The Playmakers

Jax has something to prove. After trying out for the basketball team, he and his friend Nic don't make the final cut. Sure, Jax might be the shortest kid in the seventh grade, and Nic might not have a lot of confidence, but they've got skills.

Luke is the tallest kid in the seventh grade. He's not bad at basketball, but he didn't even try out for the team. Instead, Luke's an aspiring actor and auditioned for the school play. Unfortunately, he didn't get cast.

Jax and Luke decide to take matters into their own hands. They have a wacky, wild, outrageous idea, a plan that is sure to fail--unless it doesn't.

Jax decides to form his own basketball team and challenge the school team. Luke agrees to join the team, on the condition that Jax and his friends help Luke compete in a regional drama competition.

Miley, probably the smartest kid at school, agrees to help both Jax and Luke. She's been reading up on sports science and thinks she might have found a way for her friends to win through math.

Can a team of underdogs prove to the whole school that they have what it takes to be noticed, or will it all go horribly wrong?

Shelly Brown has done a lot of acting and adores the craft of it. Sometimes she's in the lead, and sometimes she doesn't make the cast list. It's a roller coaster of emotion. She played church basketball all through junior high and high school but got cut from her junior high school team in the first round. She was also the shortest person there. She has mixed feelings about math and stats. They're cool, but it's complicated--literally. She's happily married to Chad Morris (despite what the last names might make people think), and they have five kids, who are basically adults nowadays.

Chad Morris, like Jax, loves basketball and was extremely short growing up. Extremely. Like the shortest boy in his junior high. And yeah, he had a little fire and didn't make the final cut of his junior high basketball team. He did not do some of the amazing things Jax did, though he wishes he would have had ideas like that. He hasn't been in plays like Luke (okay, he's been in one, but he's not sure it counts), but he has performed sketch comedy for years. A few of his and Shelly's kids, however, have gone to state for pantomime.