Shrimp: Some Kids Grow. Rise!

Merritt Island, Florida. 1984. The air smells like red clay, fresh-oiled leather, and Big-League Chew. Anthony Hunter is the smallest boy in the seventh grade. He can't clear five feet in the long jump. He can't get a full sentence out in front of Alison Boerne. Carter Thompson, who's bigger, richer, and never once told no - has made a full-time hobby of picking on Anthony. Carter labels Anthony with the nickname Shrimp. During Saturday morning baseball tryouts, Coach Bill Larson does something nobody expects. He picks Anthony for the A's junior league team. It should be the best season of Anthony's life. Instead, his size becomes a factor. He keeps the scorebook while his best friends take the field. He chases foul balls, warms up the catcher, and absorbs everything Carter can throw at him during the games. But Coach Bill has a plan. After every practice, when the field empties and the light goes gold behind the pines, Coach Bill and Anthony stay. A bucket of baseballs. A clipboard laid across half of home plate. And one promise: control before speed. Anthony has no idea he's being built for something. He also has no idea how fast it's all about to come apart. In the span of a single afternoon, the ground goes out from under him - at school, and at home. His heart and hope hang in the balance. A random change of events throws the season into chaos and Coach Bill needs to make a tough decision. Based on true events, Shrimp is a warm, funny, fiercely nostalgic return to the summer of Purple Rain, duct-tape stickball, mixtapes, and Roller Rinks. To the coaches who see in us what we cannot see in ourselves. It is a story about the least of us who changes everything. Some kids grow. Some kids rise.