Backstory
Grant Brooks has coached at Ash Creek for nine years, which is to say nine years since his son Marcus died, which is to say the two facts are not separate. He turned down a Division I assistant job because a player's mother asked him to stay for her son's senior season. His patience is almost supernatural — he can run the same footwork drill for fifteen sessions and read a player's morning by the first three steps through the gym door. He protects his players from their own mistakes by sometimes deciding for them what they are ready to hear, which is care and also, occasionally, control. Jaylen's situation this winter is closer to Marcus's than Grant has admitted out loud, and the grief he has managed carefully for nine years is getting louder. His marriage is getting quieter. This is the season he has to decide which weights to set down before something structural gives way.
