You know the scene: amateur soccer players battling over the ball, spectators cheering from the sidelines, vendors selling their wares from carts. Over the past half century, immigration from Latin America has transformed the public landscape in the United States, and numerous communities are witnessing one of the hallmarks of this transformation: the emergence of park soccer. In Fútbol in the Park, David Trouille takes us into the world of Latino soccer players who regularly play in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood where they are not always welcome. Together on the soccer field, sharing beers after the games, and occasionally exchanging taunts or blows, the men build relationships and a sense of who they are. Through these engrossing, revealing, and at times immortalizing activities, they forge new identities, friendships, and job opportunities, giving themselves a renewed sense of self-worth and community. As the United States becomes increasingly polarized over issues of immigration and culture, Fútbol in the Park offers a close look at the individual lives and experiences of migrants.

After twenty years of living in Italy, Tim Parks, whom Joseph Brodsky has called "the best British author writing today," spent a full year following the fortunes--and misfortunes--of the Verona football--oops! soccer--club. Here is his rollicking report.

Tim wants to play football with the big boys but they say that he is too little.

Fast approaching 30, Barney Ronay is a Sunday League left back with some tough choices to make. Is staying in with his girlfriend and Gardeners' World on a Friday night doing much for his match fitness? Would he be better off back with his best mate Dan in the bachelor pad of pizza boxes, lager and Playstation into the early hours? This is the hilarious story of a team in early mid-life crisis, hiding from responsibility in the strange masochism at the ugly end of the beautiful game.

Ty Lewis can't believe it when Coach V recruits him for the football team. This is Ty's big chance to prove how fast he is on the field, get a fresh start in a new school, and be like his older brother, Thane "Tiger" Lewis, who's about to graduate from college—and is being courted by the NFL. But Ty's guardian, Uncle Gus, won't let him play. Uncle Gus needs Ty to scrub floors and toilets for his cleaning business while he cooks up gambling schemes with the local mob boss, a man called "Lucy." When Lucy hears just how famous Ty's older brother is, he becomes suddenly friendly. Are the questions Lucy is asking Ty really about fantasy football . . . or is the Mafia using Ty to get valuable insider info from his superstar brother? Desperately worried, Ty must come up with a plan to save Thane's football career—and, ultimately, his life. Author of the New York Times bestselling Football Genius, former NFL player Tim Green will have you on the edge of your seat rooting for Ty—and enjoying an up-close look at what it's like to be inside the NFL.

For every athlete or sports fanatic who knows she's just as good as the guys. This is for fans of The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, Grace, Gold, and Glory by Gabrielle Douglass and Breakaway: Beyond the Goal by Alex Morgan. The summer before Caleb and Tessa enter high school, friendship has blossomed into a relationship . . . and their playful sports days are coming to an end. Caleb is getting ready to try out for the football team, and Tessa is training for cross-country. But all their structured plans derail in the final flag game when they lose. Tessa doesn’t want to end her career as a loser. She really enjoys playing, and if she’s being honest, she likes it even more than running cross-country. So what if she decided to play football instead? What would happen between her and Caleb? Or between her two best friends, who are counting on her to try out for cross-country with them? And will her parents be upset that she’s decided to take her hobby to the next level? This summer Caleb and Tessa figure out just what it means to be a boyfriend, girlfriend, teammate, best friend, and someone worth cheering for. “A great next choice for readers who have enjoyed Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Dairy Queen and Miranda Kenneally’s Catching Jordan.”—SLJ “Fast-paced football action, realistic family drama, and sweet romance…[will have] readers looking for girl-powered sports stories…find[ing] plenty to like.”—Booklist “Tessa's ferocious competitiveness is appealing.”—Kirkus Reviews “[The Football Girl] serve[s] to illuminate the appropriately complicated emotions both of a young romance and of pursuing a dream. Heldring writes with insight and restraint.”—The Horn Book

Ohio State Football Radio Network commentator and football speaker Jack Park takes you on a memorable journey through more than 100 years of Buckeye football. The detailed scrapbook narrative contains never before-published vintage photographs, artwork and memorabilia drawn from OSU s extensive campus archives. Tucked into dozens of sleeves and pockets, fans will find reproductions of old game programs, historic tickets, bumper stickers and more. These fascinating replicas include a formation diagram for the band s famous Script Ohio, a letter from President Gerald Ford to Woody Hayes and those classic Buckeye helmet stickers. No Ohio State fan should be without this home archive of OSU s long and illustrious history.

