Playing with the Boys

Shepherd, Nicole Leigh. Playing with the Boys. 2008. 244p. ISBN 978-1-59514-113-2. FIC SHE on the library shelves.

Following the death of her mother, Lucy and her father move from Ohio to California as an attempt to leave the pain behind. The star of her high school varsity soccer team, she tries out for her new school’s team, but despite the fact that she has the most accurate kick, she does not even make the junior varsity squad of Beachwood High. In frustration, she kicks the ball across half of the field and storms off.

Observed by the football coach, Lucy is approached and asked to try out for the varsity football team as it needs a new kicker. At first, Lucy is not entirely comfortable with the idea. Football, after all, is a guy sport. But during the tryouts she realizes that as the kicker, she’s in complete control of the ball and of the results on the field, and that makes her forget about the pain of her mother’s death. Plus, the quarterback, Ryan Conner, is very cute.

Unfortunately, no one else wants her on the team. Not her teammates, not the school administrators, and not her father, who has always tried to protect her. Can Lucy surmount these obstacles and become the best kicker the team’s ever had, or will she cave under the pressure and the scrutiny?

Fans of Dairy Queen will enjoy Lucy taking on a male sport as they cheered for DJ in a similar plot.