Aaron Torrez

Eng 112B

May 3, 2006

Annotated Bibliography

Sports Themed Books: Lessons in Life and Working Through Hardships

For the greater part of my life I have played sports. From early on in my childhood, it often seemed as though I had a soccer ball permanently attached to my foot and a basketball attached to my hand. As I got older soccer stayed my favorite sport but I also got adventurous and tried hockey, baseball and volleyball. Now that I am an old man at the ripe age of 29, golf has slowed me down in a good way, I mean lets face it you can�t really get hurt playing golf. Although through time, the sports that I play have changed, there has always been one thing that is constant in all the sports I have played: the ability to overcome obstacles.

Naturally when given the task for one to pick books to read we almost always gravitate towards subjects that capture our attention. For my girlfriend it�s anything with a love story and funny accents and for my brother its anything with action adventure or good guy, bad guy tales. But for me it has almost always been books on sports or books with some kind of sports in them. This is why for my annotated bibliography I have chosen to list some books that have uplifting and insightful tales about sports and the people that play them. Along with these stories almost always comes tales of adversity and challenges from the outside and from within. Sports to me has always been more than just a way to get fit but a way for a person to really understand themselves, and by reading about other athletes struggles one can see the silver lining in the dark clouds above them as they strive to accomplish their goals, whether it be on or off their specific �playing field�.

Great Quotes about Sports

�Our philosophy precedes from the belief that sport is an inalienable part of the educational process and a factor for promoting peace, friendship, cooperation and understanding among peoples.�

-Juan Antonio Samaranch

�People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.�

-Vince Lombardi

�The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.�

-Jackie Joyner-Kersee

�One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it.�

-Knute Rockne

�The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.�

-Peggy Fleming

�People in the States used to think that if girls were good at sports their sexuality would be affected. Being feminine meant being a cheerleader, not being an athlete. The image of women is changing now. You don't have to be pretty for people to come and see you play. At the same time, if you're a good athlete, it doesn't mean you're not a woman.�

-Martina Navratilova

�Sports should always be fun.�

-Charles Mann

�The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that�s the day you start to the top.�

-O.J. Simpson

�My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.�

-Hank Aaron

�You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.�

-Michael Jordan

�To succeed...You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.�

-Tony Dorsett

Sports Themed Books

Betancourt, Marian. Playing like a Girl: transforming our lives through team sports. New

York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Women in sports is still a new thing. Playing like a Girl is a number of short stories of women of all ages and races playing different sports. From these sports they are gaining strength in societies where men once controlled the power. The field of play where there power is rising is not just on the court or field but in their relationships and work places as well.

This book is great for female students struggling to find a place in a male dominated area. Girls sports teams do not get recognition in schools as much as boys teams. This will often times keep girls from trying out for teams and possibly missing out on great opportunities. These stories can encourage and empower girls to make their mark as athletes.

Crutcher, Chris. Stotan!. New York: HarperCollins, 1986.

Coach Song sends his swim team through a hard and exausting week of conditioning that is made up of physical and mental challenges. The teams mental and physical capabilities are tested and broken down so that they can learn to build themselves back up to with stand any obstacle in their way. Individually and as a team these boys accomplish goals they never even knew they were there to complete.

Physical challenges from sports often bring out a person�s fears, dreams and secrets that they thought they could hide behind a tough exterior. This is why sports is almost a spiritual journey into ones on mind. Crutcher creates a story that will help other student athletes deal with those things and use them to extract the very best of them selves from deep within.

Taken From: www.chriscrutcher.com

Deauker, Carl. Night Hoops. New York: HarperCollins, 2002

Often times in a family of athletes the younger siblings fall in the shadows of the older. This is the case of Nick, he has lived under his brothers shadows for years as a basketball player, causing him to take on a very harsh and selfish way of winning no matter what or who he has to step on. But when his brother decides to stop playing basketball Nick gets a chance to show off his talents and prove to everyone that he is a star. But he also has to learn to work with his team and to trust them and help them so they can win. And in the end he ends up making friends with someone he never imagined he would relate to.

This story takes on a couple things. It uses the old saying; � It�s not whether you win or loose, but how you play the game.� Nick, like a lot of talented star athletes has to learn to trust his team and not just think about himself. It also shows how sports can make even the most diverse people equal on the playing fields.

Taken From: www.carldeuker.com

Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Bullied all his life, Alfred finds strength in the world of boxing. Helped my Mr. Donatelli, Alfred finds the strength to not only with stand the punches from the bullies, but stand up for himself and not break under peer pressure to steal and take drugs. In the end Alfred finds that being a contender in life is just as important as being one in the square ring.

