and Kooper Jacobi .
“ There really is ( no better way to end it ),” Kaufman- Renn said . “ Obviously if COVID wouldn ’ t have happened last year we want to say that we would ’ ve won it then too . Having two , maybe even three state championships , with the guys that I ’ ve grown up around , the coaches I love , the guys I love , there ’ s nothing better than that .”
Indeed if COVID-19 had not ended the 2019-20 state tournament after the sectional round , Silver Creek could have very well been celebrating its third straight state championship ( something only three schools have done ) in April .
“ I ’ m considering it a three-peat because we were ranked No . 1 ( all ) last year ,” senior wing Nolan Gilbert said .
That ’ s exactly where the Dragons started this season , which was unlike any other in history because it was played during a pandemic . However it was also different for Silver Creek , which had to overcome several obstacles in order to win it all again .
The first of those was a preseason ankle injury to Kaufman-Renn , the reigning Gatorade Player of the Year in Indiana . The standout 6-foot-9 forward , who committed to Purdue in October , would miss the first
five games of the season . The last two of those were losses — 63-61 at Mid-Southern Conference-rival North Harrison and 94-84 in double-overtime to Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian , which would also go on to win a second consecutive state title in 2A , in the FORUM Tipoff Classic .
Kaufman-Renn returned in the Dragons ’ 77-67 win over future 4A Seymour Sectional champion Jeffersonville on Dec . 18 . That was the first of seven consecutive victories for Creek before adversity hit once again , this time in the form of a broken bone in the hand of point guard Branden Northern . The junior played through the
15