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| Copyright 2003 The Oregonian The Oregonian November 26, 2003 Wednesday SUNRISE EDITION SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. D02 LENGTH: 279 words HEADLINE: BOOK REVIEW PAGES ONE GREAT GAME BY DON WALLACE ATRIA BOOKS,$26 GRADE: B IN 2001, DE LA SALLE AND LONG BEACH POLY THE SOURCE: James Yu - The Oregonian BODY: In 2001, De La Salle and Long Beach Poly, the top two ranked high school football teams in the country, met at the first national championship high school game. Not just a meeting of California prep powerhouses, the game was a battle between cultural worlds; each with a distinct set of social and economic characteristics and each essentially American. The De La Salle Spartans, coached by the iconic Bob Ladouceur, were on a boggling, nine-year, 113-game winning streak. A private Catholic high school in suburban Contra Costa County, De La Salle is predominately white and relatively wealthy; 97 to 98 percent of its graduates head off to college.The Long Beach Poly High Jackrabbits come from an urban public school in one of the most diverse communities in the nation. Celebrities are a tradition; John Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Cameron Diaz, Tony Gwynn and others have roamed the halls at Poly. The school has sent more players to the NFL than any other school in the country. Poly kids excel in the classroom as well. In 1998, the Los Angeles Times named it the top overall high school in California.Wallace traces the lives and backgrounds of participants on both teams. Players train and practice as recruiters ply them with dreams of glory. Coaches strategize and plot; parents fret and worry and the media blow everything out of proportion, naturally.It's a bit anticlimactic when the game is actually played; nevertheless Wallace's chapter-long account of the contest is an engaging depiction of a clash of wills. Overall, his book presents a vibrant and hopeful look at the power of organized sports on young people and their communities. -- James K. Yu |
| Copyright 2003 Time Inc. Sports Illustrated November 17, 2003 SECTION: SCORECARD EXTRA/BOOKS; Pg. Z11 [Not available in all editions] LENGTH: 214 words HEADLINE: Gridiron Duel; A revealing look at the biggest high school football game ever played BYLINE: Bill Syken BODY: ONE GREAT GAME by Don Wallace Atria Books, $ 26.00 High school football may never have a true national championship game, but it came close to having one on Oct. 6, 2001, when the Long Beach (Calif.) Poly Jackrabbits played the De La Salle Spartans of Concord, Calif. Poly came into the game with the No. 1 ranking in the USA Today poll; De La Salle was No. 2 and was riding a U.S. high-school-record 116-game winning streak. When the perennial powerhouses, who had never faced each other, scheduled the game in January 2001, the buildup began almost immediately. Don Wallace's enjoyable book chronicles the game and the contrasts between its combatants. Poly is a Southern California urban public school traditionally laden with college prospects; De La Salle, a Catholic school in a Northern California suburb, is known for the intensity of its program, which includes a rigorous year-round conditioning plan. Wallace, a Poly grad, gives an evenhanded account while conveying the excitement the game created. When a Poly coach declares, "I wish I could suit up and play," you understand what he means. De La Salle won 29-15 (its winning streak has reached 146 games), but knowing the outcome takes surprisingly little away from the book. --Bill Syken GRAPHIC: COLOR PHOTO: ATRIA BOOKS LOAD-DATE: November 12, 2003 |
| New York Times OpEd Friday Night Lights, Camera, Broadcast By DON WALLACE Published: November 1, 2003 It used to be that nothing was bigger than the local high school football game between Homecoming rivals. Now, like Troy falling to a gimmick after a decade-long siege, that innocent era officially ended a week ago Friday night, with the first nationally televised high school football game. The contest, between De La Salle of Concord, Calif., and Evangel Christian Academy of Shreveport, La., was the final victory of professionalization, commercialization and, most of all, nationalization over a game that has always been proudly, passionately home-grown. In a sense, one can see the football game as the third and final step in a process pushed by pollsters, fans, coaches and TV executives in recent years. The first step came in 2001, when De La Salle, then the holder of a 116-game unbeaten streak, was pitted against Long Beach Poly, which is known as California's "School of the Century" in athletics and has sent more players to the NFL than any other in the country. That game, broadcast on the West Coast and Hawaii, was billed as the first high school "national championship," even though it took place on the fifth week of the season, and was essentially a product of polls. It proved to be a great game and pulled a 2.0 Nielsen rating, the highest ever for a high school event. For the first time, a