Sports

Basketball (or something like it)
by Baskin, Nora Raleigh
Hank, Nathan, Jeremy, and Anabel deal with the realities of middle school basketball, including family pressure, a series of coaches with very different personalities and agendas, and what it means to be a team--and a friend.

Crackback
by Coy, John
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.

Whale Talk
by Crutcher, Chris
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.

High Heat
by Deuker, Carl
When sophomore Shane Hunter's father is arrested for money laundering at his Lexus dealership, the star pitcher's life of affluence and private school begins to fall apart.

Runner
by Deuker, Carl
Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.

Bull Rider
by Halvorson, Marilyn
In spite of his father's death at the National Finals six years earlier, Layne is determined to become an award-winning bull rider. His mother is adamant that he not ride, so the 16-year-old must practice in secret at a friend's family arena.

Inexcusable
by Lynch, Chris
High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong.

Pinned
by Marino, Alfred
Dealing with family problems, girls, and their own competitive natures, high school seniors Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane face each other in the final match of the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship.

The Whistling Toilets
by Powell, Randy
While coaching tennis for a group of inner city "runts" as well as for his friend Ginny, a star player, sixteen-year-old Stan grows in understanding himself and others.

Juice
by Walters, Eric
Moose must decide if he should risk taking steroids to become a big star on the football team. When a Division One coach comes to their smaller school to bring the football program up to contender status, Moose and the rest of the players on the team are pumped. Coach Barnes has new ideas and a vision for the future-nothing is too good for his players. With a new training regimen, everything seems to be on a winning track. But when Moose and others are offered steroids, tempers start to fray and the teammates have to decide whose side they are on. Juice is a compelling story about the pressures and temptations that are faced by many in the competitive world of high-school athletics.

Learning the Game
by Waltman, Kevin
When he and his high-school basketball teammates steal from a fraternity house in their small Indiana town, Nate contends with his guilt, his loyalty to his friends, and his desire to help his older brother who comes under suspicion for the crime.