“It’s crushing when you strike out with a player,” said Morrison, a middle school technology teacher. “If they have something else going on, like another activity, then it can be O.K. But if they have nothing else, that’s what worries me. It’s the downtime that worries me.”

Another player who quit the team eventually dropped out of school and vanished. Morrison later saw a newspaper article about the player.

The police had found the player passed out in a car with a marijuana blunt and a pocketful of prescription pills, including Clonazepam, (an anti-seizure and anti-anxiety drug), Promethazine (an allergy and motion sickness drug) and Trazodone (an antidepressant). He said the methamphetamine pipe in the car wasn’t his because he only snorted the drug.

As Morrison told me about that player, a text from Lee, the assistant coach, popped up on his cellphone. It was a warning.

Lee advised Morrison to be aware of students with gummy bears because they could be laced with a synthetic stimulant called flakka, known to cause violent behavior. The text said the candy was “usually individually wrapped, stickier than normal.”

Morrison could only sigh.

“I never did drugs, not once, and used to look down on people who use drugs, but now I have empathy for them after what happened to my brother,” he said. “I can’t just look away. I want them to do better. It’s opened my eyes.”

‘The Reason I’m Resilient’

It’s a good thing that winning isn’t the only thing for the Madison Cubs because their prospects for it weren’t great last season.