sponsor of the game, Arco, paid the athletic departments of the schools involved. Another sponsor was a company called Student Sports, which calls itself "America's leading high school sports media and marketing company." The company controls a mini-empire of magazines, Internet sites and TV shows; for a fee, student-athletes are allowed to "package comprehensive personal profiles in a format that provides useful and easy to analyze information for recruiters" in its publications. The second step was last December's ESPN2 national broadcast of a basketball game involving St. Vincent-St. Mary High School of Akron, Ohio, and its star, LeBron James. It pulled in a nationwide 1.97 Nielsen rating, and helped turn James's truncated senior year into a coronation processional to the NBA lottery. Not surprisingly, it was organized by the same Chicago marketing company, Paragon Marketing Group, that created last month's football broadcast. And given the similar commercial success of the De La Salle-Evangel game —— it was sponsored by Juicy Fruit chewing gum, a TV crew of dozens provided all the production values of a college game, and it was the first transcontinental matchup of regional powerhouses —— the foundation has been laid for a national playoff system along the lines of college football's Bowl Championship Series. The media are salivating at the prospect. Indeed, a new all-football network, TFN, will be showing four high school games later this season... continued next page |
| New York Times OpEd Friday Night Lights, Camera, Broadcast By DON WALLACE Published: November 1, 2003 ... Yes, in our media-dominated culture, this all might seem inevitable. But there is much to be concerned about, and regret, in this marketing juggernaut. Should high schools abandon their local conferences, as De La Salle and Evangel Christian have done, to schedule ever-bigger showdowns? Should athletes be cajoled into paying to have themselves listed on recruiting sites like those run by Student Sports? Do we really need to hear sports anchors discussing the academic failures of high school student-athletes, as they did during De La Salle-Evangel game? Do we need commentators describing certain programs as "pipelines" to a Division I scholarship, which many a sports-obsessed parent will take as a call to move, even thousands of miles away, for the sake of Junior's future pro career? The coach at De La Salle, Bob Ladouceur, is a religion teacher with a famously spiritual approach to the game and life, but he's in the minority. Far more common are the winning-means-everything coaches, like the one in Mission Viejo, Calif., who runs an elite quarterback camp in the off season, which has ensured a steady stream of talented players onto his team. (This coach was also caught sneaking illegal footballs, specially prepared for his field goal kicker, into a championship game.) Evangel Christian has won eight state titles and one "mythical national championship" since opening in 1989. It represents the future: a 300-student high school that seems to have been created for its football program, rather than the other way around. Criticized for its recruiting practices, roiled when its coach took a year's leave after he was accused of sexual abuse, eager to play out of-state powerhouses, Evangel comes across as a prototype of a gladiatorial marketing machine. With cases of steroid and supplement abuse at the secondary-school level now being confirmed, with coaches and parents routinely engaged in recruiting shell games, and with a new kind of Semi-Pro High School on the horizon, the amateurish local game now seems passé. Which is, let it be said, a shame —— even if I must also admit to having enjoyed De La Salle's old-school 27-10 demolition of the upstarts from Evangel. Don Wallace is author of "One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First-Ever National Championship High School Football Game." back |
| Dave Schoen review in Alameda Times-Star Copyright 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers Alameda Times-Star (Alameda, CA) November 2, 2003 Sunday SECTION: SPORTS NEWS & COLUMNS LENGTH: 416 words HEADLINE: 'One Great Game' BYLINE: By David Schoen, STAFF WRITER BODY: High school football was forever changed on Oct. 6, 2001. What had been largely a regional sport garnered national attention as De La Salle High ventured to Southern California for a showdown with Long Beach Poly in the first national championship game. The contest was a rousing success as more than 100 credentialed journalists attended at Veterans Stadium, celebrities dotted the sidelines and Fox Sports televised the action live. Award-winning writer Don Wallace spent a year with both schools and in his new book "One Great Game," he provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the programs, the players and the buildup to their historic meeting. We learn about De La Salle's 49-week conditioning program and "What is a Spartan?" while also seeing how Long Beach Poly's players overcome a bevy of distractions to carry on the tradition