Review | One Goal by Amy Bass
I recently finished the book One Goal: A Coach, A Team, and the Game that Brought a Divided Town Together by Amy Bass, published by Hachette Book Group in 2019. Bass is a professor of history and career writer with a special focus in the history of sports. This modern history book covers the state championship winning boy’s Lewiston High School soccer team from Lewiston, Maine. Known both as the location of Bates College and a longtime mill town, Lewiston has more recently become a refugee city for people fleeing from conflict in Somalia and other East African countries. In the book, Bass described the importance of a local kids team in bringing together a town filled with people from different backgrounds.
Bass introduced the top players of the soccer team, almost all refugee children with a handful of Mainers. She quickly juxtoposed the family-oriented, East African, Muslim culture of the refugees to community-oriented, French-Canadian, Catholic culture of long-time Maine residents. The differences in opinion caused many problems in the area, especially with neighboring towns. The East Africans experienced racism in school, at work, and on the playing field, while the French-Candians worried about employment as the mills closed. Despite adversity, soccer coaches Mike McGraw, Dan Gish, and Abdullahi Abdi worked with students, parents, and community leaders to ensure that the team was successful.
Interspersed with the main storyline were facts about conflict in East Africa, the changing economy of Maine, and parallel sports history. Bass interviewed kids and parents to describe their refugee stories. Many families fled their country to camps in other countries, only to flee again when a new conflict emerged. These families became accustomed to moving and learning new languages to communicate with their new neighbors, who spoke Somali, several dialects of Arabic, and Swahili. The boys learned to play soccer while living in refugee camps, using makeshift balls, fields, and goals. Even after moving to Lewiston, they played this rules-free version of the game while not at formal practice.
Bass also familiarized the reader with the history of Maine industry. Like many New England towns, the Lewiston economy during the 19th century relied on textile or paper mills run by underpaid French-Canadian immigrants. Today, the Androscoggin Mill and Lincoln Paper Mill are being repurposed. Many families lived in the town for generations but still retained parts of the Candian French language, religion, and other customs. The former St. Mary’s Church became the Franco-American Hertiage Center, while the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul still “holds the last remaining French-language mass in Maine” (43).
Sports history included reference to the North American Soccer League (NASL), a twice folded conference that played an Americanized version of the game, which inspired the creation of the first Lewiston boys soccer team. As for sports in Lewiston itself, the second Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston boxing match known for Ali’s “phantom punch” knockout of Liston was held there in 1965.
One Goal has a predictable and satisfying ending. Like in sports fiction, the reader knows the team will succeed. The journey is learning how this unlikely group of people worked together. Bass was unwilling to simplify the complex political situation in the area, but as a result crammed hundreds of years of history into a 310 page book. The narrative was confusing in spots, as Bass used a stream-of-conscious reference to facts, especially in the early chapters of the book. A two-page spread referenced conflicts in Somali, economic crisis in Maine, refugee parents speaking in Arabic, the names of soccer players, and quotes from newspaper articles. The writing was strongest when describing play-by-play during a soccer game. This book is an ideal choice for sports fans and historians who enjoy learning about the cultural context of sporting events.
Abby Epplett’s Rating System
Experience: 7/10
Accessibility: 7/10