PRAISE for

The Rebounders: A Division I Basketball Journey

“With its special emphasis on what it means to be a female pursuing athletic excellence, Amanda Ottaway’s is a welcome addition to the growing list of books addressing this subject. Unflinching and celebratory, The Rebounders captures the spirit of collegiate sport with both candor and joy.” 

—Madeleine Blais, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle and To the New Owners

“A personal, often poignant account of how hard it is to be a student-athlete, especially at a place like Davidson—and about what actually matters in the end.”

—Michael Kruse, senior staff writer at Politico and author of Taking the Shot: The Davidson Basketball Moment 

“This book, an exaltation of women in sports, is an important conversation about the space that women hold for one another; the knots we tie, the goals we reach, the urgency of college sports as experienced by women, and the sacred sorority of female athletes who seek excellence ... and find it.”

—Dominique Christina, author of This Is Woman's Work, and writer/actor on HBO’s High Maintenance

"Ottaway attended Davidson College in North Carolina on a basketball scholarship and is now a journalist in New York. This is a fascinating memoir precisely because she was not a star player, which gives her account of playing in college basketball’s highest level (Division I) a perspective different from that of most athletes’ memoirs ... There’s plenty of inside basketball, too, along with thoughtful reflection on the basketball conundrum that has men coaching women at all levels, but women rarely if ever coaching men. Ottaway is a fine writer who exhibits both compassion and insight throughout this story of one woman’s coming-of-age as an athlete. Strongly recommended."

—Wes Lukowsky, ALA Booklist

"Charming ... Ottaway is certainly an affable and trustworthy guide."

—Publishers Weekly

"Ottaway writes about her experience playing for Davidson, a D1 school in N.C.—but this isn’t like what you see on television. She takes you behind the scenes, on and off the court; in and out of the gym. I’m loving it."

—Jaime Herndon, Book Riot

"The renewed spotlight on the NCAA’s exploitation of collegiate athletes provides fertile ground for Amanda Ottaway’s memoir, The Rebounders: A Division I Basketball Journey. Ottaway was among the 80 percent of college athletes who are never seen on TV, but her story is valuable because she’s able to use her personal experiences at Davidson College in North Carolina to explore how female athletes navigate collegiate sports from eating disorders to injuries to dating."

—Evette Dionne, Bitch Media

"'The Rebounders' is a feminist coming-of-age story told from an interesting perspective: that of a college basketball player, Amanda Ottaway, at a middle-of-the-pack Division I school – in this case Davidson College in North Carolina. Her story is representative of the majority of scholarship athletes who play in the shadows of the really big-time programs. An English major who’s gone on to a journalism career, she describes her recruitment, the practice sessions, the school demands, the road trips, and the sisterhood of playing mostly outside the limelight."

—Ross Atkin, Christian Science Monitor

"Her delight in basketball may have waned briefly, but Ottaway never loses her affection for her teammates, dubbed the 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Sweatpants.' They celebrate together through the good times and hug each other through the bad, some of which they bring upon themselves, and some of which they don’t ... 'The Rebounders' is for mature readers who follow women’s sports or just want to know what it’s like to play at the Division I level.  The book reminds us how far women’s basketball has come. But more than anything, it captures the feel of the game, literally, in the swoosh of the ball through the net, and figuratively, as a metaphor for love itself."

—Dr. Kirk Weixel, local PBS/NPR affiliate WPSU