of a school that has produced more NFL players than any high school in the country. "One Great Game" touches on significant issues such as race, the influx of transfers at Poly, rumors of recruiting at De La Salle along with the temptation of taking nutritional supplements that student-athletes face. It delves into the sociological aspects of the teams, their cities and the game in the tradition of H.G. Bissinger's classic "Friday Night Lights." Wallace astutely calls the De La Salle-Poly game "a contest between the American Dream and the American Reality." However, the book has a decided Long Beach slant and never is this more evident than in Wallace's depiction of the locker rooms during halftime. Despite trailing 21-15, Wallace describes Poly as calm and collected, while the Spartans scene was "chaotic, steamy, full of shouting men and desperate-looking kids." Throughout the narrative, Wallace, a 1970 graduate of Poly, would have the reader believe the undersized Spartans could not match the physically imposing Jackrabbits, modern-day Christians being fed to the lions. But we all know that didn't happen as De La Salle went on to win 29-15 despite several players suffering from dehydration and cramps. Wallace spent a year inside the Spartans program, yet he only grudgingly emerges from the game with an appreciation for De La Salle's will and tenacity. He even goes so far as to question the legality of a key play that the Spartans ran in the second half. "One Great Game" certainly has its moments, but when held next to other books about high school football, like Poly it falls two touchdowns short. LOAD-DATE: November 2, 2003 |
| Review by Wanda Adams in Honolulu Advertiser’s Bookmarks Posted on: Sunday, October 26, 2003 BOOKMARK 'Game' plays to readers and those in stands ONE GREAT GAME by Don Wallace; Atria Books, hardback, $26 By Wanda A. Adams Advertiser Book Editor If you're vitally interested in football or if you enjoy a good piece of journalism regardless of subject, this book will keep you reading. It's about the first-ever national high school football championship, which pitted two powerhouse California teams, Concord De La Salle and Long Beach Poly. Wallace, a Poly graduate who played varsity football and an award-winning writer, spent months on the sidelines with both teams and knows how to build suspense, tease out telling detail and - most importantly - get traditionally close-mouthed coaches and athletes to open up. Gritty Poly's famous alumnae include Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg, and the city has a fascinating history. De La Salle is an example of a kind of work-focused, keep-your-nose-clean, God-is-our-co-pilot school that seems almost a throwback. Hawai'i comes into the action because of a comment by a De La Salle coach during a phone interview with an Island radio show back in October of 2000. Something he said led fans here to believe that he had committed No. 1-ranked De La Salle to a Christmastime matchup with Hawai'i's St. Louis. When it became clear that De La Salle had no such intention, the resulting flap had many ripple effects, all covered in detail here (although I suspect some Islanders will disagree with Wallace's characterizations of the place). Wallace also discusses the exceptional place of Pacific islanders, Hawaiians and Samoans in football programs. This one scores a touchdown. |
| Review by Eric Sondheimer in Los Angeles Times’ Hot Corner
October 15, 2003 LOS ANGELES TIMES THE INSIDE TRACK Hot Corner By Eric Sondheimer, Times Staff Writer A consumer's guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it's in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed. What: "One Great Game." Author: Don Wallace. Publisher: Atria Books. Price: $26. Those who remember the hype and buildup for the so-called national championship high school football game between Concord De La Salle and Long Beach Poly in 2001 will enjoy author Don Wallace's year-long look at the schools and individuals involved. "One Great Game" shouldn't be compared to the mesmerizing tales from the best book of all on high school football, "Friday Night Lights," but Wallace introduces us to the game's major characters and provides insights into how De La Salle keeps winning. Wallace goes behind the scenes at Poly and De La Salle, chronicles the differences at the two campuses and explores the reasons for football success. The book is far more entertaining and intriguing when it reveals the personalities of players and coaches than telling what happened in the game itself. The names are familiar. The standouts from Poly who have gone on to college are shown as real teenagers, from Hershel Dennis to Marcedes Lewis, from Darnell Bing to Winston Justice. Most interesting is what makes De La Salle Coach Bob Ladouceur a high school version of John Wooden. One of his memorable quotes: "Individual egos must die in order for a team to live." Wallace deserves credit for a historic record of a game that won't be soon forgotten. |
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