Recommended

Darnellia Russell is a star. Her high school basketball coach, Bill Resler, says it straight up. At the start of The Heart of the Game, he describes himself as "one of the few lucky people to meet Darnellia Russell," ascribing his own success as a coach to that very fact. From here, Ward Serrill's smart, challenging documentary traces not only Darnellia and Resler's complicated relationship, but also the intersections of high school athletics, race and class and, most importantly, girls.

GIRLS ALOUD: Roosevelt High's Rough Riders.

When he started at Seattle's Roosevelt High in 1998, Resler recalls, he didn't need more work. A tax professor at the University of Washington, graying and slightly round, he confesses, "I was honestly frightened." Before his arrival, the Rough Riders are unranked; during his first year as coach, they're ranked first in the state, though they don't make it to the playoffs.

The next year, Darnellia arrives. A talented freshman, she must contend with a new, daunting environment (Roosevelt is mostly white, unlike her neighborhood). At the same time, Resler hones his coaching style. Using vivid metaphors for motivation, he tells his team to think of themselves in terms of predators and prey, releasing their own natural, wild powers; they're a "pack of wolves," a "tropical storm" and a "pride of lions." Spurred on by Resler's diligence and fervor, the girls excel. They like playing hard. "I'd love to play football," says one, "to just crush someone to the ground."

Narrated by Ludacris, Heart finds its shape in Darnellia's compelling story. Step by step, she learns to cope with competing demands on her time, including her schoolwork. When she faces what seems a career-stopping event—pregnancy—she has her baby, learns to rely on her family and her baby's devoted father, and comes back. Her teammates rally behind her when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rules that she cannot return to play, because she's now in her fifth year in high school. While local media drum up controversy, Darnellia's lawyer argues the ruling discriminates against girls, since male athletes who father children don't face the same dilemma.

Already being compared to Hoop Dreams, probably the best sports documentary ever, Heart also does important work that film does not. That is, it considers issues specific to girls, including a sexually abusive coach one player hires to improve her personal game and the subtle and unsubtle ways that misogyny still shapes expectations of female athletes and girls with ambitions. Darnellia is a star, because she has support from a community and a coach, and because she extends herself and her game beyond the limits set before her.

The Heart of the Game

Directed by Ward Serrill A Miramax release Opens Friday at Ritz Bourse