Readers of The Champions by Kara Thomas will enter the world of high school, where dance team and football team drama runs high. In this world, the Sunnybrook Tigers are legendary, but their legacy of winning is tainted by a shady past, and in some circles, Sunnybrook is known as the Town of Death. But the town’s identity is tied to the Tigers, so a lot of people have a vested interest in protecting the town’s reputation.
Therefore, when senior Hadley Daugherty dares to write an article about “The Other Champions,” the dance team athletes that include Team Captain Alix Maroney, she is ridiculed. But Hadley is gunning for Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper so as to pad her resumé when she applies to the Columbia School of Journalism, and she is hungry to investigate and report. When she receives an anonymous email from SportsFan@gmail.com, warning her to stay away from the football team, Hadley can’t resist finding a story in this cold case where it looks as if the golden boys were not held accountable for the deaths of five cheerleaders. Couple her inquisitive nature with her ambitions “to write about stuff that matters,” as well as to someday win a Pulitzer for breaking a huge story, and the plot thickens.
After tight end Logan Philbrick ends up in a coma barely hanging on to life, suspicion flares. Was it alcohol poisoning from excessive drinking, a planned poisoning, or simply a situation of being at the wrong place at the wrong time? When the toxicology report comes back, the coaches drive a narrative about a prank gone wrong. More concerned about damage control and the upcoming championships, the coaches don’t want a player implicated and therefore ineligible.
Although Hadley has a complicated relationship with her rival Peter Carlino, she eventually confides in him, and the two go into full sleuth mode. The layers of secrets and who is covering for whom not only deepens the plot but widens the suspect net.
When a second football player inside of two weeks is involved in a tragic accident, there is little doubt that the Tigers need to be defanged. These current events seem somehow connected to those from the past, and the pair wonders how deep the connection goes. Finding the facts, however, might just get the two young journalists killed.
Thomas’ novel will keep the reader intrigued as the mystery unfolds and the secrets unravel.
- Donna