A wonderful story

The crowd wanted him in the game. Amundsen wanted him in, too. But he was also afraid the slightly built 18-year-old might get hurt. Amundsen considered all this as he walked toward Ryan and patted him on the shoulder. Off came the warmup jacket, the buzzer blew and Ryan kind of half hopped, half ran onto the court, his left leg trailing slightly at an odd angle. The noise was deafening as he ran out on the court. In the stands, Justin Belflower was near tears. A few years earlier, he was a jock at Clovis East, one of those big men on campus. He knew how hard his kid brother had worked for this moment. "If you had said four years ago he'd play in a varsity basketball game, I'd say stop lying because it will never happen," Justin said. On this afternoon in February, it did. And Clovis East would never be the same.