You didn't know what is was that the coaches always saw in you, but you seemed to be some sort of prodigy in their eyes. You played basketball freely, not to impress anyone or be the best. You just wanted to be yourself and basketball made you feel this way. The coaches called it potential. You argued there were better players on the team, but in reality you were like a teacher to them. Each day your friends would ask you to teach them how to shoot. You'd just roll your eyes at them and smile. "As long as you've got arms, hands, fingers, legs, and feet, you can shoot pretty well I suppose," you joked.

However, you decided basketball was especially important to you. It could help you consider scholarships and even score them. It could help you with hand eye coordination, and planning and organization, teamwork, agility, stamina, strength, and much, much more. Basketball gave you your personality: tough but clean, just like a slam dunk that passed through the hoop with nothing but net, not even brushing the rim. And you were especially good at those.

It was no surprise to you that you had made the tryouts for the girls' high school basketball team. However, you never imagined you'd be captain. You were only a sophomore, and by the school's sports rules, only seniors could be captain. You wondered to yourself how you could possibly play better than one of those intimidating seniors. Scary.

Coach Drake started practice right away. You quickly kept up with the drills the seniors and juniors were participating in. You had thought the varsity team would have much more difficult challenges, but you felt familiarity and at home even on a new court. You felt excited to play your first game in the upcoming preliminaries, even if it was sort of far away. It was the perfect time to improve your skills.

After a few weeks of practice, you realized that you collaborated well with the juniors and seniors and they often passed you the ball to slam dunk. You often took free throws and arched the ball beautifully towards the basket from the three point line. Honestly, you could play just about any position. And you had fun with your teammates.

At the end of practice one day, Coach Drake called you over to her office, so you suspected something was wrong. However, what she had to say surprised you. 

You pushed open the door to her office quietly, not wanting to draw a lot of attention in case your teammates might overhear the conversation, and sat in front of her desk voluntarily, waiting for her to finish upon a  phone call. You couldn't help but stare at the many championship awards that filled her walls and display case. Her very first had been when she was only four years old, which shocked you. You hadn't thought of playing basketball until you were maybe seven or eight years old, and here was a child basketball prodigy. No wonder she was the coach of a team like this. You saw that she had written "Goal: three-timing girls' high school champ" on her yellow notepad and instantly worries began filling your head. You had heard that this school's team was insanely good, so you wanted to help Coach keep that reputation. Maybe she wanted to move you to junior varsity after all...

"Thanks for waiting," Coach Drake clicked the phone into place and turned in her chair to face you. "I've rarely met with any of the varsity teammates individually before, so I hope you're prepared for the important news I'm going to share with you."

You nodded. "Of course."

"I see you've noticed my goals sheet." Coach Drake pointed to the yellow notepad you were staring at earlier. You gulped, hoping it was inaudible. You had just started on the team and now was going to get bumped down. "I've only written one for girls, as you can tell."

Wait...what was she suggesting?

"You see, even with larger amounts of practice, the boys' varsity team cannot withstand a good enough reputation. Some people wonder just what is going on at our school, although they respect our girls' varsity team a lot. And through all my years of coaching, I don't think I've seen one person as dedicated to basketball individually as you. So I decided to offer you the job of being the manager of the boys' varsity team this year. Would you like to?"

Wait...what was she suggesting?

Your mind went blank for a moment. You, a sophomore who just got on the varsity team, now becoming the manager of the boys' varsity team? Wasn't this a bit too much? You were dumbfounded by her question for quite a while. But you thought about it a lot. You thought about what the upsides and downsides were. Downsides: not enough time to practice for your own team, not enough experience to lead them well, busy, distracting, etc. Upsides: well, you thought maybe you could learn a few things from their mistakes. Perhaps they had trouble with things that you didn't, so you could challenge yourself into helping them on different measures.

Coach Drake's voice cleared your thoughts for you as she patiently asked again, "Have you decided?"

You rotated your thumbs in your lap for a bit before answering uncertainly, "Yeah, I'll take the job."

Coach Drake clapped her hands together. "Great! I'll let their coach know."

You left her office in confusion. What had you just agreed to? Well, there was no turning back. You headed towards the gymnasium to begin your job. The boys team practiced right after the girls team, and today was tryouts day. You couldn't miss the very first day as manager. 

"The manager is here, boys." The coach's voice was different from what you thought. The attitude was also different. It didn't feel like basketball. It felt like boot camp. The boys looked like zombies. Well, except for this one boy...who was he? He had an aura completely different from the other guys on the court. His attitude towards basketball impressed you, and considering how others thought of you on the court, it was a rare feeling you got. It seemed like he was also one who worried about his own improvements and not what anyone else did. The more you watched him behind your clipboard, the more you thought he was just like you.

After Coach Jenkins introduced you to the team, there were many s