I'd much rather go to the close-knit warmth and emotion of the high school game described than some grandiose, overblown pro game watching multi-millionaires from hundreds of yards away. Small town hoop fervor good--very, very good.

So let me get this straight. He has to sit in the aisle because there are so many people there and yet he wants them stop living in the past? Just went to a game around here and a six (or so) year old kid tried to shoot buckets at half and they politely kicked him off the court. Would absolutely love to watch a game in that kind of atmosphere.

See, I just thought his final few graphs were incongruous with the rest of the article and disregarded them. The rest of the column worked. Small-town basketball is wacky, trite but he admits but he'd have loved playing in that atmoshere. He should've adopted a "this is weird but works for them even if its kinda freaking me out to be here" stance.

I cannot imagine what his email and voicemail inboxes looked like the next day, though.

Sportswriting is so terrible now (my own included because of space issues and time demands) that I just glossed over in my mind that it's written in a hacky conversational style.

Shooting on the court at halftime used to be my favorite thing to do as a kid. My school had a 50/50 type of thing that if you hit a half court shot you won the pot. I think a 3-pt shot got you a free pizza or something.

For reference, my school is a gym that only has stands on one side and seats about 500-700 fans. Padded walls at both ends, and the benches were against a wall on the opposite side of the fans. We had (still have) wooden backboard practice hoops on the sides. I was kind of disheartened to hear that the state had finally approved a new school for us, because that gym would no longer be used. I loved playing in that gym.

I love small school ball. One of our conference rivals had a small court where the 3-pt line didn't even go all the way down to the baseline. It cutoff around the wing area. That gym was fun to play trap defense in but the flip side was trying to break a press was tough.

I remember playing Jr. High tournament games at Claymont (Urichsville) Middle School on top of a stage. It took a kid diving out of bounds and almost over the edge for them to decide to hold the tournament in a larger gym. Come to think of it, most of my Jr. High games were played on small floors with stands on only one side.

Another Jr. High gym had tile floor in what looked like a Catholic school's cafeteria. They would paint the lines on every season (maybe every game) with what seemed to be red spray paint, so every team that played there went home with red-stained shoes.

Another school literally had padded tile, so every time you dribbled you were lucky if it didn't get caught in the crack and bounce out of bounds. A lot of players tripped while doing defensive slides or trying to do a v-cut to catch the ball. That was a high school team we played with that floor!

By far my favorite was Columbiana's old gym they used to play in. The stands had concrete steps that were flush with the playing floor. The only thing separating you from the fans were iron hand railings that had about a 2-3 ft gap in between where the steps went up. You could literally be saving a ball and running up the aisle like you were at the movies as an usher.

sounds like over off 36 and 227. Only other place that fits that bill is in jay Co.

Borna,

Are there still small towns in Indiana where kids are learning to playing ball in barns? I think that still happens in small parts of Ohio like Holmes County.

GoCats105's post brought back some strong memories from the Jr High hoops days. I grew up playing in a gym that had a restraining line around it because the out of bounds line was essentially against the wall. The defender over the ball out of bounds had to stay behind it or be called for delay of game. Stoutsville Elementary & Amanda Clearcreek Jr High. It's now just an open lot. The high school also had the "old gym" where we practiced as Freshmen. The side hoops had wooden backboards nearly flat against the block wall. The fun there was a well placed foot on the wall could give you a boost up for a dunk. Also torn down and replaced. The tile floor was an absolute skating rink.

Another place I remember vividly was a gym in Canal Winchester's system. It was a stage, with restraining line and it was so short it had 3 half court lines. You had to cross the middle line to get the backcourt count off but once you crossed it you could run your offense back to the furthest away "half court" line. I doubt that gym/stage is still around.

Zane Trace High school was another that had the concrete bleachers. They didn't come down level with the floor though, there was a wall probably 5' tall where they stopped just off the court. If I remember right you had to go up the steps to check in at the scorers table and wait there until the stoppage in play. The 3 point line in the corners had about enough space for my size 13's to fit between it and the out of bounds lines.

I knew several families in our area that had hoops in their barn. A couple were "full court" that got a lot of use.

Edit for Reference: I'm 32 so this wasn't THAT long ago

Not sure if Steubenville stills hosts a shootout in the summer, but I now recall playing and watching games at the John. Totally forgot about it until you just said it though. Kind of an "ooohh yeaaahh..." moment.

Funny you bring up Amanda Clearcreek and Canal Winchester. My older brother's football and basketball teams his senior year lost to Amanda in the first round of the football playoffs and C.W. in the Elite 8 in basketball.

Our "old gym" that's located in the same building as the "new gym" is exactly the way you describe Zane Trace's. Concrete bleachers on one side that sat above the floor. They have since been reinforced with chairback seats. On the opposite side of that is a stage, so the gym was more of a multi-purpose facility. Wooden backboards on the main hoops in there and it's still used for practices all the time.

My dad is a Laurelville Graduate. Still has his uniform at home (always gets some good laughs with the crazy short shorts). I only got to play there once which I think was my freshman year against Logan Elm of course. I do remember watching donkey basketball there on more than one occasion which was awesome.

I can't remember the name of it but there was a gym in Lancaster that was maybe their Freshmen gym in the early 90s that had lower and upper seating that was right on top of the court. Really good looking gym. Think it started with a C. Canterbury or Centennial or something.

I think Fairfield Union had an old court that was concrete and the floor a solid gray color. I remember a 1-3-1 half court trap that forced us into about 30 turnovers too.

Stanbery, that was the original Lancaster High School, and is still the Freshman school/gym. It also had a few running lanes around the outside of the upper deck seats. I was manager on my freshman hoops team there in '81, and it was a great place to attend a game. The locker rooms were underneath the court in the basement. It was a pretty good home court advantage because it threw people to have to take foul shots with people looking at you from above the backboard.

I believe Logan's gym used to be a dual purpose theatre stage/court, but can't recall if that was just through freshman, or was used for high school also when I was in HS. I seem to recall it was HS also, but I might have that wrong.