One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First Ever National Championship High School Football Game

From Publishers Weekly
On October 6, 2001, two California high school football teams played in what turned out to be the first, and perhaps the only, national championship high school football game. The De La Salle Spartans and the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits came into the season as the two top-ranked teams in high school football, according to USA Today polls and various sports polls throughout the country. Wallace, who played for Poly in the late 1960s, skillfully chronicles the stories of these two football powerhouses. De La Salle, which sported the nation's longest winning streak at 113 games, is an all-male, predominantly white, Catholic high school in the wealthy northern California suburb of Concord. Long Beach Poly is an urban, inner-city high school with tremendous racial diversity, whose more famous graduates include Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg. With his journalist's eye, Wallace (author of the novel Hot Water) interviews the coaches and players of each team as they prepare for the 2001 season and the game that became known as the national championship. In a fast-paced narrative, he gives a play-by-play account of the game. Although Poly seems to have a physical edge over De La Salle, the latter keep their winning streak alive with a 27-15 win. Unfortunately, Wallace never makes it clear why this game was called the national championship game, especially because it was the teams' fifth game of the season, not the final one, other than that two top-ranked teams faced each other. Overall, though, Wallace's well-told story of this season and the game captures the emotions of everyone involved in the quest to be a winning team. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Kevin Baker Author of Paradise Alley One Great Game is one great book. Don Wallace has written an engrossing, surprising, and thoroughly captivating story about two very different American high schools squaring off in high school football's first national championship. His knowledge of the game is acute, but he moves beyond football to give us a clear-eyed picture of how America itself has changed over the past thirty years.


Book Description
In the rich tradition of Friday Night Lights comes this heart-stopping account of the first ever national championship high school football game. They said such a game was impossible. For 131 years, a No. 1 and a No. 2 high school team had never met -- though not for lack of trying. Then came October 6, 2001: two great teams, Concord De La Salle and Long Beach Poly, playing for all the marbles. Two contrasting cities, each upholding its vision of America. One thrilling game. On the one side we find Concord, a wealthy, high-tech suburb in Northern California. De La Salle is private, nearly all white, and Catholic, with an astonishing nine-year, 113-game winning streak -- the longest of any team in any sport in history, amateur or professional. Coach Bob Ladouceur is a legend, and a mystic who demands perfection. The Spartans thrive on year-round training and a spirit of love. Critics call them a cult. Long Beach is a gritty, mostly poor, Southern California seaport, the most diverse city in America. Poly High sends more players to the NFL than any other school, more students to the University of California, and alums such as Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg to stardom. Poly High is a beacon of public school excellence. But the Jackrabbits play in a fishbowl of high expectations and often excessive community scrutiny. On both teams the young men are tested physically, mentally, spiritually, and most of all by the intense media spotlight on their behavior, skin color, SAT scores, economic class, and moral character. Would they crumple under the pressure? Can they withstand the lure of drug and supplement abuse while fighting off the distractions of college recruiters and rabid fans? One Great Game takes us inside the schools and their teams, into the hearts and minds of the players, coaches, teachers, parents, and followers. Don Wallace spent a full year in their locker rooms and in their lives. The result is a powerful portrait not only of American high school sports but of two cultures that taken together define modern American life.


About the Author
Don Wallace is an award-winning journalist, novelist, and editor who has written for Harper's, The New York Times, and dozens of other publications. His honors include being named the U.S. Naval Institute's 2002 Author of the Year for his serialized novel, The Log of Matthew Roving; a Roll of Honor selection of the 1998 Best American Essays for "While Watts Burned"; and a Michener Prize from the Copernicus Society for his 1991 novel, Hot Water. Wallace attended the Iowa Writers Workshop, U.C. Santa Cruz, and Poly High School, where he was the third generation of Wallaces to play varsity football. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.


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On October 6, 2001, two California high school football teams played in what turned out to be the first, and perhaps the only, national championship high school football game. The De La Salle Spartans and the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits came into the season as the two top-ranked teams in high school football, according to USA Today polls and various sports polls throughout the country. Wallace, who played for Poly in the late 1960s, skillfully chronicles the stories of these two football powerhouses. De La Salle, which sported the nation's longest winning streak at 113 games, is an all-male, predominantly white, Catholic high school in the wealthy northern California suburb of Concord. Long Beach Poly is an urban, inner-city high school with tremendous racial diversity, whose more famous graduates include Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg. With his journalist's eye, Wallace (author of the novel Hot Water) interviews the coaches and players of each team as they prepare for the 2001 season and the game that became known as the national championship. In a fast-paced narrative, he gives a play-by-play account of the game. Although Poly seems to have a physical edge over De La Salle, the latter keep their winning streak alive with a 27-15 win. Unfortunately, Wallace never makes it clear why this game was called the national championship game, especially because it was the teams' fifth game of the season, not the final one, other than that two top-ranked teams faced each other. Overall, though, Wallace's well-told story of this season and the game captures the emotions of everyone involved in the quest to be a winning team. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.


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