Roncalli's Brayden Collins earns Courage Award after leukemia comeback

Brayden Collins walked into Gainbridge Fieldhouse as one of 400 honored athletes and left as the emotional center of the Indiana High School Sports Awards. The Roncalli senior, who fought back from leukemia to return to the court, received the Courage Award and turned a statewide celebration of prep sports into a reminder of why basketball stories still hit hardest in Indiana.

The live show was held June 8 at 7 p.m. in Indianapolis, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and awards spread across 16 sports. The event, presented by the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, also included overall boys athlete of the year and girls athlete of the year honors, but Collins’ comeback gave the night its most memorable scene. The program has grown into a yearlong spotlight on nominees before the in-person show, and this edition marked another step up after more than 300 athletes were honored the year before.

Collins was diagnosed in June 2024 with high-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and missed his junior year of school because of treatment. He returned to Roncalli basketball as a senior and made a 3-pointer in his first appearance back in January 2026, a small play that carried the weight of everything he had endured. Roncalli’s annual cancer awareness night on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, also carried added meaning when his father, Steve Collins, was recognized in the gym.

His Courage Award speech became the emotional peak of the evening because it centered on the people around him. Collins spoke about how support from friends helped restore his confidence and how the experience changed the way he thought about everyday life. That message fit the larger tone of the night, where Julie Roe Lach, executive vice president of Pacers Sports & Entertainment, served as guest speaker and talked about how high school athletics helped shape her leadership path.

The broader backdrop matters, too. Indiana has made room for basketball to stand near the front of these awards for years, whether it was Fishers basketball winning Boys Team of the Year in 2024, Brownstown Central coach Dave Benter taking Coach of the Year after a Class 2A state title run, or Aliyah Boston serving as the event speaker that same year. Collins’ return to the floor, and the recognition that followed, fit that pattern perfectly: in Indiana, basketball is still where perseverance, status and state identity meet.