Travel Team

For my book report, I'm reading the novel, Travel Team. Written by Mike Lupica. The book is about a young boy named Danny who struggles all his life being the shortest one at his school. He loves basketball and many other sports, but never gets taken seriously from adults because of how small he is! Danny sometimes gets mistaken for a little kid and never gets picked for the basketball team. When Danny plays with his friends, they all know what a great passer and defender he is, and of course want a playmaker on their team! Someone who can get them the ball and find them on the open court. So on the playground it's a fight to get him on your team, and for the city team, he doesn't even get picked? How does THAT work?! Danny works so hard over the summer after he finds out he didn't make the traveling team, so that the next winter, he'll make it even if he's short.

Something like this has happened to one of my friends, all throughout our childhood he was a great player, and then during the last few years of traveling and into high school basketball, he didn't even make a team. If in the book, I was Danny, I would set aside my anger and sadness and do exactly what he's doing in the offseason; using his disappointment about not making the traveling team to motivate him to work twice as hard. Even when nobody else is. That's what will make you a better player. I know what it feels like to think you're not as wanted or valued on the team especially playing with Seniors who have 2 years on me in terms of skill, strength, speed, and also experience. Experience is the biggest thing I think about when thinking of younger players playing with older guys, because no matter how good you are, if you didn't work your butt off in the offseason and train with the team or other teams during the spring, summer, and fall before the winter season, then you wont have experience and you will not get better. You will also not be picked to play up a level or two because the coaches know who has and who hasn't worked during 8 months in between the end of the season and tryouts. They can tell.