She wouldn't quit. Game after game, Jasmine Banayan sat on the bench asking Steve Siskin the same question.

"When can I play?" the 13-year-old girl born with Down syndrome wanted to know.

"I don't know, Jasmine," the youth basketball coach at Balboa Park recreation center would tell her. "I just don't know."

He did know this. If the boys on his team had half the heart and drive this little girl sitting by his side had, they'd win the championship every year.

Jasmine was at every practice, every game, sitting up in the stands with her parents cheering on her brother, Josh, and his teammates.

She had asked to move down from the stands and sit on the bench with the boys, and Siskin said yes. And now, a season later, she was tired of just sitting and watching. She wanted to play. To read the entire article, click here.