Jake Maddox sports stories

During a football game star running back Harris Weathers takes a jarring hit and narrowly escapes injury, but after several days he is still rattled, leaving him with a tough decision--quit football or find a way to stay safe while playing the game he loves.

Cameron Jones loves soccer, but he plays it not only for the joy of it but because his dad thinks it will help him get a college scholarship. Then his father's job transfers him and his family from the big city to a small town, where Cameron finds the soccer team disordered and uninterested. However, maybe this is just what Cameron needs--a team to shape up and make soccer fun again.

During a football game star running back Harris Weathers takes a jarring hit and narrowly escapes injury, but after several days he is still rattled, leaving him with a tough decision--quit football or find a way to stay safe while playing the game he loves.

Star basketball player Devon is frustrated with his team's rigorous schedule and his father's unrealistically high expectations. One day, he sees a classmate doing tricks on a BMX bike and immediately wants to try. He then must find a way to keep his newfound passion a secret.

After showing promise at whiffle ball, Blake's friends encourage him to try out for a traveling baseball team. He makes it through tryouts as a second-string player. But when a starter gets injured, Blake is called to action.

When fourteen-year-old Leggie LaGrande, star runner on the Bricklin Middle School track team, suffers a hamstring injury at the very start of the season, he figures his shot at the Junior Olympics is over--but his coach insists that even if he cannot run he can still compete in some other track and field event, so he finds himself working out at the shot put, competing with a new student whom he dislikes.

Blake Easton has never played organized sports, so when he makes the local traveling baseball team as a bench player he is thrilled; and when the team's star second baseman (and all around annoyance) Kyle, breaks his foot in the very first game the coach calls on Blake to fill in--but Blake is not sure he can perform as well as Kyle, and even less sure that he can trust Kyle's helpful advice.

Basketball has always come easily to twelve-year-old Devon Rosario of the Bronx, but it has been a long time since he actually enjoyed playing because Devon's father sees him as the family's second chance at basketball glory, and the pressure of that expectation is ruining the game for Devon; but then he sees Jamal, a Yemeni refugee, doing BMX tricks on his bike and suddenly Devon sees a way to put fun back into sports--provided he can keep his new passion secret from his father.

Blake Easton has never played organized sports, so when he makes the local traveling baseball team as a bench player he is thrilled; and when the team's star second baseman (and all around annoyance) Kyle, breaks his foot in the very first game the coach calls on Blake to fill in--but Blake is not sure he can perform as well as Kyle, and even less sure that he can trust Kyle's helpful advice.

Brian Worth Jr. plans on trying out for his middle school's basketball team, but the trouble is he has always relied on his height to give him an advantage and that is no longer enough--but at the local senior center, where he reluctantly volunteers, he discovers a friend in George, a former player, who sets out to teach him some of the skills he is missing.