After seven years working at his sport, basketball player Jason Chan Chung-yeung has found a happy ending: the ugly duckling has turned into a swan.
The 18-year-old Form Six student at Buddhist Tai Hung College will represent Hong Kong at the 6th Asian Schools Boys' Basketball Championships in Beijing next week.
Yet the shooting guard was not always a model player, and several incidents when he was younger almost put an end to his sporting hopes.
As a Form One student, Jason enrolled in the Young Basketball Athletes Training Scheme run by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Hong Kong Basketball Association, and attended a summer training camp.
These camps are a chance for budding stars to show their potential and talent to coaches, who make selections for the youth divisions of top clubs or even the Hong Kong youth team.
Jason made his presence felt, but not in a good way. 'I played a prank on my roommates at the dormitory when they were sleeping,' Jason said. 'The day after they took their revenge by pouring noodles on my bed. I was angry and I complained to the coaches.'