Travel Team

From the start of the novel, we learn that Danny is small for his age, coming in at 55 inches for most of the story until he grows an inch toward its end. This is prohibitive for him, as it is the main reason that he is kept from making the Middletown Vikings. His heroes aren’t necessarily those who are taller than him; rather he looks up to professional basketball players, seeing how rare it is to be taken seriously when a young boy is smaller than is considered “normal.” Danny’s height becomes symbolic throughout the novel, as Lupica continuously refers to Danny’s perspective on bigger players. The appearance of these players makes Danny doubt his abilities as a basketball player and make him hope that he will grow. As a result, when Danny measures himself the night that he discovers that his dad’s plan is for him to coach the team after Richie’s accident, it is symbolic of the added responsibility that Danny has now.

Much of the novel focuses on Danny’s journey and his relationship with the Warriors and the Vikings. At first, Danny is heartbroken when he doesn’t make the seventh-grade travel team, believing that he has let down his father’s legacy while also knowing that it has everything to do with Mr. Ross’s desire to build a “bigger” team. Mr. Ross is constantly painted as a physically big character, but he is emotionally stunted and lacks the perspective that playing basketball should be fun for the young players. When he tries to lure Danny to the Vikings later ahead of the playoffs, Danny says, “It just kind of occurred to me that you’re the biggest guy in our town, Mr. Ross” (198). This exchange shows how Danny has learned that being bigger doesn’t mean being the better person.

Danny demonstrates his emotional growth when coaching his first practice. He yells at Will, then realizes he was in the wrong and apologizes. It is then Will at the start of the game against the Vikings, who tells Danny, “You’re the biggest kid here” (259). This comment again emphasizes Danny’s emotional growth. Finally, the last sentence of Travel Team brings this theme home. As Danny is lifted onto his teammates’ shoulders, he glances down and thinks, “So this is what everything looks like from up here” (274). While Danny does not grow more than one inch physically, he becomes a bigger person emotionally.

To some extent, Richie Walker also learns this lesson, returning home to Middletown after living in Las Vegas. Like Danny, he has always been small. His relationship with Danny is at first strained. At the beginning of the novel, Danny tells him, “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). Danny has been heartbroken by Richie’s leaving, and Richie works throughout the novel to mend this. However, he also admits to Danny that he returns for himself more than for Danny. He admits, “Do I spend most of my life feeling sorry for myself? Yeah, I do, though I’m trying to cut down” (97). It is part of why he obscures the fact that he had been drinking the night of his first accident, allowing even Ali to feel bad for him because she doesn’t know that it was his fault. However, by the end of the novel, he comes clean both to Ali and to Danny.