MISHAWAKA — For Marian junior Jackson Price, this playoff run to Saturday’s 3A state title game means more than basketball.
The past few weeks he has thought more and more about Nolan Gerwels, a childhood friend who died at 14 years old when an indoor basketball backboard fell on him in June 2018.
“I was devastated,” Price recalled about Gerwels’ passing. “On that (AAU team) he was my best friend. When I started AAU he was my guy. I would practice with him. We would stay after and go before. He was my bestie friend when I met him and it was really heartbreaking when I found out he died.”
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Gerwels would have likely been a senior on this year’s No. 2-ranked Marian team that will play unranked Beech Grove at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in search for its first state title in program history.
Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. Saturday.
Before the team left for Indianapolis, many of its players dedicated a Mass prayer in Gerwels’ honor.
Along with Price, Marian senior Kaleo Kakalia and junior Grant Mishler were friends with Gerwels, who attended Discovery Middle School in Granger at the time of his death.
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Price characterized Gerwels’ skill-set as a shooter, just like him, and one point remembering an AAU practice where the two got in a shooting contest and Gerwels made 14 consecutive 3-pointers.
“I think that is how I became a better shooter, because I was with him and he was always shooting the ball,” Price said. “I wanted to shoot like he did.”
Throughout the season Price said he would sometimes talk to Gerwels’ family, who still attended Marian games.
Price believes Gerwels would have been a major contributor on this team, too.
“It means a lot,” Price said. “It would be amazing to win this for him and his family.”
Knights get help from state senator
Marian’s biggest assist this week comes from a team connection with Indiana District 9 State Senator Ryan Mishler.
Holding office since 2004, Mishler’s son, Grant, is a junior forward who plays in a reserved role, scoring 1.5 points per game.
Ryan has helped the Knights with their travel down to Indianapolis this weekend, putting the team up in the Columbia Club in downtown, as well as a private practice court the team plans to use for shootaround before Saturday’s game.
Throughout the season Mishler has frequently made the between Indianapolis and the Mishawaka area, where he lives to attend Marian’s games. He said he has only missed two games during Grant’s career, once because he wasn’t playing that night and he had a meeting with former Vice President Mike Pence, and another because of the State of the State address.
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He will be at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Saturday.
“I’m pretty appreciative of that,” Grant Mishler said.
Superstitious?
Marian has stuck with its road blue jerseys this tournament, despite playing the sectional on its home court. But in Saturday’s championship game, the Knights will be back in home whites for the first time since a Feb. 25 win against Marquette Catholic. Northern Indiana qualifiers are the designated home team this weekend.
Will that mess with Marian’s mojo? Its players don’t believe so.
“I think we play better in our whites,” senior forward Kaleo Kakalia said.
He isn’t wrong. The Knights have yet to lose a game this year wearing their home jerseys, with all three losses (Westfield, Indianapolis Cathedral and Glenn) coming on the road.
IHSAA State Championship pairings
All Games Saturday EDT at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
CLASS 1A
10:30 a.m.: No. 2 North Daviess (26-3) vs. No. 11 Lafayette Central Catholic (20-9)
CLASS 2A
12:45 p.m.: Providence (20-6) vs. No. 3 Central Noble (28-2)
CLASS 3A
6 p.m.: Beech Grove (21-6) vs. No. 2 Mishawaka Marian (24-3)
CLASS 4A
8:15 p.m.: No. 8 Indianapolis Cathedral (25-6) vs. No. 1 Chesterton (29-0)
