Chapter OneFalling Short

Schematic illustration of an alarm clock placed next to a bed.

 

Coach David tossed and turned as he tried to sleep the night before the first day of basketball season. As a new coach last year, with some of the best players in the state, he was haunted by the fact that the team had failed to live up to their potential.

He thought anxiously about how he could get his players to come together this year. He felt like he had let everyone down, because he had the best athletes and yet they weren't successful as a team. They didn't trust each other. They argued. They were negative on the court, and they didn't communicate or share the ball well.

Schematic illustration of the basketball placed on a table.
Schematic illustration of the milk packet and a mug full of milk labeled Coach David.

At 2 a.m. he hopped out of bed and started pacing around the kitchen. He tried drinking warm milk and snuggling with his dog Joey on the couch, but nothing helped to calm his nerves.

“OUCH!” he yelled as he jumped up from the couch. Something had poked him from under the seat cushion, so he reached down to see what it was. He pulled out a stick Joey must have buried there. It was just one of many presents Joey liked to hide around the house. He gave Joey a look of loving disapproval as he rubbed his leg.

Suddenly, he remembered something his mother had told him at ...

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