The Beautiful Game: Sixteen Girls and the Soccer Season That Changed Everything

Product Description

Once nobody noticed Santa Rosa’s Thunder. They were a ragtag team of girls who wanted to play soccer, and no one took them seriously. Their male coach expected little from his “ladies, ” and their mediocre performance convinced them he was right.
Then a kind of miracle happened. Emiria Salzmann, Thunder’s new coach, a top player herself, knew what it took to win–discipline, relentless drills, thigh-burning sprints, and an inspired passing game. The girls hated it, but their coach never let up. Tough and determined, she showed them what it felt like to be winners–and they loved it. As the momentum grew with a string of victories, the girls thrived on the competition, believing they had the right stuff to become champions.
They were right! With spirits soaring, Thunder won its league on the last day of the season and headed for the state cup, emerging not just as powerful athletes but as strong, confident, emotionally healthy human beings–champions in the game of soccer, and in the game of life.

Review

“REQUIRED READING! You’ll cheer for the girls…and may even shed a tear. Best of all, you’ll have found a new set of teammates without breaking a sweat.” — “Sports Illustrated for Women”This is a season inside, an honest look at a girls elite soccer team…worth reading whether you are a soccer player, a soccer parent, or both.” — “Los Angeles Times”A well-balanced journey that celebrates sports, girlhood, and determination.” –“San Francisco Examiner”This is a story that should be passed along, girl to girl, mother to mother, dad to dad.” –“USA TODAY.com”An exciting book, filled with team spirit, similar to IN THESE GIRLS HOPE IS A MUSCLE.” –“Booklist”Well-written, readable…This find book deserves wide readership among both young female athletes and their parents.” –“Library Journal

About the Author

Jonathan Littman is the author of three previous books, including
The Fugitive Game and
The Watchman, and his articles have appeared in the
Los Angeles Times Magazine, Forbes, the
San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications. A former college soccer player (on Berkeley’s nationally ranked NCAA playoff sqaud), he is the father of two young daughters. He lives in the Bay Area.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter OneTryouts

Elbows out and ready, the girl with the piercing eyes and apple cheeks figured she had an edge, maybe two. Jessica Marshall could play goalkeeper as well as field positions, and unlike the others, she actually knew the coach, and thus knew her elbows would count. But looking out at the sea of ponytails bobbing up and down on the vast grassy field, Jessica could also do the math. Out of the forty thirteen- and-fourteen-year-old talented girls at the tryouts, over half wouldn’t last the week.
The air was crisp that April afternoon. Though a freeway way bustled just a couple of hundred yards to the east, the only sound on the field was the swish of the grass underfoot, the lulling patter of the balls swinging between the players, and the symphony of breaths that rose like a tide. If this was a stadium, its walls reflected the community in which it stood. To the north loomed a destroyer sized aluminum-sided warehouse, fronted by a fence bearing the names of local sponsors who had put up a few hundred bucks to plug their businesses: Downey Tire Center, Terchlund Law Offices, Round Table Pizza, and the local paper, the Press Democrat. Weeds choked the vast empty acreage beyond the fields, and to the west end, facing the freeway, towering eucalpytus trees promised some afternoon shade. The only amenities were a tiny blue wooden snack bar and a Porta Potti. Belluzzo Fields, they called it, the center of youth soccer in the Northern Californian city of Santa Rosa.
It was a city defined in great part by what it was not. Santa Rosa was not the prosperous and refined city of San Francisco, which lay more than fifty miles to the south. Nor was it the lan