Believe in Me

When I first heard about this movie what intrigued me most was that it was about a legendary basketball coach from Oklahoma...my home state. At first I thought it might be a Hoosier's formula movie, but after watching it for the first time, I realized that it stood on its own merits as a great story about dedication, trust, and how believing in yourself and having someone else believe in you can transform lives to inspirational levels. It is a moving story where a rag-tag group of small-town girls basketball players begin to believe in themselves because their coach believed in them. It is one of those "stand up and cheer" movies that will leave you feeling inspired...you will find yourself cheering for those girls.

This is an excellent book/video that should be seen by every athlete, girl or boy, and those who coach them. The movie is full of action, yet tasteful enough that you can show it to young people. I visited with the actual coach of this team and he unsuccessfully fought to keep the six-on-six style of play in the movie. He requested to keep the book name and the movie name the same but that was nixed, also. I agree that for those of us who played this way, it was disappointing to watch the girls play five on five. I graduated in 1977 from a school about 30 miles from Sayre, where Coach wrote the story about. The movie is full of action, yet tasteful enough that you can show it to young people. Basketball ROCKS in southwest OKLAHOMA!!!!!

I just saw this movie at the Jackson Hole Film Festival and I was impressed for the quality of the photography, the story and the acting. The storyline is very simple: in the 60's a young basketball coach moves to small town Oklahoma to coach the male team of the local high school but he's rerouted instead to the female team. He's totally against it but he has no choice, while he gains the respect and support of the girls, the town folks take a dislike for him because of his methods and because in their mind a girls team is not worth of interest. Through a series of victories, for the team and for the girls, he will make his basketball team a well respected one in town and among the competing high schools. I hope they will find a good distributor for this movie; this would be the feel-good movie of the year. Plus I met Robert (the Director) on several occasions during the festival and he's such a nice and heartwarming guy, I wish him much success (Hey Robert, I'm the one who drove you to the Casino Night from the Amangani ;-) ). One thing... I'm surprised that on IMDb men liked this movie more than women, very strange.

I just saw a screening of this independent film at the Santa Barbara film festival. The screenplay is an adaptation of a novel written for juveniles, Brief Garland, by Harold Keith, which was first published in 1974.

The film focuses on the character of the coach of a girls' basketball team in a small town in western Oklahoma during his first years at the school in 1964-66. He arrives to coach the boys team, but is maneuvered into the coaching job for the girls. Over the course of the film, he learns how to coach the girls, and helps develop a competitive team at a school where girls' basketball had never been supported before.

I watched the film with particular interest because I played high school basketball in 1964-68 in Tennessee, where, as in Oklahoma, we played the six-on-six half-court game that most girls played until after Title IX was passed in 1972. I was disappointed to see that the girls in the film played the full-court five-on-five game, which is slower, messier, and lower-scoring than the half-court game we played. By playing with fewer players, the court was less crowded, and girls had more freedom to drive to the basket. Since defenders made long passes to move the ball upcourt to the offensive team, the speed from end to end was actually faster than the boys' game!!

Had the film's auteur truly appreciated the game that the heroines of the film actually played in the sixties, he may have created an even more exciting film, with less forced editing to simulate speed and grace.

I know, I know, you don't believe me. Oh well . . . .

met young actress Anne in Knoxville where she was attending a LadyVols practice after going to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame with her family- such a gorgeous young woman and so down to earth, AND a special actress~ This is an interesting story especially as it is true. Was interested to talk to young people after the movie who had no idea that "girls couldn't play" not so long ago. We have definitely come a long long way!

As far as the acting, they were pretty good but young actress Anne stood out- perhaps because of the deep personal meaning this movie had for her (she is a former player- coached by her dad- sis also former player coached by dad- AND mom and grammama both played!!)

It is clear to see the whole family is special. We all had to run down and see the movie and it is great! excellent time spent~ highly recommend it esp if you are into women's bb or sports herstory~