Quarterback Season

Matt Monroe is a shoo-in for starting quarterback for the Parkside Middle School football team this year.

Or is he?

Devro, a new seventh grader, looks pretty impressive. He’s consistent and can run the plays almost as well as Matt. And he’s got speed.

As the fall football season unfolds, the team has more than its share of surprises and unexpected challenges, as well as plenty of victories and upsets on and off the field—all of which Matt records and analyzes in a journal he keeps for his English class. By the last kickoff of the season, Matt has learned that a team is only as good as the sum of its parts and that playing together is the only way to win.