The Boys from Little Mexico: A Season Chasing the American Dream »

Steve Wilson lives with his family in Portland, Oregon, and teaches at Portland State University. This is his first book.

The all-Hispanic boys' soccer team from Woodburn High has made the playoffs for nineteen straight years. As they prepare to make it twenty, the boys are determined that this will be the season they beat the wealthy suburban schools around them and finally win the Oregon state championship. Their spirited drive gives a rare sense of hope and unity to a blue-collar farming community that has been transformed by waves of immigrants over recent decades, a town locals call "Little Mexico."

In 2005, Woodburn High's Bulldogs, aka Los Perros, will start the season with eight undocumented students, three boys who speak almost no English, a midfielder groomed to play for a pro Mexican team, a goalkeeper living in his third foster home, and an Irish-descended white coach desperate to lead all of them to success. Watched over by a south Texas transplant—a surrogate father to half the squad—this band of brothers must learn to come together on the field and look after each other off it.

More than just riveting sports writing, The Boys from Little Mexico is also about the fight for the future of the next generation and a hard, true look at boys dismissed as gangbangers, told to "go home" by lily-white sideline crowds. At school, these kids battle academically in a country where barely half of all Hispanic boys graduate and fewer still make it to college. Now, in a gutsy quest for their first state championship, one thing will become clear: Los Perros play the beautiful game with heart, pride, and their lives on the line. The wins and losses they notch along the way spin a striking and fast-paced tale of how sometimes it takes more than raw talent, discipline, and passion to capture the American Dream.

Library Journal

Far from the hoopla of the World Cup is the soccer world of Woodburn, OR, where the high school Bulldogs have been always in the playoffs but never the state champions. A team dominated by Latinos (mostly from Mexico), Los Perros (or Bulldogs) compete against schools with greater resources and social stability, but their story is as compelling as that of whoever wins the cup this summer. Wilson documents the squad's 2005 season, a tale about soccer but also about the lives of young men who struggle to stay in school, work, and play the game they love. Essential for soccer fans and those who find inspiration in young people achieving well beyond expectations.