num_pages: 336
description: Nestled amid cotton pine and swamps the Deep South outpost of Valdosta Georgia has long drawn pilgrims from across the country to the home of the Wildcats the winningest high school football team in America. Christened by national media as Title Town USA Valdosta has thrived on the continuity of dominance: sons still play in front of fathers and grandfathers creased men in pickups still offer steak dinners as a reward for gridiron glory and Friday nights in the 11000-seat stadium known as Death Valley still hold a central role in the town's social fabric. Now that place is in peril. As much as Valdosta is a romantic symbol of traditional American values things are changing here just as they are in small towns everywhere. In Must Win  author Drew Jubera goes inside the country's most famous high school football team to chronicle its dramatic 2010 season a quest by a program that's down but not out to regain past glory for both the team and the town it represents. This town this school and these people have been rocked by forces that have hit the entire country but they're a long way from giving up. They still believe in the power of a game to overcome all. With a new coach a new optimism and a kaleidoscopic cast that includes an aspiring rapper a beekeeper's son the best athlete in the state and the heir to a pro legacy cut short by a crack dealer's bullet these Wildcats have been given one more chance. Must Win is the American story written across a bright green playing field.
language: English
title: Must Win: A Season of Survival for a Town and Its Team
publisher: St. Martin's Press