26 episodes · 12th September 1998
New Coach, Mike Katowinski, replaces Coach Fuller - sadly the new team, which includes new team members Kenny 'Silk' Hayes, Rico Bosco, and Nick Hammer, isn't coming together so well. Julie notices that the new coach is treating her differently from the guys and is making her do less work, so she tries different methods of getting the coach to realize what he's doing. Also, Kristy gets a letter from Teddy saying that he and Vince are at the University of Southern Florida with Coach Fuller, Vince is dating Miss Florida Orange Juice, and that Danny is currently working on his stand-up at NYU!
Things just don't seem to be clicking with the new team members. None of the plays are working out smoothly and a feature on the local news makes the team seem as if they are totally unprepared for their first game. After seeing this, Michael talks about how bad the new guys are and is overheard by Hammer who tells the rest of the new guys, causing a rift in the team. Michael and Julie decide that it might be best to just pretend like they're the only two on the team during the game.
After finding out that the rival team of an upcoming game has a player that's HIV-positive, everyone but Michael wants to cancel. Michael brings his friend Joe to the Stadium to meet some of the Deering players, later revealing that Joe is the guy that's HIV-positive. After meeting Joe and finding out how normal he is, the Deering team decide that they want to play in the game. However, parents of other students complain and get the school board to cancel the game again. So the two teams try to have an unofficial game behind the school board's back and Julie tries to get over her fears about guarding Joe.
Hammer meets a waitress at the Stadium named Taylor and tries to get her to attend the school's upcoming dance with him. After she continuosly turns him down, Hammer won't give up and follows her to a homeless shelter, where he thinks she's volunteering. He later finds out that her family is homeless and living in the shelter. The gang decide to try and help her father find a job and donate the money raised from the dance ticket sales to her family instead of buying new uniforms. However, when Hammer announces the change in plans for the money at the dance, students demand refunds, and Hammer accidentally lets it slip that Taylor's homeless and that's whose family the money is going to.
After scoring low on the S.A.T.s, Hammer finds out that his scores aren't good enough for him to be able to be admitted into any of the colleges that he's planned on applying to. But when he learns that Duke University is sending a scout to watch him play basketball, he thinks that they won't pay attention to his academic achievements after seeing him on the court. Kristy tries to convince Hammer to take the S.A.T.s again, without much luck. Meanwhile, Julie and Michael's anniversary is coming up and when Mary Beth overhears Michael talking about buying a Ruby guitar, she mistakenly thinks that he's buying Julie a ruby.
After getting his first credit card to use in case of emergencies, Silk uses it a little too often and racks up a large debt. In order to pay off his bill, Rico, Hammer, and he decide to buy a television and raffle it off at the school dance. However, the plan comes to a halt when the TV gets broken in the school hallway. The guys use the team van to drive to Rico's uncle who can repair the TV, only to have the van break down on the way. They stop off to at an auto shop to have the van fixed, but Silk's credit card is maxed out and they can't pay for the repairs, leaving them stranded. Meanwhile, Mary Beth and Michael try and keep quiet about the fact that Julie has been named Indiana state player of the month. But when Julie and Kristy overhear the coach talking about a proposal (which is really for the announcement about Julie at the dance), they mistakenly think that he's getting married.
After being mugged in the parking lot of the Deering Plaza after work, Kristy gets nervous about being out alone. Not only does she take a self-defense class with Mary Beth and Julie, but she arms herself with pepper spray. However, after leaving work early and not waiting to walk out of the mall with Julie and Michael, Kristy mistakenly thinks Michael is a mugger and attacks him with her pepper spray. Meanwhile, Rico, Silk, and Hammer all try to get Coach Katowinski to use his extra Pacers ticket on one of them.
Rico starts smoking marijuana, which causes him to act goofier than usual. Not only does he start acting incrediby silly during serious situations, but he starts to play basketball horribly. The rest of the team cover for him at practice, but things get worse when Rico promises to fix the brakes on Hammer's motorcycle. He gets high instead and forgets his promise, causing Hammer to have an accident on his bike and end up at the hospital. Meanwhile, Michael, Mary Beth, and Kristy take Auto Shop hoping to get an easy 'A.' However, things go wrong when they install a new sound system into the teacher's car and end up locking Kristy inside the trunk.
After discovering that Kristy has a romantic interest in Hammer, Mary Beth tries to set the two up on a blind date. Hammer agrees to go on the date, but only because he thinks that Mary Beth is trying to set herself up with him. He's caught off guard when he finds that Kristy is his date for the evening and later tells Mary Beth that he's not interested in Kristy, but in her. Mary Beth agrees to go on a non-date with Hammer, planning on using the time to convince him that he likes Kristy. Things don't go the way she'd planned when Mary Beth finds out that she returns Hammer's feelings. However, at the same time, she doesn't want to hurt Kristy. Meanwhile, Coach Katowinski tries to organize a school dance with the help of the team.
The team makes it to the Tri-State final and travel to Texas for the game. At the hotel, Silk meets a beautiful girl named Rose. The trouble is, he sees her as she's getting out of a limo, giving him the impression that she must be pretty wealthy. Feeling like he has to meet her standards, Silk calls himself Kenneth Hayes III and pretends that Coach Katowinski's Presidential Suite is his own. However, he finds it hard to keep up with all of the lies that he's told Rose to make himself look better. Meanwhile, Kristy also finds a possible love interest at the hotel. She meets Antonio and thinking that he can only speak Spanish, tries her best to impress him with her not-so-great foreign language skills. However, Antonio neglects to tell Kristy that he's American and speaks English.
