Chris’s Reviews > Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine > Status Update

Some of the boys from the cal team attend the Adidas all-star camp with the best young players in the country, the only thing is that the rest are high schoolers and the kids are in 8th grade. Demetrius is expect to shine while the others try to hold their ground but it turned out that Aaron was the one that played well while Demetrius did not.

Keller looks for a high-school for all of the boys to attend and decides on Fontana high but soon all of the other parents decide that Fontana is not racially diverse and too over crowded with bad academics. Demetrius is the last one left to attend the school but he says that he doesnt blame the other kids for not wanting to go to that school.

Joe's team faces a very underrated team and he wont admit that he faced a formidable opponent to the opposing teams coach. When attending a tournament in New Jersey, the eight grade Team Cal is supposed to face Lance Stephenson's team from New York who are freshman. This is an important match up because Demetrius and Lance are two of the top players in the country.

Demetrius is featured in Sports illustrated even though lots of people have doubts about his future, as a result he gets extremely hyped up and is expected to be the next Lebron. Aaron further distances himself from the rest of the boys on the team.

Keller tries to land a deal with reebok but it does not go through, but he eventually signs with adidas. The team gets new uniforms and lots of clothes so new players want to join the team and they acquire Aaron and Roberto. The team changes it name to Team Cal and they made it to the finals of the national championship because Team Maryland and Hoosier Hoops got eliminated.

The team goes to maryland and plays the top team in the nation, Team Maryland. They beat them by a winning basket from Demetrius, and coach Keller is very happy. Some parents had been upset about playing time, so when they played Team Maryland again the next day, Keller only played his subs and they lost the game. A famous recruiting magazine rankings Demetrius as the number one 6th grader in the nation.

After all of the new kids on the the team are getting more playing team some of the parents are upset. The author explains how Keller added Tommy to the roster, because his dad is rich and the team need more money. He also explains how Justin's mom is always worried about how Keller is treating the players.

The author introduces a new character, Gary Sr., the coach of the running rebels. Keller treats and uses him kind of like how Barrett cheated and took Tyson from him. When the rebels are in their off season Keller steals the teams key players off of the team.

The author goes into great detail about the life of Demetrius and how his mother and father met. He talks about how his dad was in jail and how his mom had raised him. At all of the tournaments around the country opposing coaches question Demetrius's age because of his athletic ability.

The book is just getting started, and the author gives us background about how Keller lost Tyson because of his inexperience in the AAU system. The author convinces Keller to let him follow around the Inland stars until the kids graduate and he can publish his findings.