“Danger Zone” is a novel written by David Klass. This book tells of Jimmy Doyle and his experience with the junior world basketball team. The setting is Granham, Minnesota. The theme of this novel is to not be driven by fear, because fear is what can stop you from your dreams. Jimmy Doyle is the best basketball player in Granham, Minnesota, and at the moment he is playing a great game. He is in a zone, scoring point after point. After the game two men approach him, Coach McNeil and Coach Griffin, and offer him a chance of a lifetime, to represent his country in Europe on a seventeen and under basketball team, during the summer. Jimmy was tempted but declined the offer, saying he had to help out his mom at their hardware store because his …show more content…
dad died. His girlfriend, Janey Sutherland, soon notices him acting different because he is thinking about the offer. One night Janey invites him over for dinner, and after dinner they all go to watch television, and Janey and her mom leave, forcing Jimmy and Dr. Sutherland to have a “man to man” talk about everything. Jimmy opens up and tells him about everything. After this he feels better about the whole thing. Later Jimmy’s mom finds out about the whole ordeal and she wants him to go. It was then that Jimmy told her that another reason he did not want to go is because he did not think he was good enough to play at that level yet. Jimmy’s mother started telling him about his father’s last years and how he was driven by fear. Somehow this statement persuaded Jimmy to just go and do his best. A few months later, Jimmy was going to depart for Los Angeles.
Before he left, Janey and he were hanging out together, and Janey asked to read his palms, because she thinks she is some sort of psychic. Even though Jimmy thinks it is stupid, he lets her read his palms. She told him that from the “reading” she thought he would have a rough time on his trip. After this Janey tells jimmy that if he sees any cute Italian girls, to tell them he doesn’t speak their language. Jimmy promised he wouldn’t even look at any Italian girls. He told her he loved her and then they parted ways. Jimmy got home and said goodbye to his two sisters, and then rode to the airport with his mom. When they got to the airport his mom told him, “make sure to wash behind his ears and put on clean underwear” (pg. 42). Jimmy said goodbye and boarded the plane. This was Jimmy’s first time on a plane, so he was exited to take off. He was amazed as the ground became so distant it was barely visible. He read in a Sports Illustrated article that the American team was one of the favorites, along with the Spanish, Croatian, and German teams. The article talked about three main players on his team. After reading the article he watched a movie and took a nap. Upon arrival in L.A., coach Griffin was waiting for him. Coach Griffin drove him to UCLA, where they were staying, in a new convertible. He explained how he was trying to pick up all of the out of town players himself. He also told him he would be roommates …show more content…
with Shawn Wright, a center he had read about in the Sports Illustrated article. When they arrived at their destination, jimmy went to his room to meet Shawn. Shawn was a tall African American guy from Gainesville, Florida, who liked rap music and sleeping. Later that evening he went to dinner with the team. When jimmy arrived at dinner, he noticed he was one of two Caucasian guys on the team, and there was one Latino guy. Everyone else on the team was black. At dinner coach Griffin explained that the team would be getting a lot of media attention, and that meant there was no room for misbehavior. After dinner while walking back to the rooms, Jimmy saw Augustus LeMay, the best player on the team according to the Sports Illustrated article. When Jimmy introduced himself, Augustus was rude and said, “You’re the guy who screwed me and my homeboy over.” (pg. 59). He also said that if Jimmy had any talent come prove it in the gym. The next morning, they all got practice uniforms that said junior world team on them. Jimmy played awful that morning during their scrimmage. Afterwards he asked Augustus about the other night, and they got into an argument and exchanged punches. Jimmy finds out that a guy named Devonne Saunders is Augustus’ cousin, who was going to play Jimmy’s position. During the next week of practices the other guys got to know Jimmy a little better, but Augustus still did not like him. Jimmy even got the nickname “snowman” from the team comedian Ray. Augustus thought Jimmy was just a spoiled white kid so he tricked him to taking a ride with Devonne and a guy they called G. They took Jimmy on a tour of the hood. As they drove buy a rich neighborhood, they were pulled over and brought in to the police station. Coach Griffin had to come get them. He made them run suicides until they dropped. The next morning, they slept like babies on the plane ride to Italy. When they got off the plan in Rome, a crowd was waiting for them. A girl even ran up and kissed Jimmy. After a few the first game Jimmy saw in the newspaper a picture of that girl kissing him. He was worried Janey might take this the wrong way, so he sent her some roses from Italy. The roses costed a majority of Jimmy’s money. At the German vs. America game, a rude man in the stands threw a can and it hit Augustus. So, Augustus fought him. After the game at the press conference, Augustus was asked questions about the fight and answered with bold statements. This apparently angered some Germans enough to make a death threat on the team. The coaches insisted that every player call and make sure that they could stay and play.
