Grass Roots & Schoolyards: A High School Basketball Anthology

Campbell, retired Athletic Journal reporter, here assembles a collection of articles about high school basketball largely culled from local newspapers, with some excerpted from national magazines and books. The pieces are divided into three categories, embracing small towns, big cities and so-called in-betweens. The opening section, on the sport in rural hamlets, presents selections of a monotonous sameness: almost all concern the victories of teams from small schools over highly favored urban groupsDavid vs. Goliath again and again. The section on city teams has more variety, although there is an emphasis on black players achieving distinction. The final segment is the best, especially a chapter titled ""A Town Divided,'' a sociological study in microcosm about Hamilton, Ohio. (January 5)