Michael is an 8 year-old boy that loves to play basketball. He is a member of the basketball team at Willows Elementary. Today they are playing in the championship game against their rivals, Stony Brook Elementary.

Michael has been having a very bad game today, and his team is having a hard time keeping up with their rivals. There are three minutes left in the game and Willows is losing by 19 points. Michael has only scored two points in the whole game. The ending does not look very good for him.

Coach calls a timeout and tries to encourage the team. He walks up to Michael and tells him that he believes in him and that he can lead the team to victory. He has done in in every game that year. Coach's comments really encouraged Michael and he played with a determination to win after that.

Shot after shot started falling for Michael and quickly, the lead Stony Brook had started getting smaller. Michael made an important layup with the defender almost on top of him.

He played very good defense and got his opponent to miss the shot.