsville, something noticeable happens to the landscape. The endless cornfields are suddenly interrupted by wooded valleys and rolling hills. You seem to pass over into a completely different land. When you go to a basketball game in this part of the state, it feels slightly different too. The crowds of Hoosier Hysteria lore have taken a hit just about everywhere in the last 20 years, but some regions have managed to stave off the inevitable to some degree. People here seem to be hanging on tighter to everything that makes basketball in this state so special. This was extremely evident on a Friday night in Huntingburg as county rivals Southridge and Jasper faced off in a game that came down to a last second shot in this incredible house of basketball. Kids were screaming, grown adults were yelling things they probably shouldn't, and 6 foot 3 centers were raining three's from the top of the key. It was everything a high school basketball game is supposed to be.
Southern Indiana is known for their sunken gyms both big and small. This is one of the largest and oldest. There are 15 rows of permanent wood bleachers descending to the playing floor with a concrete concourse all the way around the rim. Great sightlines abound as there is not a bad place to sit in the whole arena. The lighting is perfect as the court is illuminated while all the spectators sit in relative darkness. The floor design definitely is not one of my favorites, it's a modern cartoonish design of a "raider." It doesn't fit the throwback asthetic the rest of the gym puts off. There's a big jumbotron hanging at centercourt which inexplicably has the score for each team underneath the number of team fouls ala New Castle. It drives me crazy. There also is not another scoreboard in the entire gym. There's only a tiny clock way above the stands past the baselines on each end that just shows the time, no score. That would be very disorienting is a player. As you walk along the concourse there are two (cheap!) concession stands. They have a lot of cool displays honoring the school's history. You can find multiple built in trophy cases with past sectional winning game balls. There's a display with all of the school's Indiana Basketball Hall of Famers using the same exact kind of plaques they use in the real hall of fame in New Castle which I thought was a really cool touch. There's even a large wooden sign detailing the ten greatest games in the gym's history. If you walk in the right entrance you can find a neat wooden welcoming sign of sorts to the gym with its full name, capacity, and vintage photos of past teams. Past athletic accomplishment banners are proudly displayed in a nice spot high up on the baseline walls. I had to search high and low for the conference team display and didn't even bother taking a picture because it was basically hidden behind a trashcan at floor level on the concourse. Not great. There are some cool, raised press boxes at the top of three corners of the stands. A single tunnel leads the players onto the court from the locker rooms that lie beneath.
This was my first trip to watch a game south of the Indy metro area in about a decade. The three hour trek was well worth it. A throwback rivalry game always kicks things up a few notches no matter where you are, and this was no exception. The gym only enhanced the experience. The matchup brought about a sweet mix of southern hospitality and strong disdain for the neighboring opponent. It proved there are still pockets of the state where not much has changed since the heydey of this sport in Indiana. Environments like this when the gym, crowd, and game itself are working together in unison are what make me keep coming back. In 49 states it's just basketball...
