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Forward Pass

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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.

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.

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

A person should never care what anybody else thinks or says about them the way I see it. We should all do what we want and not let it get to us when somebody is there trying to put you down. Aldridge High School has a pretty good all around football team, but they have no receivers. When the high school football coach Frank Gardner goes to a girl's basketball game he notices something very strange. He sees a girl that is about 6'2, really fast, and great eye and hand coordination. It is a very good book. Jill Winston, the girl gets put down a lot for wanting to play football, but she don't care, she keeps doing it and leads her to a very important game.

It was autumn, and almost two weeks away from football season. Coach Frank Gardner had been coaching the Panthers for two executive years, and he knew he had an all around good team. He also knew he didn't have many receivers that could catch the ball very well. That night, Coach Gardner was at a high school girl's basketball game and as he was watching something popped in his head that he would have never thought of. Five seconds to go and he looks running down the court, an athletic looking girl about 6'2, and on the other end one of her teammates launched the ball down the court. Jill Winston was right there, and made a great catch and won the game for them. He was going to try and get Jill Winston to play football for the Aldridge Panther's. He didn't know how it would work out but he was going to try it anyways.

Next day at school, he calls Jill Winston into his office. He just comes out and tells her how he feels about her. He tells her she's very athletic and he wants her to play football. She gets this surprising look on her face. She tells him that her parents would kill her and all of her friends would laugh at her. Coach Gardner stopped her right after she said that and told her he would have a talk with her parents, and it shouldn't matter what her friends thought of her, that it was up to her if she wanted to play. He told her to think about it and he'd see her tomorrow. Next day arrives and he calls Jill to his office again. She decided she wanted to play but she didn't know if her parents would let her. So that day Coach Gardner went to her house and sat down knowing it would be a long talk with Jill's mom and dad. Her dad about went off at first until he finally looked at Jill and seen that she was about to cry and she told him she wanted to play. She knew she could help the football team out. So after a very long talk with her parents they agreed to let her play.

Two weeks later when practice started and everybody in the school found out about Jill playing football, a lot of rumors started spreading and Jill got put down all the time. She came very close to quitting the next day until Coach Gardner had a talk with her and told her not to worry about what other people thought about her. It was her choice to play, not everybody else. First game comes and she has a spectacular game. She loves it and she's very good at it. First game didn't change anything though. She was still getting put down for playing football but she didn't care. They went undefeated that season and were finally in the championship game. She makes a winning catch in the championship and everybody had a smile on their face. Everybody knew she was a great football player and that she helped the team out a lot. She was very proud that day because she knew she made a big accomplishment.

This book teaches a very good lesson to high school students. If you want to do something then do it. Don't be offended by what every body else thinks or says because in the long run, you will come out happy.

This book is about a player that you thought would never play. Her name is Jill Winston. She plays, not soccer, but football. Jill plays for the Panthers. When the coach saw her play basketball, saw how high she could jump and much better she was then some of the players, he said she was the miracle they needed. He put Jill on the team and said when the QB throws the ball to Jill and she catchs it, she gets out of bounds without getting tackle to be hurt. The problem they had to get over was Jill going out with one of the players and how he would act. They got over that Jill's boy friend was mad at first, but he got over it in the long run. She was a top wide receiver and lead the Panthers to win the Championship. At the end Jill returned to basketball her favorite sport.

This book is about a player that you thought would never play her name is Jill Winston. She plays, not soccer, but football. Jill plays for the Panthers. When the coach saw her play basketball and saw how high she could jump and how better she was then some of the players on the team he said she was the miracle they needed. He put Jill on the team and said when the QB throws the ball to Jill and she catchs it and she gets out of bounds without getting tackle to be hurt, but the problem they had to get over was Jill going out with one of the players and how he would act. They got over that Jill's boy friend was mad at first, but he got over it in the long run. She was a top wide receiver and lead the Panthers to win the Championship. At the end Jill returned to basketball her favorite sport.

In Forward Pass, Panther football coach Frank Gardener doesn't have a good pass receiver. That is, until he watches Jill Winston in a basketball game and sees her natural ability to catch a pass. He asks her if she would like to play football and she accepts. She goes on to lead the team through about seven straight wins and leaves football to return to the sport she loves best, basketball.