Coopersville had its ‘Hoosiers’ moment playing in old Indiana gym
The Coopersville basketball team, shown during a summer ball game in June, 2023, got to visit the location of the filming of the movie “Hoosiers” on Dec. 8, 2023. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - There’s no Jimmy Chitwood on the Coopersville High School basketball team.
But there is one player that resembles the character from the movie “Hoosiers.”
“I would have to say Carter Mekkes fits the part,” senior Eli Spencer said.
The Coopersville boys and girls basketball teams got the experience of a lifetime when they vistited - and even play in - the old wooden gym that they used to film the 1986 movie starring Gene Hackman.
“It was pretty cool,” junior Judah Bartels said. “We just watched the movie right before at Coach’s house. Then we drove straight down there. The gym was like identical to the movie.”
The gym is located Knightstown, Indiana.
The Coopersville boys basketball team warms up before a scrimmage on the same court where they filmed the movie “Hoosiers” on Dec. 8, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Coopersville).
Coopersville rented out the gym on Friday, Dec. 8, and even scrimmaged on the floor.
“The ‘Hoosiers’ gym was definitely a destination on my bucket list so, it was like a dream come true,” Spencer said.
After that, the teams drove to Dayton, Ohio, where they played a game against Xenia High School at Wright State University. It was the idea of Coopersville boys coach Pete VanKempen to combine a trip to play a game and see his daughter, Cara VanKempen, who plays basketball at Wright State.
“A year ago, my daughter had just transferred to Wright State to play basketball,” VanKempen said. “My superintendent (Matt Spencer) said we could try to find (a high school) game down there if we wanted. In March, found some schools that were about our size. We e-mailed them and (Xenia) said they’d love to play us.”
Eli Spencer had 18 points and Bartels 16 as the Broncos beat Xenia 63-45. Then they stuck around to watch Cara VanKempen play later that afternoon.
“It was awesome,” Coach VanKempen said. “It was such a great weekend for my daughter, for me and for my wife (Bethany). It’s cool that you have an administration that is willing to do this kind of thing.”
The Coopersville boys team is playing like the Hickory Huskers. They are off to a blistering 5-0 start.
“Every player is bigger, faster, stronger,” VanKempen said. “We lost Mark DeVries, who is at Concordia of Ann Arbor, and a few other seniors. But the kids have grown and really worked hard in the offseason. They’ve made incredible improvements.”
Bartels said the locker room was a highlight as was the small court and wooden bleachers. None of it has changed since they filmed the movie.
“When we were scrimmaging, it was so small,” Bartels said. “It’s much smaller (than the standard 94-foot floor). It’s smaller length-wise and width-wise. It was so cool, though. When we were doing warmup lines and you just look around.”
So why does the junior Mekkes remind Coopersville of Jimmy Chitwood, the star of the team in “Hoosiers”?
“That’s a perfect person,” VanKempen said. “He’s about 6-foot-4, dark hair, thin, skilled, and you can picture him doing the pull-up jumper. He’s an old-school kid.”
Coopersville junior Carter Mekkes, right, apparently would fit right in if he played basketball in Indiana in the 1950s. (Photo at left from Orion Pictures. Photo at right by Lenny Padilla)
