Basketball and Indiana are two words you hear often, and they go together as well as this small-town community and its fans. Washington, Indiana is hosting its annual round of tournament gameplay all under one roof. This comes as no surprise for this school as it is just another year, hosting these high school basketball tournaments. However, the gym, school, and team had to start somewhere and build up these walls from the ground up. During this time, which was around the early 1920s, the team was called ‘Old Gold and Black,’ but it was not something the community was drawn to, and they were even less drawn to a team being called, “The Undertakers.” This is what came after the first name, but no one could stick to that so finally, ‘The Washington Hatchets’ became the coined phrase, and the fans loved it. It soon passed as the new team’s name and mascot for the school in 1925. Once the name was established, the town of Washington felt it was the right time to build a new gym which is the original Hatchet House and is now the Junior High gym for Washington and a gym that only seats 4,000, which is quite a bit less than what todays Hatchet House seats.

Washington built the new Hatchet house and opened it in 1967, this gym holds a capacity of 7,090 and soon after it was built, it became the host of tournament games that are still held there almost 60 years later. This gym also hosted the 1979 Indiana All-Stars game, along with other All-Star players and collegiate all-stars. The Hatchet House has been a host of many games and tournaments for years now, but this gym has not only hosted basketball games. In 1968, Richard Nixon gave a speech in the Hatchet House and this newly built gym broke its capacity by holding roughly 8,500 people. A historic gym with a historic story, but for Washington, the history does not start with events or games, it all started with the fans who truly created the Hatchets and its name.

Not only does the school have to prepare for such a large event as this, but the community and business owners must be prepared as well. It is not normal for a community of roughly 12,000 people to hold such a large number of visitors at once. Especially, when a small-town high school gym can hold almost 60% of the entire town’s population so that brings in even more traction into a community. As Washington High School athletic director Larry Cochren, said during our interview, “The sectional we had probably over 17,000 people here in the course of Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday,” and the number of fans that this school hosts is over their own population. To be able to run a tournament of this size in a community this small, it takes everyone to work concession stands, ticket booths, scoreboards, reffing, and behind the scenes with the superintendents and principals. The opportunity that Washington, Indiana has been given to host these games brings in a great amount of income for the school and town, and as Cochren said, “So you know that our restaurants are packed, you know in between games or after games, so the financial boon is a lot.” It is clearly beneficial for the community as a whole and has brought small businesses in Washington much needed traffic.

A game or tournament can be more appealing or inviting when held in a gym such as the Hatchet House. This is a well-known gym, placed in the top 12 largest high school gyms in Indiana. A gym as well-known as this can seat over 7,000 fans and holds more than just fans, players, and visitors, it holds legacies and memories that have held the foundation of this house. The Hatchet House has hosted players that range from Steve Bouchie, to Luke, Tyler, and Cody Zeller, who all went to school at Washington High School. All three Zeller brothers led the Hatchets to the basketball State Finals in years that range from 2005 to 2011 and they are the most recent leaders of this community and basketball team. Cody Zeller and Steve Bouchie later played at IU as well and though Bouchie passed in 2020, their legacies still live on at IU and in Washington.

Even though the Hatchets have not come to close to a state title since Cody Zeller graduated, they did win the 3A sectional in 2020 to move onto the regional tournament games, however that was taken away due to COVID-19. This was not something the school, team, and especially the coach, Gene Miiller, saw coming after it had been 9 years since his basketball team had won any title within the tournament. Miiller has been the head coach of the Washington Hatchets boys’ basketball team for almost 20 years, and he has been there with 2 out of 3 of the Zeller brothers, winning 3 state titles. However, it took years for his team to come out with a tournament win, but it was during the time that the world turned upside down and COVID-19 took away anymore progression in the tournament. The excitement of winning a tournament title after so many years was sadly short lived, after the whole tournament was canceled in 2020, but this pushed fans to appreciate the following years of the game and the players on the court.

In a community this small, it is easy to walk around and know every person you see and for people like Gene Miiller or even Don Spillman, being around her for a long time can lead you to becoming more well-known that you realize. Don Spillman, a longtime Washington resident and basketball announcer, made it clear during his interview that he has truly been around. After a question about ‘longtime fans,’ he made sure to let me know that for him, these were people he had known since they were younger than me and he said, “Well you ask about longtime fans and you mentioned John Newton and John Cahill, I taught both of them, so I don’t consider them ‘longtime’ fans!” I am not sure about you, but for me, this shows how tight knit a small-town is and how just the game of basketball can bring a community together and hometown fans rooting for their teams, community, and school all in one.