Neelyville hoops makes trips to Hoosier country for doubleheader

The Neelyville Tigers and Lady Tigers made a trip to Hoosier country on Saturday as the two played a district matchup against Alton at the famed Hoosier Fieldhouse in Knightstown, Indiana.

“The experience of going to Indiana and getting the opportunity to play in the Hoosier Gym was amazing from the ride up to the ride home,” Tigers head coach Brad Burdin said. “This is something our players were looking forward to for the majority of this year, so it was great to finally make it happen.”

Neelyville senior Layni Dobbins said “Hoosiers” is one of her favorite basketball movies of all time.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I got in the gym and started crying. It was so surreal. I felt like a little kid. Watching in the gym and seeing everything in person, I felt like I was in the movie. I got to live in my favorite movie for the day.”

But that wasn’t the sentiment for all of the Lady Tigers. “I had to look the gym up,” Gracie Green said.

But Green admitted she too felt the spark of being inside the historic field house.

“It changed my perspective on the gym a lot,” she said. “This is where a lot of good teams have played before and this is where I’m playing now.”

Burdin said all but a couple of players on his team had seen the movie and they even watched it before announcing they would be playing there.

He did tell his team it would be a different place than they were expecting.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” they told the players. “It isn’t a big, fancy gym but this experience was more than that. It was a way of getting to be a part of a historic part of basketball. Seeing all of the signed uniforms from the other teams that also played there, the memorabilia, the whole experience was well worth it.”

Neelyville athletic director and girls basketball coach Becky Hale said a Neelyville jersey will stay at the field house, joining hundreds of teams before them and a familiar one that Hale remembers coaching against.

She said it was one of the best experiences she’s ever had with the sport.

“I grew up watching that movie,” she said. “You walk in there and you get the chills. Going in the locker room. On the blackboard they had the Picket Fence wrote on there. It was a great experience.”

The Tigers and Lady Tigers will now look to continue their season as Dobbins admitted it was a good trip for the middle of the year.

“It’s really nice,” she said. “I think it’s important to team bond in the middle of the season because it gets rough toward the end of the season. Stuff like this is what builds the team up the most.”

Burdin said for his team, he knows the memories will last a lifetime.

“Not only do I think they are important for the memories,” he said. “I believe trips like these bring you closer together as a team and strengthen the relation between teammates.”