Customer Review: Life's lessons wrapped up in a story about high school basketball
While sports is a part of life; too many it is life. They live, breathe and symbolically die with their favorite teams. In this book, Hanson is the new high school basketball coach at Grant. It is a school that won an Indiana State championship decades before, but since then has had only minimal success. Sid Hawkes is a student whose father was on that championship team and has never forgotten it and won't let anyone else forget it. He owns the lumberyard and a construction company, making him the largest employer in town and his opinion carries great weight.
Sid's father has always pressured Sid into playing basketball, forcing him to take over fifty practice shots each evening. Sid is a studious boy and would rather pursue his academic side rather than basketball. However, when Hanson sees how Sid can shoot, he convinces him to come out for basketball. As the practice season starts, many in the town, led by Sid's father, get up a petition to have Hanson fired. They are rejecting Hanson because he is emphasizing character and quality of play over winning.
Once they start playing and winning their games, the town begins to rally around Hanson and despite some additional problems, they move into the state tournament and continue winning. Sid's father and Hanson develop a grudging admiration for each other, at Hanson's request Sid's father begins scouting the opposition. Sid becomes a devoted supporter of Hanson and for the first time in his life stands up to his father. To his credit, Sid's father respects Sid for doing so and they start to develop a closer relationship. Unlike the conclusion of many other sports books, Grant does not win the state championship, but they all win so much more.
Like most of the best juvenile sports books, this one is more about life than it is about sports. It demonstrates that there is more to life than sports and how we function in all aspects of our lives is more important than winning the games. What we develop inside while playing will affect us all through the remainder of our lives and we should never sacrifice our integrity just to win a game.