City News

What is an underdog? By definition, an underdog is “a competitor thought to have little chance

of winning a fight or contest”. Throughout history, we have seen many underdogs such as

Muggsy Bogues(an NBA point-guard who was 5’3’’), where the average height of an NBA player

is 6 foot 7 inches), and Tom Brady. What these underdogs have in common is that they always

persevere and never give up, always keeping their goals in mind. Similarly, I read about a

football team which was in the same situation in the book The Underdogs , by Mike Lupica.

When all odds were against this team, they never gave up and kept on pushing, and bonds

were made/strengthened in the process.

I read the book The Underdogs because I love reading about football books given that I also

play the sport and I am also a fan of Mike Lupica’s sports novels. I have read many of his books

before and knew that The Underdogs was going to be a good one. Although it is a bit long, The

Underdogs is so interesting that you do not want to stop reading, and the novel is full of twists

that make readers continuously ask themselves, “What’s going to happen next?” This keeps the

book fresh and avoids any repetition. Furthermore, the book is very organized and really goes in

depth about the relationships formed between friends and foes, sending a wave of emotions

through the reader whenever an interaction occurs.

One character I enjoyed reading about in this book and resonated with was Will Tyler. Will is the

protagonist of the story and showed the most perseverance in the entire novel. Will took it upon

himself to form the team and recruit more players in a town that was giving up on itself after the

budget for just about every sports team was getting cut. Will made the decision to write a letter

to the CEO of New Balance explaining his situation in hope of getting a sponsor for the team.

The CEO was heartfelt by the letter and decided that the company was going to sponsor The

Bulldogs, all because of Will. One thing about Will that really stood out to me and made him my

favorite character was his ability to control his emotions. Will is very mature for a seventh-grader

and knows how to control his anger in the games, when all of his opponents are trash-talking.

Will decides to let his game quiet the haters, which he does successfully. He is also great with

communicating with his father and teammates, making everyone like him and look up to him.

One character I did not really enjoy reading about at all was Kendrick. Kendrick is a receiver for

The Bulldogs’ rival team, Castle Rock. Although he is talented, Kendrick can not stop

trash-talking and is very over-confident, traits that I do not like at all. Even the referees in the

game had to tell Kendrick to stop talking or he was going to get a penalty. On defense, Kendrick

even gave a couple of cheap shots at the team's only female player, Hannah Grayson.

Additionally, Kendrick can not accept the fact that anybody else on the field is good at the sport,

especially Will, who is always, without a doubt, the fastest player on the field. For these

reasons, Kendrick was my least favorite character in the book.

In conclusion, The Underdogs was a great book that conveyed the idea of persevering and

never giving in to difficulties. It also taught that the relationships closest to you and the people

that stick with you in your tough times are the ones you never want to give up. I would rate The

Underdogs a ⅘ stars because although it was a great book, I felt that Mike Lupica could’ve

gotten more into depth on the smaller characters. Overall, The Underdogs was a great book and

I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of football novels.

Checkout The Underdogs from the Newport Beach Public Library.