1 THAT’S GAME Let’s go Badgers Coach Olson shouted from the bench Hold on to it Grady Hopkins wasn’t a great basketball player at least he didn’t think so Even so he was good enough to get on a youth traveling basketball team organized by the parks and recreation board With a laid-back practice schedule and games every Saturday morning it didn’t interfere with the coding club Grady was part of after school And although he didn’t know BASIC a programming language 5
other kids in the coding club used at least he knew the basics of basketball Just for fun the park board put together a local championship of the traveling teams pitting the different counties teams against each other Through a series of close games and a forfeiture or two Grady’s team the Brock County Badgers battled against the Wilbur County Wildcats for the championship Now that it was nearly the end of the fourth quarter there was no getting around it Grady was exhausted The remaining two guys sitting on the bench were wiped too They’d played mediocre basketball up to the championship round But now that there was a chance they could win it all Grady realized no one on his team was in any condition to play as hard as the Wildcats The Wildcats had won the last three years in a row under the guidance of their leader the stern-looking Coach Dremble 6
Coach Olson called a time-out and the Badgers trotted over Grady was ready to collapse Okay you guys are looking a little tired out there Coach Olson said passing the parks and recreation water bottles around We’ve got just a few minutes left on the clock You keep these guys in line and we’re walking away from this thing as champions I’m so tired a forward named Brett Robbins groaned Me too Grady agreed I’m not sure I even want to win Coach Olson shook his head and lightly bonked both Brett and Grady on the head with his clipboard Snap out of it guys This is the big game The championship We win this and Coach Dremble doesn’t get his four-peat We have to shut em down 7
