Travel Team

Richard “Richie” Walker is Danny’s father and Ali’s ex-husband. The popularity of the seventh-grade travel basketball began with Richie’s team which went all the way to the national competition. From there, Richie went on to play in college and then for the Golden State Warriors. His career ended because of a car accident, which the reader later learns was caused by Richie’s drunk driving.

He returns to Middletown to see Danny because he believes that Danny is the best part of him. Their relationship is distant, however. Danny says, “The only reason you play with me in the driveway when you show up is because it’s a way for us to have some kind of common language that doesn’t involve us talking” (87). Eventually, he comes clean to Danny and Ali, explaining the truth of his accident and admitting that he had allowed people to feel sorry for him and for him to feel sorry for himself for a long time and that he was wants to do better for himself and for Danny.

Richie teaches Danny the importance of valuing the players as teammates, outlining from the start the three rules for his team: “One, if you’re open, shoot. Two, if somebody has a better shot than you, pass the ball, let him. Three? Have fun” (83). This is a sharp contrast to Mr. Ross’s team, where the players are afraid of messing up for fear that he will yell at them. When Danny becomes the coach, he realizes what lessons his father taught him, seeing the intense competition between other adult coaches. 

Ali Walker is a strong single mom left to pick up the pieces after Richie leaves. She and Danny have a close relationship and can be honest with one another. They ask each other “Truth or Dare?” but always pick truth as a chance to give their honest opinion. She is both protective of him, knowing that it is difficult to be a smaller than average twelve-year-old boy, while also pushing him to mature emotionally. When he doesn’t make the Vikings, she doesn’t allow him to quit basketball, even when he suggests it. She works extra hours tutoring to be able to give him things that other kids with two working parents have. When she gives him a new laptop and shoes at Christmas, she says, “I knew that if I made enough money on the side I could buy myself the kind of Christmas-morning face I’m looking at right now” (155).

Ali’s strength is also evident when Richie returns. She holds him accountable on the night that he shows up to the basketball practice hungover and makes sure that he wants to stay when he decides to coach the team in the first place, not wanting him to disappoint Danny again. However, when he is in his second accident, Ali is the one who tries to hold it together for both Danny and Richie. She is unafraid to make her opinion known and to put the work in, acting as the adult on the bench when Danny becomes coach, jumping in passionately to learn more and more about the sport. She also pushes him to treat the girls equally when Colby joins the team, reminding him that when he says “guys,” he needs to be more inclusive. 

Tess is Danny’s friend and love interest throughout the novel. As a twelve-year-old, Danny is still learning about girls, but he trusts and relies on Tess. She is often seen as the brains of the operation. When Will and Danny need to figure out who will coach them after Richie’s accident, they decide to turn to Tess. She eventually joins the team as its manager and quickly becomes an expert statistician. When Danny underestimates her ability to keep track of assists, she calls him out, sarcastically pretending that she needed “a big hunky boy” to “explain whether that was a pass I just saw, or some kind of unidentified flying object” (233). He quickly understands that he shouldn’t question her.

Likewise, Tess and Danny’s romantic relationship evolves throughout the novel. From the start, Danny tries to make it clear that he does not “like like” Tess, but she always manages to slip “the world love into the conversation” when they’re instant messaging, and he lets her (58). She starts to hold his hand periodically, and she ultimately kisses him on the cheek right before the last game of the season.

Will Stoddard is Danny’s talkative best friend. During his first game as coach, Danny puts Will on to guard the biggest player on the other team who is scoring all the points, Bud Sheedy. Will guards him and keeps talking to him, non-stop, as part of a funny element of the story, it works and allows the team to mount a comeback. Will is also the first to strategize with Danny and Tess. He has a crush on Colby, a fact he discloses to Danny that Danny also tells Tess.

During Danny’s first practice as coach, he yells at Will, telling him to get his head in the game. Immediately, Danny realizes his mistake, apologizing, which Will accepts. As Danny’s friend, he empathizes with his struggle to prove himself, knowing that it’s difficult to coach after Danny has also already had to contend with being shorter than everyone else. As a result, at the start of the last game, Will is the one to say, “You’re the biggest kid here […] I just thought somebody needed to say that” (259).