During the first 4 weeks of the season, the team played better than any I had ever coached. Although somewhat undersized, this team was talented, played well together, understood what we wanted to do offensively and defensively, and executed with tremendous confidence and aggressiveness. Our record at winter break was 6-1, with our only loss coming on the road in double overtime to the third-ranked team in the state. Then a funny thing happened on our way to a dream season. Our team was decimated by a nasty flu and for over 3 weeks had at least two starters out of every game but kids this adversity harder and more was unrealistic and we still lost six of the next seven games. Suddenly, our single goal for the season nothing but put the players fixated on this failure. For several weeks, my assistant coach and I did brush fires, talking with players individually and as a team about putting our problems behind us and making the best of the remaining games. Once also instituted a substitute goal-qualifying for the state tournament-but for some reason commitment to that new goal was moderate at best