High expectations can sometimes crumble a group of teenage kids, but the 2020-21 Kickapoo Chiefs were different.
Everyone had the Chiefs circled as the team that would win a state championship and be considered among the great high school basketball programs to come through southwest Missouri.
And you couldn't blame them — a Power 5 player and the reigning Class 1 Player of the Year had joined a team that qualified for the state semifinals the year before without them. Four Division I-caliber players on one team were going to be tough to beat.
KICKAPOO WINS STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
"People thought it was going to be easy but no one realizes how much work these kids put in," Kickapoo head coach Mitch McHenry said.