Forward Pass [Paperback]

Thomas J. Dygard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1990

Coach Gardner is desperate for a decent pass catcher for his Aldridge High Panthers. Jill Winston is the surprise he comes up with--but a girl on a high school football team? Thomas Dygard takes readers through the maze of problems that the coach must maneuver to get his new star on the field.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7-- A girl on the high-school football team? Only a writer with Dygard's deftness could take as hackneyed a subject and do a good job with it. It seems that Coach Gardner is desperate for a decent pass catcher for his Aldridge High Panthers. Otherwise, he must muddle through a dismal season with a ground game alone. Jill Winston is the surprise he comes up with--an athletic girl who has already shown that she can catch a ball from her basketball experience. Dygard takes readers carefully and convincingly through the maze of problems that the coach must maneuver to get his new star onto the field: Jill's father's objections, Jill's boyfriend's jealousy, questions about potential injury, the community's reaction, the basketball coach's reaction, and more. As expected, these problems are all worked through, and Jill is indeed the miracle player that the coach expected her to be. Somehow, Dygard makes it all sound believable (perhaps because everyone involved reacts just as you would expect), and there's the extra fillip of good description of football action. --Robert E. Unsworth, Scarsdale Junior High School, NY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (October 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140345620
• ISBN-13: 978-0140345629
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,296,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Female Football Star, December 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Forward Pass (Paperback)

The Panthers have the best quarterback in Illinois. The only problem is they don't have a receiver to catch his bullet passes. Then one night at a basketball game, Coach Gardener finds a perfect wide receiver. The only catch is the new wide receiver is a girl. Scott (the quarterback) Jill, and Coach Gardener are all very enthusiastic about Jill playing unlike Jill's father and boyfriend, Henry (the Panther's tackle) who don't want Jill to play for two different reasons. At first Jill's father is very protective. If an opponent bumped her out of bounds, her father would be all over Coach Gardener at the end of the game. Henry didn't want Jill to play because he thought every one would make fun of him at school for having a girlfriend who plays on the football team. That all changed when the Panthers started to win every game. Forward Pass takes place in a town in Illinois. The setting doesn't really matter. The book was published in 1989, so I would say it took place from 1989 to about 1995 because (I a big sport fan so I know this) a high girl played a high school game for the first time in 1995. The author didn't really use descriptive language but he made it so you were sucked right into the book. The book is told in 3rd person and is a fairly easy book to read. I read it in three days. I would recommend it to female sport fans from ages 9-12. There was some uptightness during the game when the referees would come up to Coach Gardener and ask if number 89 was a girl. When Coach Gardener replied the "yup" the referees would warn him about the responsibility, and the consequences. The only suspense was if Jill would be able to play. My favorite part of Forward Pass was when Scott threw an interception and then Jill tackled him, saving a touchdown. "The defensive back, behind her, reached up and picked the ball out of the air. He ran past Jill with nothing but space between him and the goal line. Then Jill dived at his back. Jill slammed a shoulder into his backside at waist height, locking her arms around him. He stumbled through one more step and then began to fall, turning sideways with the weight of Jill dragging on him." I liked this part because Jill (from my point of view) was playing real football. She wasn't sissy side-stepping out of bounds. She was playing real hard core football. This part of the book is also the climax.

4.0 out of 5 stars The raising of a sports issue that should be the topic of more debate, November 7, 2010

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Forward Pass (Paperback)

This adolescent sports book was a timely topic of the late eighties, if it had been published before that time it would have been greeted with derision. However, after the emergence of strong female athletes that have been competing at a high level for decades, it is now a bit antiquated.
The premise is that Frank Gardner; the Aldridge Panthers football coach is one fast and shifty wide receiver short of having a complete team. To make up that deficiency he asks basketball star Jill Winston if she would play football. It is a gutsy attempt on his part and being a competitor, Jill agrees. Frank has designed a set of plays where she is kept away from contact and it is only under those circumstances where her parents allow her to play.
What makes this book interesting is that Dygard covers the reaction of outsiders from both sides. He has women calling him to praise his having a girl on the team and other women calling him to berate him for even considering such a thing.
The rest of the story has the usual predictable big game where Jill makes some big plays. At the end, there is a nice conclusion, Jill never loses her head over the sudden national fame and goes back to being what she really is, a basketball player. However, every one of the players, coaches and the readers has learned a lesson about competition, sports(wo)manship and the growing uncertainty of gender roles.

3.0 out of 5 stars Forward Pass by Thomas J. Dygard, May 13, 2005

By 

bob - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forward Pass (Paperback)

Forward Pass, by Thomas J. Dygard is a great book. This book is about a coach that is tired of losing every year and mostly because he doesn't have a wide receiver that can catch the ball.
It stars off with him getting a crazy idea of getting a girl to play as a wide receiver in his team. He got the idea when he went to see a girl's basketball game. He was amazed at how she was able to get the ball even when it seemed impossible to catch. So he went on and proposed the idea to the girl. Her name is Jill Winston. It was easy to get Jill to agree, but was harder to get the principle, her parents, and her boyfriend, a football player. There were also a lot of questions needed to be explained, like: A girl playing football; isn't she going to be hurt; what are others going to think about it? Well, he worked it out and got her to play. She was a big surprise to everyone because they kept her a secret until the second game of the championship.
Even though the author took a long time to get to the point in some parts, the book is detailed and interesting. This book would be interesting to everyone and especially to those whom like sports