FAIRFIELD, Maine — The high school basketball season is finished as the state champions hoisted their hardware on Saturday.
But how those young adults reach that level of success starts at a young age, even in a less competitive environment like youth sports.
Fairfield's Police Athletic League is one of those organizations.
"The PAL program, that's what we specialize in, that any kid can play," Trevor Woods, a PAL board member and basketball coach, said.
Woods has been coaching for more than 15 years, and played as kid and through high school. He also currently helps coach the Lawrence High School Boys Varsity Basketball team, and says nearly every kid on that team played in the PAL.
But the point of this league is not to win championships: it's to help build kids' confidence as they try out new sports for the first time. Eleven-year-old Alex Parsons just started playing basketball this season. Woods was his coach.
"It's just a random sport I chose that I thought would be good for me," Parsons said. "At practice, I didn't really care for it that much."
Parsons said he enjoys playing video games, playing outside, doing art, and more, but that he had never played basketball on a team before. His parents encouraged him to try one new sport, as well as a musical instrument.
"He's just never really been a part of a team sport. I've always wanted him to be a part of one. We asked him if he wanted to try out for basketball and surprisingly he said 'yes,'" Alex's mother, Jessica Parsons, said.
His parents said Alex is not gifted with natural talent on the court.
"You could see the other kids were just flying past him. He would try, but you could tell he was so far out of his league," his mother said.
"He'd practice for about 5-10 minutes, but then he'd go sit on the sidelines and just watch," Woods said. "Alex wouldn't even run up and down the court the first three games."
But with patience from Coach Woods, and perseverance from Parsons, Alex started to get the hang of it.
"The whole season, I just wanted him to make one basket," his mother said.
Alex had not scored all season.
"At halftime, you could see the kids on his team pooling around Alex and being like, 'Okay, this is how you shoot,'" his mother said, imitating their gestures of extending their arm and flicking their wrists. "I thought they might have a kid pass him the ball, have him try, and then that would be it. But they just kept passing and passing him the ball."
With 15 seconds left in the last game of the season, Coach Woods called a play: get Alex the ball. And everyone was in on the plan: his teammates, the referees, even the other team — everyone would pass him the ball despite multiple misses.
"It kind of made me confused," Parsons said.
Some of the other moms, I kept hearing them say, 'Pass it to Alex! Pass it to Alex!' and then I was like, okay, something's going on,'" his mother said.
When Alex's shot swished through the net, the crowd erupted in cheers.
"It's one of the best moments of my life. It was just unbelievable," his mother said. "It was one of those feel-good moments like it was a movie."
"I actually feel like I accomplished something," Parsons said. "A lot of people were cheering for me and everyone there was helping me."
Coach Woods argues that confidence-builders like the moment he manufactured are very different than "participation trophies."
"It's a reward that you don't forget. It's not a reward you put on the shelf. It's something that you don't forget. That kid will never forget that day," he said.
"As a mom, you want the best for your child. You want them to be confident and proud of themselves. He tried all season but didn't quite get there. And so for him to just have that confidence just meant so much," his mother said.
Alex said he made new friends in the league, enjoyed the socialization, and plans to play basketball again next year.