“Sometimes in football, a play unfolds that is so well designed, so beautiful in execution, that it will haunt you forever.” One excessively important in Crackback by John Coy. Published in 2005, Crackback is about a Junior, Miles Manning, in high school on the Varsity football team. Miles is not the most confident kid in the world, even admitting that he is not handsome or too bright, but one thing he knows for sure is that football is his thing. Soon the troubles of being in high school start. For one, Miles’ best friend, Zach, is taking steroids to become better and tells Miles to take them too. His father is not the most proud father, supposedly, and almost always lectures Miles about stuff like school, football, and things around the house. Then when his head coach gets cancer, the assistant coach, Coach Stahl, comes into power and Miles doesn’t like it one bit.

I am not exactly like Miles except for the fact that i am not too sure in myself either. I enjoy football like Miles and play it as well. At times Miles wonders whether he belongs to the “jock” group or the standard kids. Sometimes he wonders about the steroids Zach is taking, or how to survive Coach Stahl’s grueling practices. He does find himself enjoying some activities he would never have thought of. So in a way I am a bit like Miles, though not too much.

I greatly enjoyed Crackback and would rate it four-and-a-half out of five stars. My favorite parts of Crackback were Miles’ game winning saves. I have had one or two games were one crucial catch was all we needed to win, and we did. I suppose one thing I didn’t enjoy about Crackback were the crazy fast plot twists ranging from his family to his friends. I wouldn’t change much ,if anything, about Crackback as it was a story that would appeal to teenage footballers everywhere.

I would greatly recommend Crackback to high schoolers because of it’s relevance to high school sports. Anyone could enjoy this book, but people who would greatly like it are probably athletes, as it is a fairly easy read and once you start you almost can’t put it down. Final score is definitely four-and-a-half stars out of five.