Hope
A School, a Team, a Dream
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The inspirational true story about the trials and victories of the Hope High School basketball team in inner-city Providence, Rhode Island.
Hope High School in Providence, Rhode Island was once a model city school, graduating a wide range of students from different backgrounds. But the tumult of the 1960s and the drug wars of the 70s changed both Providence and Hope. Today, the aging school is primarily Hispanic and African-American, with kids traveling for miles by bus and foot each day.
Hope was known for its state championship basketball teams in the 1960s, but its 2012 team is much different. Disobedient, distracted, and overwhelmed by family troubles, with mismatched sneakers and a penchant for profanity and anger, these boys represent Coach Dave Nyblom's dream of a championship, however unlikely that might seem. Nyblom's mostly black players, including several who emigrated to Providence from war-torn Liberia, face gang violence, domestic uncertainty, drug problems, and a host of other issues. But with the unfailing support and guidance of Nyblom and other Hope coaches, their ragtag team gradually pulls together, overcoming every obstacle to find the faith and trust in themselves that Nyblom never stops teaching.
A look at a hidden world that just a few hundred yards from Brown University, Bill Reynolds's Hope is the inspiring true story of young men and their mentors pursuing one goal—a championship—but achieving so much more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this uneven book, longtime Providence Journal sports columnist Reynolds (Fall River Dreams) follows a basketball squad at Hope High School in Providence, R.I., a once-proud school that has been ravaged by gangs, unstable families, and indifference. At Hope, it's a small miracle if the kids attend class. Amid the chaos, head coach Dave Nyblom, who regularly brings food for his underfed players, fields a competitive squad. Nyblom is part disciplinarian and part father figure to these rudderless boys, most of whom probably won't appreciate his attention until they're gone. Early on, Reynolds expresses a keen interest to learn more about the students, but while examining the challenges Nyblom faces as a coach, Reynolds rarely follows the kids beyond the gym. That distance, coupled with the columnist's voice-from-the-mountaintop approach, reduces Nyblom and his players to footnotes in a tired narrative of a white knight in the urban jungle. So much about these kids who they are and how they get through each day remains unexplained and underreported. Reynolds says he cares for Hope's players, but he never shows it.
