Maddox, Jake

"Pilar Ramirez loves to skate on ice, and normally she does not keep being born without part of her right foot a secret, but when her best friend convinces her to try out for the local hockey team Pilar decides not to mention her condition--but hockey presents her with some problems that plain skating did not, and Pilar needs to learn that being part of a team means being open with your teammates, so that they understand all your strengths and weaknesses"--Publisher provided.

In order to play tennis with his local rec team, Deion agrees to play doubles, even though it feels like a different game to him--but he has the nagging feeling that he is holding his partner, Cole, back until they both accept help from Deion's stepfather who turns out to have wicked aim.

Ever since she broke her wrist longboarding, Valeria has been reluctant to get back on her board, but now she has been asked to teach Chloe, the new girl in Harlow Springs, Colorado, the art of downhill longboarding and get her ready in time for the upcoming race.

When wide receiver Ethan drops a touchdown pass and his team loses the game, he starts to doubt his own abilities, but as the next game approaches he realizes that he has to do what his father and coaches are telling him to do--stop obsessing about failure and get back to playing confident football.

When Alvin's twin sister, Yasmin, lands the lead role in their middle school play, Alvin is faced with the need to find something to do after school while she is rehearsing, so he takes up cross-country running (it is either that or doing homework in the library)--he has always been a fast runner, but he soon learns that distance running is more about patience and pacing than pure speed and staying in the lead, and he will have to adapt or be left behind.

Eighth-grader and starting point guard Roman is initially thrilled when big man Sebastian transfers schools and joins the team, but Sebastian's skills seem to have disappeared and the other kids are merciless in their criticism--then Roman's big sister gives him some advice: talk to Sebastian and find out what is going on, and add a pick-and-roll to the team playbook.

Isaac and his parents have just moved into a house by the ocean, and he is willing to try surfboarding, but there is a bully among the local boys on the beach who seems determined to drive him away.

Jasper quit his school football team after blowing a big play, which is giving him a lot of time to get into trouble with his friends--but when he is allowed to rejoin the team rather than face detention he finds that everybody is mad at him: his teammates because he quit, and his friends because he is avoiding punishment.

Fourteen-year-old Caleb Parker has not been having much fun playing baseball recently, but when his mother volunteers to host Ricky Alvarez, a nineteen-year-old Dominican player on a local independent team in their Minnesota town, he finds a friend and mentor whose own struggles serve as an inspiration to the young Caleb.

Jake is a top scorer on the Tyndall Tigers, in fact you might say that basketball is in his blood, but when it comes to free throws he has a problem--he gets nervous and cannot seem to make them in a game situation.