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Celebrate March Madness with Why She Plays by Christine Baker

From court to courtside, Christine Baker’s Why She Plays celebrates the uniting force that calls girls and women to play basketball: passion for the game.

Raised in Madison, Baker now resides in Clinton, and will give a talk about her book on Tuesday, March 26 at 6 p.m. at the Henry Carter Hull Library, 10 Killingworth Tpke, Clinton in honor of March Madness.

The book was published in 2008, but it’s still used in sports media and women’s studies courses on college campuses. Even so, it’s not a textbook.

According to Baker, the book is a must-read for parents whose daughters are interested in playing sports.

“I still have parents contact me,” Baker says. “It’s important for [parents] to let their kids just play. They learn teamwork, working hard toward a goal, and how to lose, which I think is an important lesson for kids.”

Why She Plays is a combination of interviews with female basketball players from youth leagues to college and WBNA players, to Olympians, to coaches, and more—as well as statistics and some memoir components sharing Baker’s own experiences in the game.

The biggest surprise, Baker said, was in coming up with the title.

“I didn’t have a title at first,” Baker says. “The one thing that came up—from young kids to Olympians—was every person talked about why she played basketball, unprompted by me.”

Beyond inspiring the title of Baker’s book, this passion resonated with her.

“I loved the sport,” Baker said. “It gave me a tremendous amount, taught me about life. I never expected the reverence for the game was shared with everyone.”

Baker adds that this love for basketball is not articulated in the same way by men as it is by women.

“It’s not better or worse,” she says, “just different. The experience of the game is different for women.”

With a title, and a year’s worth of interviews and observations after traveling with a New York basketball team, Baker submitted her proposal to the University of Nebraska Press, and they gave her five weeks to write the full manuscript.

Baker originally came up with the idea while pursuing her Master’s degree from Wesleyan University—where she commuted from New Jersey. The book began as her thesis, and grew from there when she decided to take a leave of absence and try her hand at sports writing.

“Once I graduated college,” Baker says, “it was gone and I missed the sport. My thesis was a way to get back to the game.”

In fact, she never returned to the job she left to pursue writing Why She Plays. She started coaching again.

“The most fun I ever had was coaching second- and third-graders in a youth league,” Baker says. “Every day felt like a victory,” she adds, even if that just meant getting the whole team to run in the right direction at once.

While coaching isn’t her career—Baker works as a creative consultant, doing everything from designing websites to writing—she hopes to get back into the game again.

“My goal this year is to get a rec league started for women’s basketball,” Baker says.

This means she needs a gym and to get the word out, but there’s another difficulty too—finding women who can make the regular commitment it takes to build teams.

“Women are pulled in so many different directions,” Baker says. “It’s hard to find time for ourselves.”

Keeping her passion for the sport alive, Baker wants to write another book on women’s basketball.

“Things have changed since 2008,” she says.

But there are still strides to be made. Among them, Baker cites increasing the number of female coaches as crucial.

“There are plenty of women to coach,” Baker says.

According to Baker, they’re needed at every level, but most especially at the youth level.

“It’s great that dads come out to coach,” she says, but “we need to see more women coaching.”

Are you a local author with an upcoming event? Email m.mcnellis@shorepublishing.com.

Why She Plays: March madness Event with Author Christine Baker takes place on Tuesday, March 26 at 6 p.m. at the Henry Carter Hull Library, 10 Killingworth Tpke, Clinton. Baker will read from her book and discuss the importance and value of playing basketball and organized sports—specifically for girls and women. Books will be available for signing and purchase. For more information, call 860-669-2342.