Tippecanoe Valley (2,900) Built 1974
January 20, 2024: Anderson vs. Tippecanoe Valley (Boys)
January 20, 2024: Anderson vs. Tippecanoe Valley (Boys)
When I was a kid and would drive home in the dark from basketball games with my dad, I always hoped it would snow. As a kid you love snow because it just makes everything else more magical in an otherwise dreary time of year. I was particularly fascinated how different it looked from the car when Dad would flip his brights on and off. When they're off, you don't notice the snow much, but when they're on, it looks like a blizzard is flying right into your face. It's weird the things that stick in your memory from your childhood. My trip to Tippy Valley this week really brought me back to those trips home as a kid. Not only was it snowing, but the road to the school took me through the heart of Indiana's farm country. I passed family farm after family farm on the way. I could even see into one barn that had the lights on and caught a glimpse of a farmer working on a cow in a stanchion while it was below zero degrees outside. Talk about more memories coming flooding back of watching on in the cold while Dad tried to untwist a cow's stomach (at least I think that's what he was doing). I'm way off track here, but as an adult I find driving in the snow much less enjoyable. The already long drive took ten minutes longer than it should have as I creeped my way around every winding corner on State Road 114. My nerves were about shot and I was beginning to wish that basketball games were played in the summer as I finally reached Tippy Valley.
Right outside the gym at Tippy Valley you'll find some really neat display cases honoring some of the preconsolidation schools in the district. Each one gets their own space with original memorabilia. As you walk into the gym itself, the first thing that strikes you is the yellow/green color scheme everywhere. As I've mentioned before, I love anything that conjures up visions of John Deere, and this one nails the shade of green spot on. There aren't a lot of individual things that will wow you across the gym, but the whole aesthetic fits together perfectly down to the tiniest details. The other prominent color to complement the yellow and green is a medium/dark shade of brown. It has such a rich feel to it. It's found primarily in the wood bleachers, which are two big sections on each sideline that go straight up uninterrupted. They are beautiful. The hardwood interior of the three-point lines also have this matching shade of brown, sans the key. There is also a tiny piece of trim that goes around the entire perimeter of the gym walls about 25 feet up with the same brown color. It's the smallest detail, but it really ties everything together. The design of the gym layers the green, yellow, and brown splendidly at each eye level.
Adding to the visual effect of the gym is the really nice block lettering used at center court for the simple "TV" logo, and the script along the baselines. You can't go wrong with that simplicity. I've already mention how nice the bleachers look. Above each section. nearly in the rafters, is a painted "Go Vikings" in fanstastic script with more lines of the magnificent green and yellow. Up on the baseline wall near the entrance is the common mural of the mascot breaking through the cinder block wall. It's not bad. Near it sits a display of all the school's 1,000 point scorers which is always appreciated. The opposite baseline wall has really unique feature. Forget just the 1,000 point scorers, there is a big display showing the all-time leaders in all kinds of statistical categories for basketball, football, volleyball, and wrestling. That was really neat to peruse. Underneath is a giant red box in the wall labled "fire hose" which I've never seen in a gym before, but I guess isn't a bad thing to have handy. Above all four big doors in the gym sit old photos of past sectional/regional winning teams which were cool to see in the gym itself instead of just the usual exterior hallway. Tippecanoe Valley is independent (lame) so there weren't any conference team displays or even standard athletic accomplisment banners, but everything else is so well put together I didn't really notice it.
After the game I lingered a bit in the lobby because psychologically I wasn't ready to face the frigid cold quite yet. I looked through some of the old displays again. There were just as many FFA awards as there were athletic ones. You can tell that tradition runs deep there. I even found out they occasionally hold hogroasts before some big games throughout the season. I would come back for that alone, but the gym itself is worth visiting again. Sometimes gyms are just big, others are just weird, this one is just pretty.
