TRY pitting a 1.4m basketballer against a 1.7m opponent.
It is made even harder when the age difference between the players is 28 years.
But imagine if the 1.4m player is 41, and it is the 13-year-old who has the height advantage.
This is the challenge faced by the Sspitfires basketballers.
Captain Meredith Young, 26, said the team filled a void in opportunities in Victoria for short-statured athletes.
The Sspitfires are bottom of the 16-team ladder in the Port Philip Junior League.
They play in the under-14 division every Saturday at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.
It is tough scoring against the taller teen boys when your lankiest player, Francis Kelly, is 1.4m.
The shortest player, at 1.1m, is 13-year-old recruit Mike Spain.
"The under-14 boys tower over us," Ms Young said.
"We get one go at shooting and they pretty much get the rebound every time.
"It has been great for public awareness for them to play with someone with a difference.
"At the start people were a little gentle, and we didn't want that.
"We wanted fierce competition, because we don't ease up at all."
The 14-member team -- aged 13 to 41 -- has been playing in the PPJL for the past four years.
The squad was established 14 years ago.

Footballer on top of the world
Leader - Moorabbin - Glen Eira Standard (Melbourne, Australia), p. 23.

MIKE Spain left football on a premiership high.
The 13-year-old, who has a form of dwarfism, announced his retirement after helping the St Pauls McKinnon Under 13 West team to an MSJFL flag last Sunday week.      
Described by his father Peter as ``a bit of a goer'', Mike played with St Pauls for three years. But he recently decided he was starting to struggle with the pace of the game and the height of his opponents.       ``They were just getting too big for him,'' Peter Spain said. Before the final the St James College student said to coach John Gates: ``This is going to be my last game.'' Gates told his players to send their 110cm teammate out a winner.      
St Pauls had a dazzling finals series. They qualified fourth and hadn't beaten any of the other finalists but they thrashed Caulfield in the first semi, were too good for St Kilda City in the preliminary final and knocked over the unbeaten Bentleigh in the decider.      
But as one sporting door closes for Mike another opens. He has joined the Short Statured People Association's basketball team, the SS Spitfires.

Bowen arrow Australia's secret weapon
Melbourne Herald-Sun (Victoria, Australia), 17 September 2005, p. 35.

FIERCE competition from the UK, a knee injury and the pressure of defending a world title are not getting the better of paralympic gold medallist Sarah Bowen.    
Sarah Bowen, 21, from Ocean Grove, said this week she was planning to increase her workload at the national championships in Melbourne in January.    
``At the national championships I'm thinking of taking on a new event, the 200m IM (individual medley),'' Bowen said.
Her determination is no surprise. Bowen was born with achondroplasia, a form of short stature, but would not be deterred from chasing her sporting dreams. She holds a swag of world records, and in Athens last year she set a new paralympic record in winning gold in the 100m breaststroke.     
The combination of Bowen and her coach Lucky Weerakkody, who has been with her since the start of last year, has been a productive one and played a significant part in the decision to take on a new event.
``I sat down with Lucky and we sort of said, well, I'm the world record-holder in the 50m breaststroke, I'm the world record-holder in the 50m backstroke, I've got a good technique for my butterfly and my freestyle's moving along, so it'd be something worth looking at in the future,'' she said.
``I'll probably do it at a few local meets and then at the nationals. That'd be the first major one.''      
Having recently recovered from a minor knee injury, Bowen is realistic about her commitment to the IM and will only compete if it fits in with her breaststroke and backstroke races.      
In the event that there is a clash and she can't enter the 200m IM, Bowen says she is confident she will benefit from the experience, anyway -- and her coach agrees.
``He thinks that it's really good news. He thinks I've got a fair chance to be right up there,'' Bowen said.
``It's also going to provide me with more endurance for my 100 breaststroke.''
With records to defend, Bowen is a natural target for her competitors. She is keeping her eye on one in particular.
``There's a girl coming up in the UK, Elizabeth Johnson. She was second in Athens, but she's moving up pretty fast,'' Bowen said.      
While she has no illusions about the level of competition, Bowen also knows how hard she needs to push herself.
``I'm training five pool sessions a week and then two gym sessions and I'm doing about 20 minutes of core stuff at home about three to four times a week,'' Bowen said.
The schedule will hold her in good stead for a hectic 2006. After national and state championships in Melbourne, she will defend her world record at the world championships in Durban, South Africa, in November.