Involving Sports in YA Novels

 Although some novels focus exclusively on the main character's involvement in a sport, others only include sports as part of the characters' lives. However, the author still must become familiar with aspects of the sport, including rules, player conditioning, competitions, etc. to the extent that the portrayal is believable.  Frequently, the author was an athlete herself, but others must research the sporting elements of the story. In this month's novels a variety of sports are accurately portrayed.  In Lights Out by Jenni Fletcher, Maisie Evans, a former competitive mountain biker and aspiring sports psychologist, follows Giovanni Bauer, a Formula-1 car racer as he competes in the fast-paced world of F1 racing. Meet Me Under the Lights by Cassie Miller focuses on a competition between two baseball teams. Eliza Crowley finds her grandfather's team pitted against a new team owned by Reed Fulton's grandfather.  Reed, an up and coming pitcher, has been recruited by his grandfather to lead his team to victory. At stake is the baseball stadium the families once co-owned.  Love on Ice by Sarah Ney has captured the hockey romance trend in literature in a young adult novel. Harper Conrad catches hockey star Easton Westman in the middle of pulling off a prank and agrees to help him if he will take her to prom. 

In Lights Out former mountain biker Maisie Evans is now a sports psychology student, after an accident ended her biking career.  When she meets Giovanni Bauer, a Formula-1 racer with a party-boy reputation, she accepts his proposition to be his fake-girlfriend, which will benefit them both.  He will clean up his reputation, and she will get an inside look at the fast-paced world of F1 racing. As they spend time together, their friendship blossoms into a romance.  Riveting accounts of races, as well as bad decisions after accident trauma and the pressure of extreme sports, make this a real page-turner. The author identifies herself as an F1 romance writer.  Having grown up in Indianapolis and watching the Indy 500 each year, I was particularly enthralled with the highly detailed racing competitions.

Meet Me Under the Lights is an homage to Romeo and Juliet. In the story the Fultons and the Crowleys are two North Carolina families who are feuding over a baseball stadium that the families formerly co-owned. Then the Crowleys bought it outright, after the Fultons  put hours of labor in running it. Now the rival families have struck a deal—whichever team wins this year's championship wins the baseball field.  Star pitcher Reed Fulton comes back to help his grandfather’s new baseball team win the bet against the Crowley's team.   Eliza Crowley has returned home for the summer to do the lighting for the community theater production of Romeo and Juliet. Since her grandfather owns the Crowley Cardinals, she is rooting for them to win. But when she and Reed, who were childhood friends, reconnect, they fall in love. Like Romeo and Juliet, Eliza and Reed’s attraction to each other is forbidden, but cannot be denied. Each alternating chapter told from Eliza and Reed’s points of view begins with a quote from baseball and theater icons, giving insight into the emotions the young lovers are experiencing. Reed's struggles with the training and injuries that pitchers experience are very believable. 

Hockey romances are currently very popular, partly due to the combination of a sport with violent action and the alpha male players becoming vulnerable in love. In Love on Ice Harper Conrad catches hockey star Easton Westerman in her back yard after he succumbs to a bet and steals her school’s mascot costume. She agrees to help him complete the dare and keep quiet, if he’ll take her to prom. Easton, who fears losing his college scholarship if he's caught breaking the law, agrees.  As the business transaction begins to feel more like a romance, Harper and Easton’s relationship weathers ups and downs as prom approaches.  Easton's hockey career plays a small role in the story.  There are a few practices and discussion of his college scholarship, but there are not a lot of detailed hockey competitions. However, the fun banter and alternating perspectives make this an entertaining read.