The best chants, the funniest nicknames, the greatest headlines and enough little-known facts to keep the average football supporter entertained - and entertaining - for several seasons. This is the story of the greatest game on earth, from 'abandoned matches' to 'Yeovil Town', via celebrity fans, mascots, punditry and superstitions, written from the fan's point of view and with a separate entry for every club in the English and Scottish leagues. Who cares why, if Torquay United's strikers had been more prolific in the 1950s, England may never have won the World Cup; or where football hooliganism actually began; or who the hell Captain Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam is? We do. Because as every true student of the game knows: it's important.

When one considers traditional high school football powers in the United States, a tiny institution in Chicago is never mentioned. It has been decades since Morgan Park Military Academy last fielded a football team, yet the influence of its gridiron program cannot be disregarded. With a decorated football history dating back to 1893, the private school on Chicago’s south side completed nine undefeated seasons, sent four representatives to the College Football Hall of Fame, and often experienced difficulty scheduling games, due to the powerful teams it sent out on the field. Yet, it rarely enrolled more than 200 students in its high school curriculum! Author Joe Ziemba details the fascinating history of the Academy football program from its beginnings in 1893 through its final season as Morgan Park Military Academy in 1958. Cadets, Cannons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy focuses on individual and team stories throughout the years, taking the reader back to a time when game travel was via horse and buggy, game reports were carried by the major Chicago newspapers, and football stars were treated as local celebrities. Ziemba, whose father was the football coach at the Academy in the 1940s and 1950s, uncovered numerous “forgotten” incidents from the past, including an episode in 1900 when the students were so pleased with a football victory that they accidently burned down a campus building! The reader will also meet former Academy players (and College Football Hall of Famers) like Jesse Harper, who became the legendary coach at Notre Dame; Wallace Wade, who led Alabama to three national championships; as well as Albert Benbrook, a two-time All-American at the University of Michigan. In addition, the steady hand of University of Chicago coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, who helped guide the Academy squad in its early years, is profiled. Aside from these four Hall of Famers, the Academy football program also produced numerous collegiate head coaches at schools such as Illinois, Baylor, and Cincinnati, a Broadway playwright, an NFL official, and even a man who ascended to one of the highest political offices in the country. Along the way, Ziemba offers a glimpse at the history of the school itself (around since 1873) including student food strikes, financial challenges, one of the greatest unsolved crimes in Chicago gangland history, and the fact that over 800 graduates served in WWII, an astounding number for a prep school of this size. More than just a history of one school, Cadets, Cannons, and Legends is must reading for any lover of football. It traces the very history of the game, detailing significant rules changes that saved the sport after years of catastrophic deaths on the field (including one at the Academy). Later, it details efforts to keep this private school extant during the Great Depression, including opening the campus doors to a professional football team (the Chicago, now Arizona, Cardinals) in the summer months to generate income (and lowering the pay of its own football coach to $25 per month). Cadets, Cannons, and Legends provides new insight into the early days of high school football when game travel could be hundreds of miles rather than just against a neighborhood rival, and recognizes the forgotten pioneers of what is now America’s favorite competition. Rarely has a high school program with such an extraordinary contribution to the game of football been so thoroughly researched and resurrected from its own forgotten past. It is not merely a journey into the gridiron history of Morgan Park Military Academy, but rather, it ushers us down to a front row seat where we can closely observe the roots of football itself. "Ziemba’s… scholarly rigor is indefatigable and remarkable…For readers interested in an astute history of the game’s inception, this is a worthy option. A remarkably well-researched history of a football team that should appeal to fans of the school or the game." -Kirkus Reviews

The Bulls Football Team in the Little Blossom Stories series uses curriculum based fiction to get children comfortable with reading--and excited about playing football. This book uses a combination of sight words and short-vowel words in repetition to build recognition and confidence. Original illustrations help guide readers through the text. Text and format is created by Cecilia Minden, PhD, a literacy consultant and former director of the Language and Literacy program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Includes phonics and teachers' guide.