Sarah Palin and the Wasilla Warriors
The True Story of the Improbable 1982 Alaska State Basketball Championship
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
With Sarah Palin and the Wasilla Warriors, acclaimed sportswriter Mike Shropshire goes beyond Sarah Palin's media profile to tell the incredible untold story of how she and a team of young women came together to overcome daunting odds as they battled their way to the Alaska state championship.
Long before the whole world knew Sarah Palin as "Momma Grizzly," the handful of girls on her high school basketball team called their starting point guard Sarah "Barracuda" for the tenacious defense she played. Hers was the kind of determination that fit in well on a scrappy team from a small town where people were proud to call themselves Valley Trash and happy to take on the big-city schools to prove which team was really the best.
As beautiful as Alaska is, it's also unforgiving. It's a place where your first mistake may be your last. When the winter comes and the nights are long and the temperatures plunge, everyone starts looking for an escape. All across Alaska, those gyms—bright and warm—become a sanctuary not only for the players but for their isolated hometowns as well.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shropshire (The Last Real Season) offers an unabashed paean to Sarah Palin (n e Heath) in the guise of a sports triumph. Palin, relegated to the junior varsity team her junior year, returned to be elected co-captain and play point guard her senior year, even though she was "not overwhelmingly gifted with raw basketball talent." The prose is weighted by effusive testimonials for Palin, who was "part bearcat" and "tougher than the filet mignon that they served at Mel's Diner," and leaves the impression that Palin alone should be credited with the championship. Game-by-game replays are intermixed with historical sketches such as basketball in Alaska, the coach, the junior high school coach, and the Alaska pipeline. Some sketches provide insight; others are baffling in their presence. A tendency toward inane metaphors Alaska was a "gelid hell on earth," and "the hay was not in the barn yet," referring to an uncompleted game further contribute to an erratic narrative. Photos.
