When did middle school sports -- specifically basketball -- stop being a game? Played for fun? Or is the question, was it ever?
This book explores these questions through the POVs of several different characters: two star boys basketball players who live on opposite sides of Walthorne and have totally opposite financial and parental support; a girl school sports reporter who opens several cans of worms, just by observing carefully and asking questions; and a couple of girls' basketball players.
It starts with an injury and an argument between two players. One pressures the other to play through his injury, and a couple of spectators not only see the argument, but the entire gym sees when the injured player really gets hurt (in the next play) and blames his teammate.
They try to put a spin on it, but soon it's out that the coach mighta/sorta ignored that his player was injured in that, he notices (how could he not?), but didn’t specifically ask why the player was limping. And when the school sports reporter asks if the coach had a responsibility to ask and get the kid off the court before he seriously hurt himself, and can't play for the rest of the season…well, things begin to heat up.
One of the star players is having trouble in school, and his coach casually suggests to the other players that it's their responsibility to see their teammate isn't disqualified from the team. They interpret that as -- they should let the star player cheat. Copy test questions in math. And the reporter, again, is well-positioned to see it happen.
She doesn't rat the kid out, but he thinks she does, and treats her like … well, you-know-what for much of the rest of the book. And the heat is on the coach again. This time, he leaves the team!! Resigns. Now the team's really in turmoil.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, one of the boys wrangles with the fact that he's not such a good player, no matter how much he practices, but his dad is a sponsor of his club team and that means…he gets to play. When others probably should be in the game, instead of him.
This was a great read, one I highly recommend. It's a high interest topic that will certainly interest your students and spark discussion about the ethics of school sports.
Enjoy!
