When the middle school gym in Jefferson opened in the 1953-54 school year it was one of the best around. Some 67 years later, the gym is on its last go-around as the home of the Greene County Rams. The final high school basketball games on the schedule were played there last Friday, and tomorrow a middle school game marks the last scheduled Greene County middle school or high school sports contest.

Keith Pedersen played in that gym from Youth basketball all the way through being an All-State player for Jefferson-Scranton. The 2004 J-S grad had a successful basketball career at Central College in Pella and is now an attorney in Jefferson. “I really liked our gym. You had all the fans there on one side. It could get loud. You could put fans on the stage, or you had the pep band there kind of behind you, and you were separated. I like that we were on the other side, so you could talk to your coach, you could be in a huddle, and you wouldn’t have someone basically staring at you. You weren’t distracted.”

The Rams will call the new high school on the northwest edge of Jefferson home starting with the 2020-21 school year.