Using a sport that is not as popular as others, Lipsyte introduces discipline and strength to junior high and high school kids and helps them deal with peer pressure. Through Alfreds story teens can see what hard work and dedication can do for them and how it can get them out of bad situations.

Lynch, Chris. Iceman. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Anger management at its best! In Eric�s family you don�t talk about your feelings, you keep them locked up inside. But we are all human and eventually you need to get those feelings out in some way. Eric does this by playing hockey and crushing every opponent, and even some of his own teammates, that get in his way. Eric the Iceman is a heartless emotionless hockey player that you do not want to cross, but if they only knew how much he hurt inside, they would know why.

Dysfunctional families, anger, expressing your emotions and controlling your temper are all common things a teen deals with everyday of their lives. This book gives an insight as to how to deal with that anger and turn it into something positive. Again sports is used as a way to help teens deal with their everyday strife.

Lynch, Chris. Extreme Elvin. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.

Sometimes even sports can�t help you, this is the case of Elvin Bishop. He�s overweight and his mom makes him shop at the Big and Tall store for his clothes. Over the summer he went to a sports camp that kicked his butt. It helped him loose some weight but now he has to deal with hemorrhoids, a overly big appetite and a weird mom, what high school freshman can�t relate to this guy.

This book if anything is just a way to show teens how they can take their awkwardness and laugh at it. If not for the fun of the book, it gives a good tool to dealing with your own diversities.

Myers, Walter Dean. Hoops. New York: Laurel Leaf, 1983.

Being the man is hard enough, but when the pressures from outside your team and sport start to fall on you it takes all you can muster from within to stand up for what�s right. Lonnie is the schools star basketball player and the schools road to a championship. But is coach is determined to keep him grounded and not stray from the goal of bettering himself and not falling under the outside pressures of the school. But now Cal, his coach, must deal with some tough gamblers who want them to throw the game. It is up to Lonnie and Cal to do the right thing.

This story is a ego check to many start athletes in schools across the country. It will remind them that there is always something bigger than them and that in the end of it all it is just a game that it was made to be played for the pure fun of it.

Rosaforte, Tim. Raising the Bar: The Chamionship Years Of Tiger Woods. New York: St.

Martin�s Press, 2000.

This biography on Tiger Woods is an interesting read for young adults because it shows what hard work and determination will get you; success. After a bad slump in the 1998 season, Tiger felt that he was not at the peak of his game. What followed was a reworking of his game and something that catapulted him to stardom and to be able to hole the title as the Greatest Golfer ever, and all at the age of 24. He only changed little things, a small change in his stance and swing and he was off to greatness. In fact six straight wins on the PGA tour to be exact.

Besides being a uplifting, very real story of how making changes in ones play, whether it be in their game or in life, can lead them to greatness. Not to mention the fact that Tiger Woods a mixed African American, Chinese and Native American, has taken the golf world, usually lead my Caucasian athletes, by storm. He has had to overcome racial discrimination in a sport he has helped make almost as popular as baseball and football in America. His name is right up there as one of the most known names in sports along with others like Michael Jordan.

Sweeny, Joyce. Players. New York: Winslow Press, 2000.

Being the captain of the team is a hard job, and when your team is looking at a chance to go to the All City Championships it becomes and even tougher job. To make things worse, Corey has to find his team a new center. The new guys is Noah, a quiet guy that plays good ball. But when things seem to just be getting to a good point weird things start happening. Corey looses his girlfriend, his best friend is arrested for having a gun at school and some of his teammate are quitting the team for no apparent reason. It all started with the arrival of Noah. Corey needs to find the cause of all this bad stuff, and the most obvious reason is Noah, but being the good guy Corey can�t let himself think the worse of Noah.

This book deals with friendship, trust and teamwork. These are all things that any teen can go through on and off the court. The basketball scenes make the book go by quickly and keep the readers interested in what will happen to the team.

Wright, David K. Arthur Ashe: Breaking the Color Barrier in Tennis.

New Jersey: Enslow 1996

Another biography about tennis great Arthur Ashe, the first African American man to ever play professional tennis. This book shows his struggles to make it in the professional world of tennis. He had to deal with racism and death threats. To add to his struggles he was diagnosed with AIDS, but through it all he remained an ambassador to the game and opened the path for future stars like himself not only in tennis but in other sports where a color line had remained.

This book is a valuable lesson in diversity and overcoming it based on stereotypes. Teens can see that there are still barriers of race out there, but they should not give into them and that they should fight them to gain respect and success.