| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xiv, 343 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-328) and index. |
| Contents |
Part I. Boyhood -- Gio's arrival, July 2013 -- Looking for these better days, August 2013 -- Directed toward decay, September 2013 -- The fundamentals of life, September-November 2013 -- Crossroads, January 2014 -- Pressure chamber, March-April 2014 -- Between saviors and a dead end, April 2014 -- What's best for Isaiah, May 2014 -- Goodbyes, June 2014 -- Part II. Football -- The days and nights of summer, June-July 2014 -- On the horizon, July-August 2014 -- Hell week, August, 2014 -- Stop dancin' and run somebody over, August-September 2014 -- What they've been waiting for, early to mid-September 2014 -- East Orange, mid-September 2014 -- To make it in the jungle, late September, 2014 -- Brick City, late September 2014 -- None of y'all gon' die tonight, mid to late October 2014 -- The rematch, late October 2014 -- Blessings, December 2017. |
| Summary |
This uplifting story of a youth football team shines light on a group of preteen boys fighting for upward mobility while on the frontlines of monumental shifts in America, living in a community eroding from gentrification and playing a sport threatened by a growing understanding of its risks. Never Ran, Never Will tells the story of the working-class, mostly black neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn; its proud youth football team, the Mo Better Jaguars; and the young boys who are often at the center of both. Oomz, Gio, Hart, and their charismatic, vulnerable friends, come together on a dusty football field. All around them their community is threatened by violence, poverty, and the specter of losing their homes to gentrification. Their passionate, unpaid coaches teach hard lessons about surviving American life with little help from the outside world, cultivating in their players the perseverance and courage to make it. Football isn't everybody's ideal way to find the American dream, but for some kids it's the surest road there is. The Mo Better Jaguars team offers a refuge from the gang feuding that consumes much of the streets and a ticket to a better future in a country where football talent remains an exceptionally valuable commodity. If the team can make the regional championships, prestigious high schools and colleges might open their doors to the players. Five years in the reporting, Never Ran, Never Will is a complex, humane story that reveals the changing world of an American inner city and a group of unforgettable boys in the middle of it all. |
| Subject |
Mo Better Jaguars (Football team)
|
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Football -- Social aspects -- New York (State) -- New York.
|
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Inner cities -- New York (State) -- New York -- Social life and customs.
|
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African American boys -- New York (State) -- New York -- Social life and customs.
|
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Brownsville (New York, N.Y.) -- Social conditions.
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Football -- Social aspects.
(OCoLC)fst00931398
|
|
Social conditions. (OCoLC)fst01919811
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New York (State) -- New York.
(OCoLC)fst01204333
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New York (State) -- New York -- Brownsville.
(OCoLC)fst01314387
|
|
EDUCATION / Physical Education.
|
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SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban.
|
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SPORTS & RECREATION / Football.
|
| Genre/Form |
Nonfiction.
|
| ISBN |
9781610398688 (hardcover) |
|
1610398688 (hardcover) |
|
9781541767867 electronic book |
|
