"A reporting tour de force and an utterly gripping account...
"Outside Shot" unmistakably triumphs, with the reader rooting hard
for the Cardinals--and delighted that O'Brien has brought his
considerable skills to telling their story." --Wayne Coffey, "New
York Times Book Review"
The Cardinals of Scott County High School were beloved
once---and with good reason. For years, the boys and their
legendary coach gave fans in central Kentucky, deep in the heart of
basketball country, just what they wanted: state titles, national
rankings, and countless trips to Kentucky's one-of-a-kind state
tournament, where winning and losing can change a young man's
life.
But in 2009, with the economy sputtering, anger rising, and
Scott County mired in a two-year drought, fans had begun to lose
faith in the boys. They weren't the heroes of Scott County anymore;
they were "mini-athlete gods," haunted by dreams, burdened by
expectations, and desperate to escape through the only means they
knew: basketball.
In "Outside Shot," Keith O'Brien takes us on an epic journey,
from the bluegrass hills and broken homes of rural America, to
inner-city Lexington, to Kentucky's most hallowed hall: Rupp Arena,
where high school tournament games are known to draw
twenty-thousand people, and where, for the players and their fans,
it feels like anything is possible.
The narrative follows four of the team's top seniors and their
coach as they struggle to redeem themselves in the face of
impossible odds: once-loyal fans now turned against them, parents
who demand athletic greatness, and scouts who weigh their every
move. It delves deep inside the lives of the boys, their families,
and their community---divided along lines of race, politics,
religion, and sports. And it chronicles not only the high-stakes
world of Kentucky basketball, but the battle for the soul of
small-town America.
A story of inspiration and poignancy, filled with moments of
drama on and off the court, "Outside Shot" shows that if it's hard
to win basketball games, it can be even harder to win at life
itself.
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