One Great Game

This is the story of two teams -- Concord De La Salle, a private Catholic school in an upscale Northern California suburb, and Long Beach Poly, a proud public institution from a blue-collar SoCal seaport -- striving to achieve the same goal: the all-American dream. In this supercharged account of the first-ever national high-school championship game, acclaimed sports journalist -- and former Poly varsity football player -- Don Wallace goes out onto the field and straight into the heart of each team. One Great Game offers a rare look at the world of young-adult sportsmanship, featuring up-close and personal interviews with the team players and their families, coaches and cheerleaders, rabid fans and sworn enemies. The result is a powerful piece of sports literature in the tradition of the classic Friday Night Lights. More than a book about football, One Great Game is an engaging cultural history about twenty-first-century American life.

Don Wallace

Prologue One: Rumors Two: Out Where the West Begins Three: "What a Place for Children!" Four: The Ambush Five: The Clash Six: God's Team Seven: Minor Miracles Eight: Something in the Water Nine: Calm Before the Storm Ten: Sour Rhubarb Eleven: Precious Blood Twelve: Fall Thirteen: Minority Rules Fourteen: The Shortest Season Fifteen: Prelude in G(ames) Minor Sixteen: Seven Days Seventeen: Twenty-four Hours Eighteen: A Parade Nineteen: Vets Twenty: The Game Don't Wait Twenty-one: Go Tell the Spartans Twenty-two: Still Time for a Hero Twenty-three: Send in the Clones Twenty-four: After the Fall Twenty-five: Points After Epilogue Acknowledgments