Warren Central (3,300) Built 1960
December 16, 2024: Anderson vs. Warren Central (Girls)
December 16, 2024: Anderson vs. Warren Central (Girls)
Objectively, the best basketball teams in the state of Indiana usually reside in or around Marion County. The greater Indianapolis area has dominated the 4A state championships in recent years. The schools are bigger, they have an unbelievably wide talent pool to draw from, and with transfer rules being as flimsy as a house of cards in a hurricane these days, it's easy to see why these schools have had so much success. While they certainly didn't dominate historically like they have in the class basketball era, Indy schools did have their fair share of success stories in the one-class time period as well. It started with Attucks becoming the first Indy team to win a state title and simultaneously forcing people to reckon with their own personal prejudices. It continued with Washington, George McGinnis, and that unforgettable undefeated season. It carried on until the very last years of the great tournament with Ben Davis and their back to back titles. For all this vaunted Indianapolis basketball history, the gyms in which these schools have played in do not reflect it. The biggest metropolitan area in the state is riddled with lifeless multipurpose facilities and places so small a junior high team would be embarrassed to call them home. Some of the only decent ones they have like Arlington and Broad Ripple have closed entirely or have been relegated to middle school use. Arsenal Tech is the only one truly worthy of the great players and teams that have passed through its doors over the years. Last week I visited a gym that was built smack dab in the middle of the glory days, but feels like it was dedicated just yesterday.
Warren Central has had pretty modest postseason success for a big school that's been around for 100 years. They have a handful of sectional titles to speak of and little else, except for the lone historic run they made in 2018. They completed one of the few undefeated championship seasons in the class era, and did so in dramatic fashion. This was also the year that Romeo Langford was setting the world on fire down in southern Indiana at New Albany. When the two teams met at the Seymour semistate, it created one of the best crowds and environments the state has seen post-Damon Bailey. 9,000+ fans all crammed into Lloyd Scott Gymnasium saw the Warren Central Warriors knock off Indiana's 5th all time leading scorer by a mere 2 points. They would go on to finish off Carmel in the final to cap off the championship. I wasn't traversing the state at the time (I was too busy courting a pretty girl in college), and I wonder what the home crowds were like for the Warriors that year. I would hope they were raucous in support of that unbelievably talented squad. Their gym is plenty big, especially by Indy standards. The space feels like it would have the potential to create a good environment, but they've done a pretty good job of removing anything that would make it feel particulary unique or intimidating.
Warren Central utilizes a normal two-level setup in its multipurpose facility. The bottom levels have 13 rows of plastic bleachers along the sidelines while the upper levels have 15. The bleachers are black, which is definitely the least offensive color of plastic when it comes to bleachers. They also seem new so they look pretty decent all things considered. The levels are separated by glass barriers. On the home side of the bleachers, the "gates" are open so you can pass between levels easily. On the opposing side behind the team benches they are shut, so you have to zigzag up and down stairs, across the upper levels, and through back hallways just to reach the seats right behind the team benches. There is also way too much space between the bottom row of bleachers on the upper level and the glass partition. It gives those first couple rows in the upper deck pretty poor sightlines. At the top of the lower section above the team benches is one cool feature though. There is a long press box overlooking the court that spans almost the length of the playing floor with "Warren Central" written across it in big black letters. It looks very classy.
In the corner of one baseline wall is a little jut out area that looks like a broadcasting booth of some sort that has a couple of folding tables set up in it. It's the only thing that gives the baseline ends a little panache. The two upper levels actually do connect via hallways that run directly behind the baseline walls. It feels like opening these walls up so you could see the action below would have been a really easy thing to do and would give the gym a lot more life to it. Instead there are two very boring walls behind each baseline. The one with the jut out in the corner also has the standard Indiana All-Star displays you see so many places now. The opposite wall has very common vinyl athletic accomplishment banners for various state championships and runner-ups in different sports. The MIC conference team displays are stuck very spread out in the highest points of the gym along the sideline walls above the upper bleachers. The plaques themselves are fine, but the way they're arranged just looks incredibly disjointed. Down on the court you will find a very simple light-colored playing surface with a big black "W" at center court and a foul lane that is also painted black. "Warren Central" is written across the baseline with the hardwood itself forming the letters inset against a black background.
If you look at pictures of the gym from even ten years ago, it's nothing special, but at least the color scheme made it a little more interesting. The entire place now is literally just black and white. Unlike the old Barr-Reeve gym, in this case that is not a good thing. It's very familiar to Lawrence Central, which also took a gym that is over 60 years old and made it feel new and depressing. I'm not sure what else to say about it. For an Indy gym, it's not bad. Compared to the rest of gyms across this fine state, it's lacking the soul it needs to stand out in any meaningful way.
