The Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, Indiana, which served as the Hickory home court in the movie "Hoosiers," will welcome the Badin High School girls basketball team for a game Monday.
Badin Rams will match up with Lutheran St. Charles out of Missouri. The Cougars are no random opponent.
Badin senior guard Mahya Lindesmith came to the Rams as a junior after beginning her high school career at Lutheran St. Charles, helping the school reach the state quarterfinals as a sophomore.
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Cougars head coach Erin Luttschwager reached out to Badin coach Tom Sunderman.
"Erin contacted me back in the fall and they had an opening for a game and wanted to know if we were interested in playing them," Sunderman said. "I kept it under wraps and worked out our schedule so we could pick up a game and then she mentioned something about finding a neutral site."
Luttschwager had known someone who had played before at the Hoosier Gym and reached out to receive some possible dates. The two teams worked out schedules to fit the game into the season.
After the first day of practice on Oct. 22, Sunderman gave the news to Lindesmith and the rest of the Rams.
“I’m beyond excited,” Lindesmith said in a quote from the school. “It will be so great to see all of the girls again and to play against them. It’s just insane. We’ve talked about it over the years, but now the fact that it’s actually going to happen is amazing. It will be a really good game, too. I’m just so excited.”
To prepare for the historic venue, the Rams had a team-bonding event over the holiday break where they watched "Hoosiers" after a team dinner.
Sunderman won't need to play the part of Norman Dale and break out a tape measure to remind the team basketball is basketball no matter the venue.
"They're pretty excited about it," Sunderman said. "We did a lot of things in the summer and we play (Division III No. 1) Wheelersburg in a couple of weeks. We're doing things like that because our girls have been there, done that. We're hoping that this just reinforces the idea that we know how to play in big-game situations.
"(Lutheran St. Charles) is one of the top teams in Missouri. They have a tradition since Erin's been there of making deep runs and I think they have one state title under her. It adds to the whole package we're trying to put together to get these girls in the right spot this year."
The Rams, who went on a surprise run to the regional finals last season, got a later start to basketball after a deep tournament run by the soccer and volleyball teams. Despite that, Badin sits at 7-2, only falling to undefeated Alter by six points in early December and a nine-win Edgewood team.
The Rams are led by All-Greater Catholic League-Coed picks Lindesmith and Jada Pohlen. Lindesmith's 15.1 points-per-game average is second in the conference, just ahead of Pohlen's 14.8 scoring average. Pohlen leads the league in rebounding and field goal percentage and is also top five in assists, blocks and steals.
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