Justice for a Texas Marshall: Marshall Morris is at it again! - Book Review

Justice for a Texas Marshall: Marshall Morris is at it again! by Robert John DeLuca is a story about a teenage boy who is a senior at Justice High School who happens to overhear a disturbing conversation between his football coach and a well-heeled owner of a car dealership.  He also seems to have a penchant for ending up naked or pantless under strange circumstances.

Marshall Morris is a team member of maybe the winningest high school football team from Justice, Texas; a small town south of the big city of Houston.  Justice is a place short on dreams, but Cougars’ football team’s coach, Warren Wilson, plans on making the dreams of a few of his boys come true even if it does include a bit of breaking some rules. Marshall is also a prankster whose pranks can unintentionally have huge repercussions to his friends and himself.

With frankness and a pinch of humor, Robert John DeLuca chronicles a dramatic season of the Cougars' football team. He illustrates how the single-minded devotion to the team shapes the players’ life, adds to the community and inspires-and sometimes shatters-the teenagers who wear the Cougars' uniforms.

The novel also explores a dark side of high school football.  What happens when coaches and high school fans want their players to get the big breaks just a little bit too much? How do we prevent the situation where teenage kids become fodder in the high school football machine where misguided adults use their children to pursue their own personal ambitions? DeLuca’s novel creates those dilemmas and provides believable scenarios that happen probably too frequently in real life.  They do happen as these headlines and snippets trumpet:

Why is it against the law to give money to recruits? Former federal prosecutors explain:
And the complaint says that Adidas executives, unidentified Louisville coaches, and other defendants defrauded the University of Louisville by inducing it to provide scholarships to athletes who were ineligible because they or their families had been bribed to go to school there.

FBI wiretaps show Coach discussed $100K payment to lock recruit.
A phone called that discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman signed with the Wildcats, sources familiar with the government's evidence told ESPN.

That is one of the ugly sides of small-town football that DeLuca discusses, but he also paints a vivid picture of how the camaraderie builds in these teams that are the beginning of long-lasting friendships. He shows these relationships are not strictly built on the gridiron, but also from the memorable times spent in the local Papa Juan’s pizza joint and at beach parties as members of these teams idolized by the small towns.

Friday night high school football is now a major social event across the country, and DeLuca creates an amazing story illustrating this major phenomenon laced with wit and tackling the tough topics with grace and humor. He tosses in numerous moral dilemmas that help illustrate the importance of friendship, loyalty, empathy, and moral courage. “Justice for a Texas Marshall: Marshall Morris is at it again!”  is filled with sass, a little high school romance and moves forward in an even flow – and providing a great ending.