Mary Beth learns that if she wants to attend her dream college, California University, she needs to participate in more extra curricular activities. Aside from managing the basketball team and keeping up with school work, she joins the marching band, the debate team, and also takes a spot on the cheerleading squad. She's already incredibly busy, but after finding out that a new student council president is needed, she decides to run in the election. Trying to do so much proves to be a little too much for Mary Beth and she starts to crack under all of the pressure. Meanwhile, the Coach gets a new hot tub to be used only for sports injuries. When the Julie and the guys break the rules and use it for fun, Rico accidentally drops Coach's NBA championship ring down the drain.
Still in Texas, the team make it to the finals, but find that the coach of the rival team is Coach Katowinski's old assisant, who is now in a wheelchair. Coach finds out that the other coach might be able to get a great position coaching a college team, but it all depends on the outcome of the game against Deering, who is favored to win. Coach Katowinski feels sorry for him and gives the team the impression that he wants them to the throw the game. Meanwhile, Antonio tries to get Kristy to forgive him for pretending that he didn't know English.
Mary Beth and Hammer start having relationship problems when they disagree on their plans. So Mary Beth gives herself a make-over to look more like a biker to surprise Hammer. She and Kristy go to a biker hangout to find Hammer, only to find that they're at the wrong club and are alone with a bunch of tough bikers. Meanwhile, Coach Katowinski thinks about buying the Stadium. However, his new plans have the place full of senior citizens. Looking to get their hangout back, the gang try to convince him not to buy.
After Kristy and Antonio start dating, Julie finds out that Kristy has run off to a wedding with him- possibly her own. So, Hammer, Rico, Silk, and Mary Beth go to where the ceremony is being held to spy. Mary Beth, Rico, and Silk disguise themselves as nuns, while Hammer pretends to be a monk.
Rico meets a girl at the Stadium and asks her out. He's excited about their upcoming date until he starts to get self-conscious about being with a girl that's taller than him. Meanwhile, Mary Beth accidentally gets throws Hammer's lucky jacket away and it's up to her and Kristy to find it before Hammer finds out.
The gang return to camp, this time with Coach Katowinski. Julie soon realizes that her feelings for Michael have changed. After kissing another guy, she decides that she has to tell him before someone else does. Meanwhile, Mary Beth takes on a job that makes her Kristy's boss.
Julie needs to get a good grade on her upcoming math exam or be benched from playing. She aces her exam, thanks to Kristy who spent all of her extra time tutoring Julie. However, Kristy starts to feel jealous and underappreciated after everyone misses her decathalon because they're celebrating Julie's grade.
At camp, a new girl named Eve joins the gang, looking to be seen by college scouts. But while she's great at basketball and teams up with Julie, she's automatically jealous of Julie's ability to play. When Eve starts feeling threatened, she starts playing un-sportsmanlike tricks on Julie to keep her from playing in front of the scouts. Meanwhile, Rico, Hammer, Michael, and Silk try to catch whoever is stealing items from their bunk.
After getting a bad report card, Michael is afraid to tell his dad because he might not be allowed to play basketball anymore, even though the team's one game away from the playoffs. Michael becomes unbelievably frustrated and not only is his relationship with his father strained, but his attitude costs him his spot on the team. Meanwhile, Kristy and Mary Beth compete in a one-on-one basketball competition in order to win a car, straining their friendship.
Kristy takes the job of being the nurse's assistant at camp. When she makes a mistake treating Rico's bee sting, nearly killing him, she loses all of her confidence. However, when a tree falls on Michael's arm, she has to learn to trust herself again and help. Meanwhile, Julie and Mary Beth try to pull a prank on the guys and scare them.
The tornadoes head to the sate basketball championships, only to find that their first game is against the team with the best player in Indiana. Meanwhile, Mary Beth convinces Kristy to play in a pool tournament to win a team present for Coach, only to end up facing him in the finals.
The Deering team travel to New York after winning a trip. Hammer wants to look up his old girlfriend, Cindy, and Mary Beth instantly feels pangs of jealousy. She allows him to but reaches her limit when she finds out that Hammer's ex-girlfriend is a teen model, and a magazine wants Cindy and Hammer to pose as a couple for an upcoming magazine cover. The girls all crash a business party to spy on Hammer, watching him as he's with Cindy. When Mary Beth thinks she sees something going on between the two, she ends up ruining the party and getting Hammer fired. Meanwhile, Rico, Silk, and Michael get into a food fight at a Knicks game and decide to get revenge on the Knicks fan, only to find that he's a friend of Coach Katowinski's.
After the Tornadoes make it to the sate championship, Hammer gets benched when his drug test results come back positive for steroids. Even though Hammer swears that he's never taken steroids, Silk and Rico refuse to believe him and blame him for losing the game. Meanwhile, Kristy meets an artist who asks her to pose for him. She does, but only to find that he's painted her head on a naked body. Kristy and the girls plan to alter the painting before it's featured in a show.
Mary Beth gets a job working as at a department store in the mall to come up with ideas for the teen department. But Mary Beth is shocked to find that her boss is not just using her ideas, but taking credit for them as well. Meanwhile, the Coach plays Santa Claus at the mall, with Rico, Silk, Hammer, and Michael as his elves. However, things go wrong for them when they end up in jail when the police are looking for thieves dressed similarly.
While in New York, Rico meets with his grandfather who wants to spend the holidays with him. However, Rico's embarrased by him and lies to him saying that the team has to go back to Indiana early and won't be around the city for the holidays. During the gang's Christmas Eve party, Rico feels too guilty and tells everyone what he did. They take the party on the road and search the subways trying to find Rico's grandfather at work.
In this clip show, the Deering game reminisce about the past year and all of the important events that have taken place. Meanwhile, Mary Beth refuses to leave her room after a famous hairdresser ruins her hair.
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