The boys slumped against the wall of the dugout; you could read the despair on their faces. “What’s the point?” mumbled the right fielder. “We’re just going to lose again.” The team was on an eight-game losing streak, with a record of three wins and eight losses, and five games left to play.

As the coach for the nine-year-old Little League Orioles, I was frustrated. We had some of the finest talent in the league including the best pitcher and the best hitter, but the boys had already given up. I thought, “What can you do when there is no hope of winning?” It was then that I remembered one of the biggest upsets in figure-skating history.

I squatted down in front of them and said, “Lean in, boys, I want to tell you a story about a 16-year-old girl who got to go to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games as an ice skater.”

Her name is Sarah Hughes and she barely made the team. She was one of the youngest members, and she would be competing against the biggest names in figure skating—women who had already won world titles. No one expected her to win. No one expected her to even place in the top three. Sarah wasn’t expecting to win either.

 …