Crossing the Line

November 1, 2020
Readers who think of polo--one of the world's oldest equestrian sports--as merely a pastime for royalty and the very wealthy should prepare to be surprised. This is a contemporary memoir about the first African American polo team to win, against formidable odds, the National Interscholastic Polo Championship, in 2011. Rosser shares his story of growing up in a tough West Philadelphia neighborhood called the Bottom, where he found refuge and structure at an equestrian program for urban youth called Work to Ride. Program founder Lezlie Hiner has dedicated her life to helping at-risk kids, giving them a chance to learn how to ride horses and play polo. Rosser's older brothers participated in the program and proved talented players but eventually succumbed to the lure of crime. Hiner, a surrogate parent for Rosser, helped him take advantage of opportunities to earn scholarships at Valley Forge Military Academy and then Colorado State University, where he became Intercollegiate Polo Player of the Year. This is a marvelous addition to the literature of inspirational sports stories. It's an occasionally heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting coming-of-age story about the bonds of brotherhood and the unique healing powers capable of being generated between humans and horses.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 23, 2020
Rosser debuts with the captivating story of how he came to be a champion polo player after his challenging childhood in West Philadelphia. Rosser details his mother’s battles with addiction, his brothers’ continuous fight to stay out of prison, and his best friend’s murder, which resulted in his own struggles with anxiety and PTSD. In his neighborhood, known as “The Bottom,” drug abuse and gun violence were prevalent, but he found solace in the Work to Ride stables, a local organization which provided children the opportunity to learn how to play polo. The sport, with its ethos of hard work and brotherhood, gave him a vision for how to embrace a brighter future. After earning a spot on the first all-Black interscholastic polo championship team and diligently working on his polo skills, he won a place on the Colorado State University collegiate team and later led them to a national title. Rosser’s prose is restrained but confident as he notes how fortunate he was to have polo in his life, and how he was able to defy expectations as a young Black boy on the polo field. This remarkable and inspiring story shines. (Feb.)Correction: An earlier version of this review misnamed the Work to Ride stables. It also contained an error in the timeline of the author's collegiate athletic career.

December 15, 2020
From a Philadelphia neighborhood beset by poverty and violence to the head of the first all-Black interscholastic polo championship team. Rosser was one of a cohort of young men who might have been steered into a gang given other circumstances. Instead, he and his brothers took a wrong turn on a back road and found themselves at a riding stable whose cash-strapped owner took them under her wing and taught them about horses--and, in time, the game of polo, ordinarily the province of the rich, condescending White boys they played. In time, after some humiliating defeats, the preteens pulled themselves together, and Rosser so distinguished himself that he was given a full scholarship to a military academy. The rigid discipline there stood in sharp contrast to a home life bounded by violence and addiction. "She'd bring strangers and friends into the house at night," he writes of his mother, "and we'd wake up to the thick skunky smell of last night's weed in the air, empty crack vials strewn on the kitchen table, tipped over beer bottles dripping their last dregs onto the floor." Both polo and school pulled him out of that life, he writes, even as members of his own family and close friends were murdered, imprisoned, and lost in an indifferent system. Affectingly, the author writes that the sight of an African American on a horse was not unknown even in "The Bottom," where he lived, with "a history of horses and horsemanship...that goes back a century or more." What was unusual was "a bunch of scrawny-ass Black kids galloping some second-hand horses around a soccer field, mallets in hand," a pleasing vision that one hopes to see more often, just as one celebrates Rosser's poetically spun tale of championship: "We never missed a step. We were young kings. We were brothers." Rosser's aspirational tale, though full of sorrow and hardship, is one that readers will cheer.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 1, 2021

The chance discovery of Work to Ride stables in a local park changed the life of eight-year-old Rosser (b. 1993), who thought he would never be able to escape hardship and poverty. The stables introduced Rosser to the elite sport of polo, and riding brought escape from a difficult childhood in West Philadelphia. This most improbable of refuges led him out of the city and ultimately to groundbreaking international success on the polo field, where he became part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team. Rosser's writing debut describes his journey to success without sparing the harsh realities of a rough childhood, his sometimes difficult relationship with his brothers, and learning to navigate and appreciate barn rules. In finding his way, Rosser won scholarships and completed his college education, and he now works as a financial analyst. Recognizing that hope can come from the most unexpected places, the author also encourages a rethinking of expectations and privilege. Polo may have been the gateway to his present life, but Rosser's heart and determination are the real story. VERDICT This unusual memoir deserves wide readership and discussion. A highly recommended purchase for all public libraries and sports collections.--Janet Davis, Darien P.L., CT

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.