Western (2,704) Built 1980
December 19, 2023: Oak Hill vs. Western (Boys)
December 19, 2023: Oak Hill vs. Western (Boys)
What's in a name? Not much in this case. You can search the state from top to bottom and not find a more vague name than "Western." Not Western _______, just Western. In reality I believe it's a reference to western Howard County, but you wouldn't have any idea unless you're from the area. Western is one of a few rural schools that circle the greater Kokomo area. It doesn't have much of a basketball history to speak of, 9 sectionals scattered across 4 decades along with one regional title. I didn't have a ton of expectations going into the game, but the gym was pleasantly inoffensive and featured a really good contest between the home school and Oak Hill. It wasn't uneventful as it's one of the few times I've felt genuinely scared for my well-being at a basketball game. More on that below!
The Western gym is one of a few gyms in the state that has a big discrepancy in the number of bleachers on one sideline compared to the other. The side housing the team benches has two levels that go up probably 25-30 rows altogether. The opposing side has one level and maybe 10 rows total. The upper level is reached by walking up the lowel level bleacher steps with gaps in the glass dividers separating the levels which is also uncommon. As I was walking up, I felt the bleachers give a little with each step. I made a mental note that it seemed odd. As I reached the second level I sat at the bottom for the first quarter and then moved to the very top for the second. When I reached the top I realized the back of the retractable bleachers did not meet the rear wall. There was about 15 feet between them and a sheer drop to the concrete floor beneath. The kind of railings you find at the ends of bleachers not connected to a wall spanned the entire back section of the bleachers. As someone who is pretty terrified of heights to begin with, I wasn't a huge fan of this. Then I sat for a few minutes and realized that anytime someone even remotely moved near the top. You could feel the bleachers swaying. I could see the pop of anyone near me reverberating in the bottles like an Indiana earthquake if there was such a thing. At this point my hands and feet were sweating profusely like they only do when I think of what it was like to climb the silos on the farm as a kid. At this point I decided there were better vantage points to watch a basketball game from and clambered to the opposite side at halftime and watched at the floor level where I felt much more at home.
This gym really feels like a product of the era it was built in. It's stuck between the classic styles of the 60s and 70s you find littered all over the state and the more modern, sterile cesspools that have been built in the last 20 years (*cough* Lapel *cough*). The bleachers have a nice lighter wooden finish to them very similar to Westview. The center court logo has the modern cartoonish style that I just find so boring. In contrast, there is a beautiful Western panther mural up on the wall above one baseline which also has a small bleacher portion for the student section. This wall also houses three huge pictures of the school's various state championship teams which I thought was cool instead of putting them out in a hallway like most schools do. In the corner there is a neat display of Howard county and the locations of the three schools that were consolidated to form Western in the past (The mascot could have been the "Cossacks." What a missed opportunity). Above the short section of bleachers is a very bland row of athletic accomplishment banners. The baseline wall that you enter from is unique in that it is mostly made of panneled wood that looks just like a basketball court hardwood when you look closely at it. I've never seen anything like it in gym. There are some basic conference team banners on this wall. On the other end of it though is a marvelous old mural of a panther with the words "Spirit of 81" which I'm not even going to pretend to know what it is in reference to. One last odd feature is that the ceiling actually drops down above the court if you are sitting in the very top row of bleachers so that it cuts off your view of the opposing bleachers.
While I don't particularly enjoy fearing for my life during a sporting event (I'm only being slightly melodramatic), I really enjoyed my time at Western tonight, harrowing second quarter aside. There are enough classical elements to the gym to keep it from feeling lifeless. It's not going to jump off the page in comparison to other more classical arenas in the area, but it's a perfectly fine place to take in a game. Tighten a few bolts in the bleachers and I won't have much to complain about.
