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Product Description

John Coy turns to the high-stakes world of high school basketball in this fast-paced YA novel.

Liam has just been bumped up to starter on the varsity basketball team, and the pressure’s on. With the girls’ team heading to State, the boys’ team is under even greater scrutiny than usual in Liam’s small midwestern town. When the team’s coach starts counting on the power of prayer—and enforcing teamwide participation—Liam finds himself in a spotlight that’s more nerve-racking than any trip to the free-throw line. In trying to stand up for what’s right, Liam is forced to stand up for himself—against his teammates, his fellow students, and even his parents.

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up—When high school sophomore Liam is called up to play varsity basketball, he finds the team in some distress. Darius, the only black member and the leading offensive player, quits during the half-time of Liam’s first game, feeling dissed by the coach. Liam then attends an invitation-only Athletic Fellowship meeting at a teammate’s house, where he is manipulated into joining in the reading of a “Champion’s Prayer,” strengthening his doubts about the amount and kind of prayer that the coach directs at every pregame and half-time. The teen is secure in his Catholic faith, but fears he’ll lose playing time, at least, if he rocks the coach’s boat. Using the Internet to investigate and then press the separation of church and state, he indeed suffers the wrath of his coach, administration, and former teammates, so that he, too, quits the team. He and Darius are recruited to toughen up the varsity girls’ team as they make their run at State. Coached by the art teacher who runs practices akin to a yoga workout and assigns poetry as well as scrimmages is a welcome change for Liam, who makes serious strides both on and off the court. The message that one must choose one’s own road is certainly worthy, and the combination of basketball action, Liam’s thoughtful responses to off-court issues, and the involvement—and final game—between the boys and girls will appeal to many hoops fans.—
Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* The author of Crackback (2005) crafts an equally perceptive, triumphant tale—this one centered on a high-school hoops player searching for, and finding, his own road. Liam is dazzled at first by his unexpected elevation to the varsity team, but the shine wears off quickly once he discovers that the coach is leading prayer sessions before each practice and game. Then he sees Darius, who is a star player but the team’s only African American, maneuvered into quitting. Eventually Liam follow suit, after gathering his nerve to contact a watchdog organization. What follows is an eye-opening lesson in what team spirit is really all about. More a decent, average, level-headed kid than an introspective sort or a crusader, Liam struggles with the urge to conform and ultimately finds realistic ways to rebound from self-doubt as well as serious peer and adult pressure. Plainly well acquainted with teenagers as well as b-ball play and lingo, Coy adds subplots and supporting characters to give Liam’s life dimension, but he weaves in plenty of breathlessly compelling game action too. Grades 7-9. –John Peters
About the Author

John Coy is an award-winning author, who worked as a dishwasher, mattress maker, and tour guide before taking up writing. He’s active in sports and is a member of the NBA Reading All-Star Team as part of the Read to Achieve program. John has traveled to all fifty states as well as to many countries internationally.

His work includes Strong to the Hoop, an American Library Association Notable Book, Night Driving, a Marion Vannett Ridgway Memorial Award winner and a Horn Book Fanfare title, Two Old Potatoes and Me, a