{"product_id":"state-9781572842908","title":"State","description":"Set against a backdrop of social change during the 1970s, \u003ci\u003eState\u003c\/i\u003e is an important, compelling, and entertaining first-person account of what it was like to live through both traditional gender discrimination in sports and the joy of the very first days of equality--or at least the closest that one high school girls' basketball team ever came to it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In 1975, freshman Melissa Isaacson--along with the other girls who'd spent summers with their noses pressed against the fences of Little League ball fields, unable to play--entered Niles West High School in suburban Chicago with one goal: make a team, \u003ci\u003eany\u003c\/i\u003e team. For \"Missy,\" that team turned out to be basketball. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Title IX had passed just three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs or activities, including athletics. As a result, states like Illinois began implementing varsity competition--and state tournaments--for girls' high school sports. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e At the time, Missy and her teammates didn't really understand the legislation. All they knew was they finally had opportunities--to play, to learn, to sweat, to lose, to win--and an identity: They were athletes. They were a team. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e And in 1979, they became state champions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e With the intimate insights of the girl who lived it, the pacing of a born storyteller, and the painstaking reporting of a veteran sports journalist, Isaacson chronicles one high school team's journey to the state championship. In doing so, Isaacson shows us how a group of \"tomboy\" misfits found themselves and each other, and how basketball rescued them from their collective frustrations and troubled homes, and forever altered the course of their lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Agate Midway\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/08\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781572842908\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs","brand":"Melissa Isaacson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36660215939228,"sku":"9781572842908","price":14.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_e0519b13-66a0-4635-bb43-9e8677ed70bb.jpg?v=1603896317","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/state-9781572842908","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}