Six hours before the gymnasium’s doors facing Community Drive opened, Hoosier Hysteria had already consumed Seymour High School’s campus.
The rules by the administration in charge were clear: Fans weren’t allowed inside the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium until 6:30 p.m., and the game wouldn’t tip until 7:30 p.m.
Those guidelines didn’t stop the masses from showing up early.
At 12:30 p.m., Aaron Coine, a 17-year-old student at Jennings County, waited in line to get first dibs on seats for the sectional championship between Class 4A No. 3 New Albany and No. 4 Floyd Central.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryA half hour later, New Albany season ticket holders Mary Ann Hoback, 63, and her husband Robert, 79, filed in behind Coine.
Robert has followed the team since 1957 — not missing a game this season — and the couple claims to have attended thousands of games over their lifetime.
“Indiana is a basketball state,” said Mary Ann. “This is March Madness.”
Behind the three a table was set up with folding chairs, with four more patrons playing cards.
The line behind the makeshift setup stretched for what feels like, and well could of been, a mile.
Hundreds waited behind that table, wrapping around the entirety of the gym.
Some of those in line poured onto the side streets around the school.
At exactly 6:30 p.m., not a second later, when the takers started collecting tickets, the mob flooded the gym.
By 7 p.m., it was standing room only inside the 8,110 capacity facility.
A red and black sea blanketed one side of the gym, and across from them a green and gray cult filled the stands.
Throughout the gym, a sprinkle of purple and blue could be seen: The fans of the teams that didn’t advance wanted to see the game, too.
Even in the uppermost corners you could see fans leaning along the railing to get a view.
Some of the veteran journalists, and radio guys, said they haven’t seen an atmosphere like this in 25 years — back to the legendary days of Bedford North Lawrence and Damon Bailey.
Instead of Bailey, these days it’s Romeo Langford that’s filling the stands.
Langford, the No. 1 ranked shooting guard in the county, has packed gyms all year, and it’s only getting crazier in the postseason as the senior finishes out his career.
The cheers throughout the game were steadily deafening.
Every single play had a reaction, good or bad, and any call was greeted with a roar.
Even during stoppage, the opposing cheerleaders tried to outdo one another.
These Floyd County rivals were going to compete in every way from the hardwood up to the rafters.
New Albany came away with the win, and will return this weekend in full force
The fans littered the gym for a couple hours before eventually leaving the basketball temple.
If you were fortunate enough to get a ticket to Saturday’s game, you were a part of something special.
You’d be hard pressed to find a sporting event like postseason ball in Seymour.
Over 8,000 people, together, in one location for a high school game.
People don’t turn out for high school event like this around the country (besides, maybe, football in Texas).
For just a moment in time — 32 playing minutes to be exact — nothing mattered to everyone inside the gym but what was happening at center court.
Even if you were a casual fan of the game, you knew that something bigger than the game was taking place.
{span data-dobid=”hdw”}It would be negligent to not mention all of the people behind the scenes that make it happen.{/span}
Seymour’s entire staff does a phenomenal job at hosting an extraordinary postseason tournament.
The amount of time and effort that Seymour athletics director Kirk Manns and assistant AD Dave Urbanski — and countless other members of the staff involved — put in to deliver a top-notch product reflects well on the community.
If you didn’t get a chance to go Saturday, try and open up some plans to go to Seymour’s Regional games Saturday or the Semi-State the following week.
You won’t regret it.