BY MOLLY TEMPLETON
S HAMBHALA
According to the Shambhala tradition, there is a natural source of radiance and brilliance in the world,
which is the innate wakefulness of human beings. This is the basis of an enlightened society of
fearlessness, dignity and compassion.
SHAMBHALA MEDITATION TRAINING
LEVEL 1 - THE ART OF BEING HUMAN - Discovering basic goodness in the world
P UBLIC T ALK - F RIDAY , S EPTEMBER 22 ND , 7:30 PM • N O C HARGE
T RAINING - S EPTEMBER 23 RD & 24 TH , 9 AM -5 PM • $85
No one turned away for lack of funds.
This simple and profound technique of mindfulness and awareness is the basis of a secular path of meditation,
which can benefit people of any spiritual tradition or way of life.
OPEN SKY SHAMBHALA CENTER - 100 WEST Q ST. • SPRINGFIELD • 726-1988
For more information: www.shambhala.org/centers/opensky
WE DO IT FAMILY STYLE!
Join us on Sunday, September 24 th at 6:30pm for
FAMILY STYLE DINING
Bill Resler and Darnellia Russell in The Heart of the Game.
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A basketball documentary with more than
a narrative arc
THE HEART OF THE GAME: Written,
directed and filmed by Ward Serrill. Produced by
Serrill and Liz Manne. Music, The Angel. Narrated by
Ludacris. With Bill Resler, Darnellia Russell, Joyce
Walker and the Roosevelt High School Roughriders
girls’ basketball team. Miramax Films, 2006. 97 min-
utes. PG-13.
W
ard Serrill began filming the
Roosevelt Roughriders, a Seattle
girls’ basketball team, seven
years ago, when they’d just gotten a new
coach. Sleepy-eyed and round-bellied, UW
tax professor Bill Resler came to Roosevelt
with a love for basketball and a different
attitude. In his first season, the coach
changed everything: He dismantled the
offense. He opted for a full court press for
the whole game. He told his players to be a
pack of wolves (later, they’re a tropical
storm and a pride of lions): “Look them in
the eyes!” He put his girls through grueling
drills and workouts, making them stronger,
faster and tougher than their opponents.
And he created the “inner circle,” removing
parents and even himself from the scene
when it came time to work out personality
conflicts and solve problems.
The inner circle also TPs Resler’s house
late one night, but these are high schoolers,
after all. The film that resulted from Serrill’s
years at Roosevelt, The Heart of the Game,
shows Resler with all his quirks — and his
players with all their skills, passion and
unselfconscious teenage humor. Serrill’s doc-
umentary puts all those inspirational
Hollywood sports movies, with their foregone
conclusions and canned scenes, to shame. The
Heart of the Game is an exhilarating, heart-
breaking trip through several seasons of a bas-
ketball team that is the classic underdog.
The first season, as Resler gets his feet
under him as a coach, and as the team
comes together, is exciting enough; there’s
a palpable sense of immediacy and change
in Serrill’s interviews with players, fans and
Resler himself. But when Darnellia Russell
turns up to play for the Roughriders, the
film finds its star.
Make reservations before Saturday @ 10pm
Darnellia, whose mother sends her to
Roosevelt (rather than its rival school,
Garfield, where her best friend plays ball)
because the academic prospects are better,
is a determined, charismatic young woman
who wants to go to college and then play in
the WNBA. A slight, striking freshman, she
rolls her eyes at her mother’s worries, tells
her old middle school coach that she’s
never been around so many white people
before and sits out the first few basketball
games with bad grades. Later, eligibility
issues threaten to keep her from playing for
the rest of her high school career.
But when Darnellia gets on the court,
she’s unstoppable. Between her compelling
offcourt story and plain talent, it’s under-
standable that Serrill opts to focus on
Darnellia; it’s also frustrating, at first, as the
film becomes less about a team and more
about a single player. But the film comes
through in the second half, as The Heart of
the Game shifts again to become about
more than basketball, more than confi-
dence, more than teamwork. Darnellia’s
struggles to keep playing the game she
loves reflect issues of gender, race and
class, though Serrill wisely presents her
story as her own, without using it to make
statements or generalizations. He lets view-
ers see for ourselves that within Darnellia’s
tale is something bigger than one girl or one
team, something about becoming more than
you thought you were, in ways you may
never have expected.
It’s also to Serrill’s credit that his docu-
mentary turns out to have all the nail-biting
intensity of an actual basketball game. As
the clock runs down on the final game — in
which Resler plans to play every one of his
amazing young women, even those with
almost no experience — the outcome is
never clear. And, as Ty Burr noted in The
Boston Globe, it almost doesn’t matter. The
win is already there, in the journey, and in
The Heart of the Game’s clear-eyed, tri-
umphant storytelling.
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SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 29