State

With the passing of Title IX, a Chicago high school girls' basketball team becomes pioneers as they play for the championship in this sports memoir.Set against a backdrop of social change during the 1970s, State is a compelling first-person account of what it was like to live through both traditional gender discrimination in sports and the joy of the very first days of equality-or at least the closest that one high school girls' basketball team ever came to it.In 1975, freshman Melissa Isaacson-along with a group of other girls who'd spent summers with their noses pressed against the fences of Little League ball fields, unable to play-entered Niles West High School in suburban Chicago with one goal: make a team, any team. For "e;Missy,"e; that turned out to be the basketball team.Title IX had passed just three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs or activities, including athletics. As a result, states like Illinois began implementing varsity competition-and state tournaments-for girls' high school sports.At the time, Missy and her teammates didn't really understand the legislation. All they knew was they finally had opportunities-to play, to learn, to sweat, to lose, to win-and an identity: they were athletes. They were a team. And in 1979, they became state champions.With the intimate insights of the girl who lived it, the pacing of a born storyteller, and the painstaking reporting of a veteran sports journalist, Isaacson chronicles one high school team's journey to the state championship. In doing so, Isaacson shows us how a group of "e;tomboys"e; found themselves and each other, and how basketball rescued them from their collective frustrations and troubled homes, and forever altered the course of their lives.Praise for State"e;A beautiful story of basketball and life."e; -Steve Kerr, head coach, Golden State Warriors"e;Isaacson perfectly captures the birth of Title IX and a time when high school girls were starting to gain equality in sports and in the classroom, showing us how opportunities on the court can light a path for girls to become their authentic selves in all aspects of their lives."e; -Billie Jean King, founder of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative"e;The book is special because Isaacson captures the special bond that formed among the female athletes. Not only were they teammates, they were pioneers of a sort . . . . A wonderful book that is both eye-opening history and a moving and deeply personal memoir."e; -Booklist, starred review"e;An intimate, at times inspiring account."e; -Kirkus Reviews