ON THE FIRST DAY OF basketball tryouts, half of the school showed up. Kenneth Miller, the boys coach, assessed the assembled crowd of 50 freshmen. Some of the 13-to-15-year-olds in front of him looked old enough to vote. Others didn’t look tall enough to ride a roller coaster. Some were in fresh, new Nikes with their laces pulled tight. Others were wearing mismatched socks and baggy hand-me-downs. But Miller knew that they were bound by their shared obsession with basketball, and he sensed his first opportunity to bring his new school’s mission to life.
As the tryouts progressed, Miller started scouting not just for players who could sink a pull-up jumper from the elbow or who could put a defender on his heels with a crossover, but also for the kids who offered up a hand to someone who had hit the deck or who encouraged a classmate to grab some water between drills. He wanted to identify not only the teens who would round out the roster, but also those who would
