By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Small town Portage County basketball is headed to small town Indiana.

On Saturday, the Garfield and Waterloo boys basketball teams will play at Hoosiers Gym in Knightstown, Ind., the famous home gym from the 1986 movie “Hoosiers.”

“The idea actually crossed our minds about 2 years ago,” Garfield veteran coach Andrew Olesky said. “We had simply heard that you could play there, and we started to hear about local teams that have done it. My former assistant, Randy Ward, who is now the girls coach at Bristol played there last year and told us how great the experience was.

“We started asking how and how much,” Olesky added.

From there, Olesky turned the idea over to varsity assistant coach Matt Hill.

“He is a big fan of the movie,” Olesky said. “Then, we were thinking of an opponent and thought Waterloo would be a good idea. I am friends with the staff and know that they have an ‘old school’ taste in sports movies.”

Retired Waterloo boys basketball coach Jason Wise was part of the early conversations about the trip to Indiana, but the discussion did not lose any momentum when the Vikings’ announced Gavin English as the program’s new head coach for the 2024-25 season.

“Hoosiers is one of my favorite movies ever,” English said. “I remember getting the movie on DVD in elementary school and loving it since the first time I watched. I am a huge sports-history buff, thanks to coach (John) Herchek, so the story is so captivating to me.

“I also remember watching the movie probably a dozen times during our tournament run in 2020 and relating so much to the feeling of a small town coming together over a successful basketball team,” English added. “I have watched the actual footage of Milan High on YouTube more than once, along with interviews from the ‘real’ Jimmy Chitwood and other video clips and read books.”

Construction for Hoosier Gym was completed in 1921. The last official regular-season game was played in the gym in February of 1966, then saw very little use for the next 19 years.

Following the success of Hoosiers, the gym was able to fend off possible demolition in 1988 and has found new life as a historic site and hosts approximately 80 high school basketball games each year, including the G-Men and Vikings on Saturday.

Both teams traveled to Knightstown on Friday and set up team meals and sight-seeing opportunities as part of the trip, including a full tour of the gymnasium.

“Our kids have definitely been excited for the trip,” Olesky said.

The excitement for the G-Men began a few weeks back, when the team set up a private screening of “Hoosiers” at the Garrettsville Cinema.

“We opened the event to the families of our players so it was nice to see parents and grandparents attend,” Olesky said. “Most of our kids had not seen the movie, but it has been funny to hear them quote the movie so much since the screening. Plus, anytime you get to take an overnight trip, it is a tremendous chance to team bond as you are spending so much time together.”