Where the Game Matters Most: A Last Championship Season in Indiana High School Basketball - Hardcover

Gildea, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316519677 ISBN 13: 9780316519670

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 1997

Synopsis

An intense, personal look into the final all-state Indiana championship basketball season follows four teams and documents the desperation, agony, and competition in a sport in which only one team will emerge victorious and where basketball is not just a sport but a way of life. Tour.

About this title

Review

Whenever David beats Goliath it's news; everything is suddenly possible. In Indiana, where basketball is an obsession, and high school basketball a religious pilgrimage to the state championship, the potential for Davids--remember Hoosiers?--is both magnificent and ever possible. But in 1996, Indiana changed that. Despite outrage and protest, the state opted to revamp the format that allowed all its high schools to compete against one another for the state title, and instead to institute a divisional system that would segregate schools by size, allowing for four champion teams. As unpopular as the decision was, it made the 1996-97 season--the last to be played under the old rules--emotionally charged and sociologically above the rim in richness. William Gildea's examination of that final season is ripe with the voices of coaches and players, and vivid in its replay of big games. But the book's real strength is off the court in Gildea's observations and reportage on the ethos of small towns, small-town virtues, and the place of sports in the community. Where the Game Matters Most is a championship volume in any league.

From the Back Cover

In 1997 Indiana crowned its last all-state champion, marking the end of an eighty-seven-year-old Hoosier tradition. Despite public outcry, the statewide tournament has been replaced by four divisional tournaments based on school size. Small-school teams no longer will have the chance to compete against big-school Goliaths for the state title. Where the Game Matters Most captures the passion and the personalities, the triumphs and the heartbreak of this final all-comers season. Through the most intense basketball season in Indiana history, William Gildea follows four teams. Bringing alive the extraordinary bonds forged among players, coaches, schools, families, and entire towns, Where the Game Matters Most is a compelling evocation of a truly historic championship season.

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0316519677
• ISBN 13: 9780316519670
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240