Synopsis
Prejudice can be defined in many ways as Ray finds out when he crosses the line as a white Polish-American boy who wants to play on his high school's black basketball team.
Alan Review
Polish American kids from the Greenville working-class, rustbelt neighborhood don't play basketball; they wrestle. Ray Wisniewski doesn't want to buy into the idea that black kids play hoops and white kids wrestle. Ray is determined to overcome this. Krech's story of "teenager tries to make good" is another reminder that subdivisions, barriers, and bigotry can pollute a school. Ray learns a hard lesson when he couldn't make the basketball team under the white coach for two seasons. When a new black coach arrives his senior year, Ray is suddenly talented enough to make the 22-man squad. The only problem with making a varsity team is that it brings on unasked-for responsibilities and treatments . . . and makes those barriers even worse. What should Ray do when there are conflicts between his white friends and his newfound black friends? Or when some of his teammates see him as a detriment to the team? Reviewer: Cord McKeithen