Few cities can claim a hardwood heritage like that found in metro Detroit. Metro Detroit has been the epicenter for cataclysmic change in the past 60 years that no other major American city has suffered, but the one constant among so much upheaval is a passionate following afforded high school basketball. The rise and fall of the automotive industry, the Motown record label's emergence and eventual relocation, social and racial unrest, and the polarization of one of America's great cities has not slowed the love and passion Detroiters-city and suburban dwellers alike-share for prep basketball.

High school football has been an institution in metro Detroit since the day the assembly line changed America. From the game's inception at the prep level in the early 1900s to the annual Thanksgiving Day games that would make or break a school's season, prep football has been a rite of passage for players, parents, coaches, and fans alike in Detroit since after World War II. Detroit's high schools were massed and assembled from the immigrant pockets that carved out city and suburban landscapes. The one constant in all these cultural melting pots was high school football. For parents and neighbors of the marching bands, cheerleaders, and players, football season in the golden age of high school sports was an all-community event. Towns shuttered and time stopped for nine Fridays in the fall.

Navy football holds a unique place in college athletics as one of the oldest and most prestigious programs the game has ever known. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Midshipmen were nationally recognized by the major bowl games they played and Heisman Trophy-winning players Joe Bellino and Roger Staubach. Although the program struggled mightily to maintain relevancy in subsequent years, Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk kick-started the renaissance of Navy football by hiring Coach Paul Johnson in 2001. The team's current coach, Ken Niumatalolo, once fired by the academy in the dining room of a McDonald's in 1998, returned to become the winningest coach in school history. Author T.C. Cameron charts the story of Navy football and steers readers through the reemergence of an iconic program representing our nation's finest.

Few cities can claim a hardwood heritage like that found in metro Detroit. Metro Detroit has been the epicenter for cataclysmic change in the past 60 years that no other major American city has suffered, but the one constant among so much upheaval is a passionate following afforded high school basketball. The rise and fall of the automotive industry, the Motown record label's emergence and eventual relocation, social and racial unrest, and the polarization of one of America's great cities has not slowed the love and passion Detroiters-city and suburban dwellers alike-share for prep basketball.