The Rebounders

January 22, 2018
In this charming though uneven memoir, Ottaway recalls her four years as a scholarship player, beginning in 2008, on Davidson College’s women’s basketball team. She shares stories of her emotional and physical toil during the season, dealing with a coaching staff that breeds discord (“I believed that coach Katz loved us in her way. I just didn’t think she knew how to show us... her competitiveness came off as plain old hurtful”), stressing over her meager playing time, and realizing that she and her teammates are simply university “merchandise.” Ottaway relishes details—a strength coach boasts calves as “wide as cereal boxes”—and her description of the financial burden families face when a player gets injured is eye-opening. Throughout, she includes stories of her former teammates alongside those of her own struggles, a technique that works to varying degrees: while it offers glimpses into the broader world of college sports, it distracts from the narrative. Ottaway is certainly an affable and trustworthy guide but readers will be left wanting more. Agent: Laurie Abkemeier, DeFiore and Co.

March 15, 2018
Ottaway attended Davidson College in North Carolina on a basketball scholarship and is now a journalist in New York. This is a fascinating memoir precisely because she was not a star player, which gives her account of playing in college basketball's highest level (Division I) a perspective different from that of most athletes' memoirs. Her reflections on the college game aren't always flattering to others (she has changed the names of all her teammates and coaches in deference to their privacy). Among the issues explored are recruitment, body images and eating disorders, practice routines, intrateam rivalries, and the competitive atmosphere that permeates every aspect of the players' lives. She also delves into the social life of the Division I athlete: parties, drinking, and drug use. There's plenty of inside basketball, too, along with thoughtful reflection on the basketball conundrum that has men coaching women at all levels, but women rarely if ever coaching men. Ottaway is a fine writer who exhibits both compassion and insight throughout this story of one woman's coming-of-age as an athlete. Strongly recommended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)