The Logan Elm High School gymnasium hosted its final athletic events on Thursday with the McDowell seventh and eighth grade basketball teams entertaining Bloom-Carroll.
The eighth-grade Braves defeated Bloom-Carroll 44-33. Team members include Cam Williams, Owen Williams, Zach Speas, Ethon Manson, Grey Braun, Austin Holbrook, Owen Russell, Lance Thomas, Mark Wilson and Carter Congrove.
The seventh-grade Braves battled hard before falling to the Bulldogs. Team members include Blake Summers, Conner Kint, Jaice Welch, Lane Young, Evan Polley, Trey Dilley, Briggs Arnett, Judd Schultz, Noah McManus, Dalton Davy and Sylar Sams-Lynch.
The high school gymnasium is the original home of the varsity basketball Braves, who went on a tear in the first decade after Pickaway, Salt Creek and Washington townships consolidated to form the district in southeast Pickaway County. Under the tutorage of Keith Merrin and later Charles Pritchard, the Braves won five Scioto Valley Conference championships and back-to-back Central District championships in 1962 and 1963. The Braves finished as a regional runner-up in 1962, defeating Fairland 58-53 in a regional semifinal before being edged 46-45 by Fort Frye in the Athens regional final.
After the construction of McDowell, the varsity Braves moved into the much more spacious confines of Spangler Memorial Gymnasium, leaving the middle school to compete in the high school gymnasium.
The district is slated to open a new PK-12 building in August that will include new high school and junior high gymnasiums. Logan Elm High School will then be torn down, but McDowell Middle School will remain as the home of the district offices and extra space if the district would need it for future use.
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