- Leadership is often an underrated skill.
- Stay strong now! Stay strong now!
- That's certainly true
at Solomon Juneau High School in Milwaukee.
[thuds from bouncing balls] [sneakers squeaking]
They've seen their share of bumps in the road
since starting their basketball program in 2013.
[thud as ball hits floor]
The Pioneers didn't just struggle to win games,
they barely had enough players to field a team.
[thud as ball hits floor]
In 2014, Juneau teamed up with
Ronald Reagan High School to bring in some extra players.
- Let's go Tyler!
- One of those players taught everyone
why people should never judge a book...
[clapping] - Yeah Dom!
- ... by its cover.
-Yeah Dom.
- I had Marcell at 19.
When I delivered, he came out and
they washed him off
and whisked him away to the newborn nursery
and as the doctor was finishing with me,
I heard them say,
"Oh, there's something wrong with his hands."
- Marcell Dinsmore was born with a birth defect
that stunted the development of his hands.
- He has 3 fingers on the right:
his index, his pinky and his thumb.
And then, his just thumb on the left.
- It made Marcell a target growing up.
- I got bullied in elementary school.
"You're weird.
"You're not like me.
"You're not normal.
Why did God make you that way?"
- His mom Marcella made sure she had the last word.
- You are something special.
You're going to turn out to be something one day.
And so he kind of took to that
and he was -- always had this determined personality.
- He directed that determination into his favorite sport.
- He has always had a passion for basketball.
- I'm a very competitive person, so it's very fun.
- Passion didn't equal playing time.
Marcell often spent more time on the bench than in the game.
- It's all about the whole concept
of judging a book by its cover.
They see me and say, "Oh, he can't do that.
He won't do this."
[physical exertion]
- Undeterred, Marcell went on to Reagan High School.
His sophomore year, students had the opportunity
to join Juneau's one-year-old basketball program
and play under Coach Aaron Spiering.
- I'd never seen him work out.
I'd never seen him play.
I didn't know his work ethic.
I just know he was a kid that came from Reagan
that wanted to play basketball.
- Coach Spieling gave Marcell exactly what he needed.
A chance.
- It's like, "You know what you need to do
"and I know that you have the ability to do it,
so just go out there and really just do it."
[plop as catches ball]
- Marcell finally felt like
he could spend more time shooting hoops
than jumping through them.
For an upstart basketball program,
- Good talking, Wayne. Good talking.
- Marcell's work ethic was a gift.
- Oh yeah. [sneakers sqeaking] Ball, ball.
- When you think about starting a basketball program,
if you get called up tomorrow and somebody would say,
"Hey, we want you to be our head coach."
You think you want a 6-foot-5 shooting guard.
Oh, I want a 7-foot center.
You know, those are all positions,
and those are all body types,
- Good way to force them to the middle, J.
- But you never think,
"Where's the leadership going to come from?"
- Good D, J. You're on O. [clapping]
- It came from a 5-foot, 6-inch guard from Reagan High School.
- If the drills get a little slow in practice,
he picks them up.
If we need that little extra intensity,
he brings it to the floor.
It's just what he's done.
And as a program, you need that guy.
- The team followed in his footsteps.
Marcell had worked hard to develop his game,
and his leadership skills.
It paid off his senior year when he was named team captain.
- Referee: Good luck.
- Marcell had silenced any doubters on the practice floor.
Now he'd do it during the games.
- Defense on three.
One, two, three. Defense!
- When you see him, you are just amazed.
- Oh, it's amazing.
It's amazing to see people underestimate him,
and then he gets on the floor and just kills you.
It's just fun to watch.
- Marcell made his mark on defense.
[percusive pops]
- He gets in your space.
He gets in and makes you uncomfortable
so you have to react to him.
- It's defense that wins championships
and defense that wins games too.
You have to have that.
If you don't have that, you won't have a good program.
- A Juneau program that once struggled to win a single game
finished with 10 victories during Marcell's senior year.
[cheering]
Marcell was voted Second Team All-Conference,
one of the ten best players in his league.
[cheering]
- It's great because I've seen where he started from,
which was the bottom,
and I feel like now he's at the top.
- Five years from now, ten years from now,
if I'm still here and if the program's still running strong,
it's going to be a result of what Marcell has done
to this program this year.
The kids who are going to come back next year
have been instilled with that work ethic
Marcell has brought every day.
They've been instilled with
this is what a leader is and this is how a leader acts.
- Stand above the free throw line
so you ain't in the paint.
- He's going to use that same ability in the workforce,
in the classroom,
and everywhere he goes.
He's going to be the leader.
He's going to be the person people want to follow.
- Good bucket, Neil.
- Marcell plans to major in sports marketing
and minor in athletic training at UW-Milwaukee.
Wherever his career takes him, he'll be near the game he loves.
- I realize the importance of actually graduating,
having a degree in school
with whatever field I would choose to go into.
That's way more important than
being the star basketball player.
[sneakers squeaking] [ball bouncing]
- Marcell also realizes that
some people will always judge a book by its cover,
but he's the only one writing his story on the pages inside.
- Yeah. I am.
If people look at me funny or something,
I just keep it moving, keep it straight,
cuz like...
it happened.
I can't change it.
It's not like I can go put on a mask
or put on a regular arm and fingers.
It's like, no matter how you look at me,
tomorrow I'm going to be the same.
[clapping]
Don't let others, really like,
knock you down or...
Good shot Brennan! Good shot Brennan!
...get you, like, off your path,
the path you want to go in.
[sneakers sqeaking]