Football stories and other plays / autor e ilustrador Dan Tilley.

At the Heatherwood Hills Condominium sandlot the farmers played football everyday. It was late summer and the boys were practicing in preparation for the Riverbend Junior High football season. Most of the players had met just months before while registering for classes at Riverbend. The boys were all from different towns on Long Island, New York. Being of every creed and color, they formed special bonds. Most had recently moved to Heatherwood Hills in Calverton. Some of them lived and worked on sod or potato farms. It was the summer of 1973 and racial tensions were high around the country. However, Riverbend had been integrated for years and was spared the extreme separation.

Early that summer some of the players had become Calverton farmers. They moved irrigation pipe from one side of the field to the other. They were potato-field pedestrians counting rows and tightening risers. Flannel shirts, overalls, and mud boots made up their wardrobe. CSN and Elton John songs could be heard blasting from lot cars on dirt farm roads driven by underage teens. Their fathers built and tested the Grumman F-14 fighter plane that "Maverick" made famous. They were made for football. The farmers called themselves the Calverton Cougars, and they challenged the surrounding town's sandlot teams to play tackle football. They had a few games under their belt before colliding with the Flanders Greasers.

Flanders Bay is the point where Long Island forks into the north and south shore. Flanders Field was in the heart of greaser territory and near Jeskies Deli. It was also near Flanders Bay where black leather beauties strolling bay-side boardwalks bolstered their boyfriends virility and tough demeanor. They too wore the black leather uniform along with Kiss, Ramones, and Twisted Sister tee shirts. Junior high would-be greasers adorned black leather garb like their high school heroes. They were the kids I knew from school and were our formidable opponents along with street walking substitutes.


The story follows Dan who you could say was a traveling student in a traveling family. He attends four junior high schools in a year and a half. He meets incredible friends he will later encounter on the ball field. Heartwarming friendships rise and fall. After moving up from Florida, Dan and his younger brother, Glenn, continue their football ways. But there is much living in-between games. Relationships play key roles in the evolution of allies and adversaries. Flanders and Calverton then graduate to a new level of play.

Francis and Willie the long-time Riverbend Junior High football coaches inherit the Cougar-Greaser dynamic. They focus the young gladiators on playing to their games' strengths. They relate failure to being out of shape and unprepared. They advise the boys to always play their game no matter the time remaining. Finally, the moment comes when winners and losers meet. That's not to say there wasn't some uncertainty and hubris along the way. The Riverbend Tidal Waves face warriors, hunters, and themselves in triumph, tragedy, and other plays. Follow the boys through one of the great games in history. El texto.

Texto en inglés.

Licenciatura en Inglés