On Monday, the Colorado High School Activities Association announced that they will be delaying, not cancelling, the start of all winter sports until the start of February, one month after they were supposed to start.  One of the sports affected by this is basketball, for both boys and girls.  Both teams look to take a step forward this season, no matter what the season may look like.

On the boys side, the team is coming off a very strong 2019 season.  The Raptors finished with an extremely respectable 17-8 record, going a stellar 12-2 in league play to finish second in the Northern Colorado Athletic Conference.  The boys made it to the state playoffs, beating Thomas Jefferson in the first round, and then going on to lose a very competitive game to Mead, the best team in the state, in the second round.  The boys are no doubt looking to improve this upcoming season by winning their league, and then advancing deeper into the state playoffs.  

Current Junior Varsity Head Coach and former Varsity Assistant Christian Warner was generous enough to share his thoughts on what to expect during the uncertain season to come. “As a team, I want to be able to get back on the floor and compete. As a coach, I want to make sure I’m having a positive impact on the kids on and off the court.”  Warner said.  “I want to guide them to become better gentlemen.”  Members of the Boys Basketball team are no doubt in great hands with Christian as one of their leaders.

For the girls team, there are A TON of things to look forward to for the upcoming season and beyond!  They went through a great season of development last season.  Despite going 3-20 overall and 2-12, the team pulled off two great wins against rival Niwot, and developed a sense of trust throughout the program.  

Entering only her third season as head coach, Ashlee Runyon is instilling the values of hard work, trust and teamwork into all her players as she works to build a formidable program at Silver Creek.  Junior Mackenzie Larson has seen Coach Runyon’s hard work for the program first hand.  “Out of  all the coaches I’ve had in my life I respond best to the way she coaches us but on top of that she’s so supportive and I wouldn’t have wanted to start my career and hopefully end it with anyone else, she sees a lot in me that I don’t see in myself sometimes and that’s more than I could ever ask for.”  Larson also says, “A realistic goal before I leave is to reach a .500 record because I’ll at least know my class helped the coaches get the reassurance that things were finally heading in the right direction because we are their first class as coaches and they’ve done a lot for us.”  Coach Runyon is looking forward to being able to compete again as a team, and she is excited to see a more confident team this year.  “Having some of the younger players have experience from last year and gaining experience over the summer will help with confidence.”  Runyon says.  “The players are already committed to the team but now they’ll have more confidence in themselves.”  As sophomore Taylor Mallett enters her second season as a member of the team, she sees many reasons to believe that the Raptors can make a run at the league title in the 2021 season.  Mallett says, “The fact that a lot of us have been putting in the work outside of just our team stuff, and hopefully our hard work will put us ahead of other teams that haven’t been working outside of team workouts.”  The hard work and dedication shown by the players during the pandemic is a great example of why the Raptors Girls Basketball team is sure to shine this season!

The Boys and Girls Silver Creek Basketball teams are clearly headed for great things in the future.  To follow along with the greatness you can visit Boys Basketball to follow the Boys this winter and: Girls Basketball to keep up with the Girls team.