Farewell To The Pit

In the whirlwind that was my return to my hometown last weekend, there was a moment of ennui. It came when my older brother drove us past our old high school. Thanks to a large bond measure, Boulder High is being modernized. I have worked through a school year or two in which a school has been "modernized" (read: painted), and I know that there are periodically radical changes created in these periods. Other times, the buildings and facilities remain looking very much the same.
It's my guess that once the gym at Boulder High has been modernized, the change will be immediately obvious. For years, the "boys' gym" at my high school was infamous for being one of the most intimidating places to play basketball in Colorado. It didn't hurt that we usually had some pretty rabid fans, but the positioning of those fans proved to be the most important feature. There were only a few feet on the edge of the regulation basketball court before the walls rose straight up. The bleachers were found ten feet up those walls above the floor of the court. There were a few seats squeezed in on one side of the court, across from the team benches, but mostly the crowd hung over the rails and stomped on the benches up above, and as the outcome of the game became more and more inevitable they would chant, "Welcome to the Pit! Welcome to the Pit!" We had perhaps one of the best home-court advantages in the Centennial League. We were perennial contenders in girls' basketball, and we won the boys' state championship when I was a junior. We had a good team, but I think our gym and our fans proved to be every bit as important, especially when the game was close. The thunder raining down from above was enough to cause many an errant pass or missed free throw. We always wished that we could play more of our games on that court, and now, they're through.
I'm sure that the spirit will continue, but I don't imagine that any self-respecting architect of the twenty-first century would recreate the facility as it once was. I suspect that the original plan was modeled more on the Roman Coliseum than the average high school gymnasium. I guess that the new boys' gym will be state-of-the-art, but it won't be a pit.