Everyone was able to except Ray and two other players. Ray was heartbroken that he was forced to leave. All the players that stayed were moved to a more guarded facility. At this point Jimmy was pretty scared. In fact, at the next game, jimmy played terribly, the coach even had to take him out. Jimmy went days on end without sleeping. He was just lying awake at night thinking about his father, something he hadn’t done since he died. The coaches even offered to send him home and as much as he wanted to say yes, he did not. He wanted to stay and stick it out with the team. Even Augustus confronted him and said that he is useless as a coward, and to just go home. But at their last game during the second half, the team was down by a lot of points, and he had a moment and to think about his dad and about how he had been driven by fear. He then walked out and told the coach to put him in. he started scoring again, the fear was gone. He was in a zone and so was Augustus. They were both scoring point after point in the end they won by one point. Suddenly a terrorist stepped out and fired a gun and shot Jimmy in the leg. The next thing he knew he was in the hospital with Dr. Sutherland and Janey. They didn’t know if he would ever be able to play basketball again. Augustus shows up and tells him how he hopes he can play again, so they can play one on
one. This book is teaching that fear is what holds us back. The fear Jimmy had about not being good enough. And the fear he had about the threat on their lives. The fear Jimmy’s dad had before he died made him give up on the hardware store. You can’t let fear stop you from doing great things
One reason they will not make it without Terrell is because he was the primary scorer for the team and he was the guy that would hit clutch free throws at the end of games. According to the book, “Terrell averaged 28.9 points per game while shooting 47% along with a 92% free throw percentage” (Feinstein 306). Terrell was the only reason that the team could score as much as they could and he was clearly the superstar of the team. Aside from that, Terrell is also one of the best high school basketball players throughout the nation. In the book, it says, “His stats are the best out of the country and he is carrying the team to a great record with highlight plays” (Feinstein 294). Clearly, Terrell energizes the team to get better and he is leading by example so that others on the team can play like him. A final reason that they would not have won is because Terrell motivates other players to shoot more and he gives other players better shots off double teams. When Terrell was double teamed, he would “always find the open guy and hit them right on stride for the easy layup (Feinstein 332). Even though Terrell was not the best passer on the team, he was still able to rack up assists because he would find the open guy
Although Danny is only four-eight, he overcomes great odds by leading a team who rejected him for being small. Since Mike Lupica made the protagonist a short elementary height, it creates a dramatic effect when his father asks him to coach, and then beats his old travel team. Danny Walker was used as a symbol to represent a great basketball mind behind a small middle schooler. The dedication and work ethic Danny has for basketball before and after he coaches the Warriors prove John Wooden’s quote, as he succeeds in being an on-court coach and star
James explains that he feels like a son to the city of Cleveland. He says, “people there have seen me grow up.” The community watched him develop physically, mentally, and as a player. James grew matured from an eighteen-year-old kid to a twenty-five-year-old man. With age comes responsibility, and he is well aware of the situation, as well as the responsibility to lead the team. He engages the audience by using nicknames, such as “D-Wade,” “CB,” and “Riles,” to name a few. James refers to the team as his brothers, another indication of how influential family has been on his career and his life altogether. His emotions and values express that family is what makes him
It also stuns Gene so much that he begins to do pull-ups, even though he has never done ten before. With Finny’s verbal help, Gene manages to do thirty. This solidifies the friendship between them. After this moment, Finny decides to take Gene into his confidence and tells him he wanted to go to the 1944 Olympics, but that Gene will have to go instead, and goes on to start training Gene. Finally, after many mornings of hard training, Gene finally “[finds] his rhythm”.
Jim Valvano, otherwise known as “Jimmy V”, was a college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster. This paper will cover Jimmy and define his true leadership qualities. Jimmy was an icon in the sports world not only for his coaching ability. He taught the world that leaders need a vision, leaders need to connect with their followers, and that leaders learn from their followers. Jimmy defied the rules and transformed his players into exceptionally good players and even better people. He taught more than basketball to his players and reached outside of his coaching arena to touch the lives of people across the world.
The first personal traits that Coach Dale was forced to exhibit were his toughness and his assertiveness. On his first night in Hickory he met the men of town in the barbershop who were all willing to provide their experience and insight on the team and how to coach. Coach Dale had enough self confidence to know that none of these “insights” were going to help the Hickory team win basketball games and let them know they weren’t welcome by turning his back and walking out. Additionally, he was forced to demonstrate his toughness twice more on the first day of practice by telling the temporary coach, “Secondly, your days of coaching are over,” and then by standing up to the group of men after he dismissed Buddy from the team. These actions made no friends of the men; however, th...
