The Heart of the Game (20th anniversary)
November 15, 2026
When a maverick college tax professor takes over as coach and revitalizes Seattle’s struggling Roosevelt High School girls’ basketball team, he is challenged by Darnellia, an inner city tough girl with incredible skills, but her off-court difficulties threaten to sideline the team’s effort to win the state championship. 20th anniversary screening. Director Ward Serrill scheduled to attend for a post-film Q&A.
Not your stereotypical hard-driving, whistle-blasting coach, college professor Bill Resler takes an unorthodox approach once he becomes head coach of girls’ basketball at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School. Celebrating each girl’s spirit, he improves the struggling team and molds the girls into warriors—both on and off the court. The Heart of the Game follows six exciting seasons with the Roosevelt Roughriders. Over the course of the film, we come to know many of the girls and their families. Most prominent is the incredibly talented Darnellia—a tough inner-city girl whose off-court struggles threaten to crash the star athlete’s hoop dreams and her plan to be the first person in her family to get a college education. We’re also introduced to 96-year-old Maude Lepley, who coached girls' basketball in the 1920s and enjoys Roughriders games courtside, as well as Joyce Walker, an All-American, Olympian and former Harlem Globetrotter, who returns to her old high school to coach the Roughriders’ biggest competitor—the Garfield Bulldogs. This unique Seattle story is an exciting and inspiring experience. Director Ward Serrill captures all the drama and discovery of youth, the excitement of high school sports and the inspiration of a passionate coach whose lessons of self-esteem, confidence and compassion go far beyond the court.
- Director: Ward Serrill
- Principal Cast: Narrator: Ludacris
- Country: USA
- Year: 2005
- Running Time: 97 min.
- Producer: Ward Serrill, Liz Manne
- Screenplay: Ward Serrill
- Cinematographers: Ward Serrill
- Editors: Eric Frith
- Music: The Angel
- Language: English
- US Distributor: Miramax Films