Counting Coup
 Larry Colton
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2000 Warner Books
 ISBN: 0446677558
 

A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn.

Freelance journalist Larry Colton traveled to Montana to do a story on boys' high school basketball. Then he watches a graceful, intent teenage girl working out on one of the many scruffy courts & his perspective shifts to the Hardin Lady Bulldogs.

Even though Larry Colton is a self-described WASP, he finds he has much in common with the inhabitants of this vast & empty country. As he spends more & more time in & around the area, he discovers the magic of the land, & becomes connected & engaged in the lives of the Native Americans living there, especially Coach Mac & her team of teenage girls--Sharon LaForge, Owena Spotted Horse, Rhea Beatty, Tiffany Hopfauf, Stace Greenwalt, Anita Dewald, Amylynn Adams & Geri Stewart.

The Crow Indian Reservation is in the middle of nowhere Montana, south of Billings & Hardin, east of Laurel, & the residents are also in the middle of nowhere, struggling with unemployment, alcoholism, lack of self-esteem & suicidal tendencies. Basketball has become the one addiction through which the youngsters can find purpose, value & meaning--players & spectators alike.

At the back of Counting Coup is an Index, a Q&A section with Larry Colton & a series of Questions for Discussion. What is missing is a roster page of those young athletes who made up that year's winning team of Hardin Lady Bulldogs.

On several levels Counting Coup is a compelling read, well-written & both dreadfully sad & astonishingly exhilarating--no wonder Coach Mac was bent over most of the time in agony & hoarse from yelling. As Larry Colton follows a season in the life of Sharon LaForge, Homecoming Queen Candidate, young woman inexorably entangled with a rudderless young man who will inevitably abuse her, his admiration for her spirit, tenacity & endurance comes shining through, & you end up rooting for her even as your level of frustration is just as high.

Sharon LaForge & her teammates were young warriors, immersed in the only war available, basketball, they touched the enemy on its chest, survived injuries, graduated from school, had babies & lived to tell their tales.

Counting Coup is definitely for anyone interested in basketball, team sports, teenagers under stress, racial conflicts, growing up & life on the Rez.

Larry Colton lives in Portland, Oregon, & is the author of Goat Brothers--the story of 5 UC-Berkeley fraternity brothers & their lives since the 1960s. A former professional baseball player, Colton has contributed to numerous publications, including Esquire, Sports Illustrated, & The New York Times Magazine.
(06/01/03)

Rebecca