One day last year my daughter Stella came home from school telling me about some guy named Rhino who was a basketball trainer. A few of her friends were going to him for training and she wanted to go too. So, I did the thing where a mom gets a phone number from another mom and texts the person of interest to her child, sight unseen. I asked about training, and he answered, and we got it all set up.

I am ashamed to admit this next part, but it is important. Soon after that Stella was in a basketball tournament for sixth-graders in Clarksville with other teams from Ozark and beyond. When we walked into the gym, I saw some Ozark kids younger than her--a team of little girls--huddled around an enormous man with tattoos covering both arms and a big beard. Oh Lord, I thought. If anyone ever fit the part of an Ozark Hillbilly.

Sure enough, when we showed up to training at the Coal Hill Assembly of God church gym a few days later, there was........

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