Outside Shot

A reporting tour de force and an utterly gripping account… Outside Shot unmistakably triumphs with the reader rooting hard for the Cardinals―and delighted that O''Brien has brought his considerable skills to telling their story. ―Wayne Coffey New York Times Book ReviewThe Cardinals of Scott County High School were beloved once---and with good reason. For years the boys and their legendary coach gave fans in central Kentucky deep in the heart of basketball country just what they wanted: state titles national rankings and countless trips to Kentucky''s one-of-a-kind state tournament where winning and losing can change a young man''s life. But in 2009 with the economy sputtering anger rising and Scott County mired in a two-year drought fans had begun to lose faith in the boys. They weren''t the heroes of Scott County anymore; they were mini-athlete gods haunted by dreams burdened by expectations and desperate to escape through the only means they knew: basketball. In Outside Shot Keith O''Brien takes us on an epic journey from the bluegrass hills and broken homes of rural America to inner-city Lexington to Kentucky''s most hallowed hall: Rupp Arena where high school tournament games are known to draw twenty-thousand people and where for the players and their fans it feels like anything is possible. The narrative follows four of the team''s top seniors and their coach as they struggle to redeem themselves in the face of impossible odds: once-loyal fans now turned against them parents who demand athletic greatness and scouts who weigh their every move. It delves deep inside the lives of the boys their families and their community---divided along lines of race politics religion and sports. And it chronicles not only the high-stakes world of Kentucky basketball but the battle for the soul of small-town America. A story of inspiration and poignancy filled with moments of drama on and off the court Outside Shot shows that if it''s hard to win basketball games it can be even harder to win at life itself.