You’re 9-11. One more loss and you don’t make it to the playoffs. Do you want to play? Ain’t there nothing else for me to say to you. You got to make the decision to be a team. So before you go out there on the court, you got to work this out amongst yourselves.” At that time, all the players confront Brian about the issues they have with him and tell him to leave. As he’s leaving, Gary tells him to not walk out on the team, but Brain exclaims, “What team.” Gary follows him telling Brain to handle this situation like men. Brain tell his teammates that he doesn’t play for them, so Gary tells him he is right then asks him who he plays for and keeps badgering him about it until he answers the question and Brian tell Gary that he plays for his big brother Ray. He tells his team about his brother’s story about how he was a great player and how a drunk driver had killed him. Brian tells them that its there is a lot of pressure to fill his brother’s shoes and that his father has worked him so much to try to fill them and has to make his dad proud. After hearing Brian talk about his situation, his teammates tell him that they got his back and that they’re his brothers now. I agree his Coach Collins’ method he used because it brought Brian and the team together as a whole. Sometimes, when you have a coach yelling at you all the time, you need the coach to step aside
Josh Bell(Filthy McNasty)l is an active, hard working, ambitious, 12 year old, but that’s not all to him and his twin brother JB. These twin twisters will knock you off your feet on the court and in the street. They are the masterminds of their junior high basketball stardom. Although they are twins they could not be more different. Josh is one inch taller, can dunk and has golden locks to fly him to the hoop, but the fact that they are different makes them work so well together. Though they couldn’t have learned all of their tricks without the help of their all-star father Chuck “Da Man” Bell. After their father’s career abruptly ended, he made his goal to train his boys to follow in his footsteps. Their mother keeps of all of Bell boys in
Coming off the death of his father, his best friend, and his cousin, he must fight a constant battle against negative community influences such as guns, drugs, lack of opportunity, and cultural stereotypes. On the ruff streets of southeast Fresno, Eddie is just trying to get by. All he wants is to forget his violent past, find and hold down a job, and walk the right path, But after his cousin's murder, Eddie finds himself slowly drawn back into the cycle of violence and going against the scrim of a city sweltering in the grip of poverty, crime, and unfulfilled dreams, this is a story of a young man struggling to survive in a world spiraling out of control. Fresno is the city where the novel materializes.
Richard Connells “The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story which illustrates that calm analytical thinking can increase your odds of survival and controlling panic.
Finny casually and easily breaks a school swimming record; Finny also refuses to do it again and have it count. Finny proposes that they go to the beach, which means big trouble if they are caught; Gene decides to go along. That night, Finny admits that he considers Gene his best friend, which touches Gene deeply, but somehow Gene can't say the same thing.
Gene and Phineas are not like every other teenager during this “gypsy summer” (Knowles 79). They share a bond like no other boys even though they differ in all aspects. Gene tells us in the novel that “Phineas always had a steady and formidable flow of usable energy” (Knowles 39). Finny is constantly on the move, whether it is riding bikes to the ocean, swimming, or wrestling; Finny enjoys using his athletic talents. Phineas even reveals one day to Gene, “Did I ever tell you,” he says in a husky tone, “that I used to be aiming for the Olympics?”(Knowles 117). Finny knows he is a good athlete and believes the Olympics are the best physical challenge. He is by far Devon’s best athlete (Bloom 14). Gene in comparison is not as strong as an athlete. Gene refers to himself as “a pretty good athlete” (Knowles 55). Gene does not realize what kind of athlete he really is until Phineas pushes him when Finny is no longer able. Gene has a “usual feeling of routine self-pity when working out” (Knowles 120). Phineas, however, is always ready for the next athletic challenge. He has trophies and ribbons and even broke a school record. Fin...
Tension and Suspense in The Red Room by H.G. Wells In H.G Wells’ The Red Room tension and suspense are created through the characters, the plot and the setting. The setting is typical of Gothic and Victorian ghost stories. In these times there was no electricity so use of candles for light created an eerie atmosphere. They had no modern technology like televisions for entertainment so they used books and story telling.
How does the writer create tension and suspense in The Red Room? The writer is able to create tension and suspense through various ways in the short story ‘The Red Room’. The opening sentence in the story immediately mentions the supernatural, which immediately tells us that this is a gothic story. The first sentence is dialogue, but we do not know who is speaking.
It was the start of summer 2002, and the Mid America Youth Basketball (MAYB) national tournament was taking place in Andover, Kansas. Along with the rest of the team, I was excited to play some basketball for the first time since the middle school basketball season was over. Our team, Carlon Oil, had been together and played every summer for the last four years. We were a really good team, with an overall record of 65-4 over those four years and were hoping to continue our legacy. Lonnie Lollar, our coach for the summer, was also the coach of our high school basketball team. I had a history of groin injuries, and every summer it seemed that I would have to sit out at least a game on the bench icing my groin. But this summer was different, and I along with everyone in the gym wouldn't have expected my summer to end with a injury such as a broken leg.