Books in Lorimer Sports Stories series

14-year-old Patrick and his mother leave their small town for the city. Out of boredom and frustration, he steals a pair of headphones. When he's caught, the police officer, Constable Jack, is willing to get the charges dropped if Patrick trains with him in parkour for twelve weeks. While Patrick trains extra hard he develops a crush on Parker and a rivalry with Jayden. When the tension with Jayden reaches new heights, Constable Jack decides they'll settle the score in a competition. But they aren't just fighting for best individual ― there's also the prize for best club at stake. That means Patrick and Jayden will have to learn to work together.

Andy's never been closer to his dream of making it to nationals. When a video of him flutterboard surfing goes viral, he uses the opportunity to crowdfund his trip there. But he goes from hero to zero when he pranks a promising female swimmer on camera. Everyone sees it, and no one is impressed. Banned from nationals and kicked off his swim team, he's got to unplug from his viral nightmare and figure out how to get his life―and his dream―back on course.

Ashley Rivera's single mom can't afford to buy her new basketball shoes―she doesn't even have enough for the registration fee when Ashley makes the city basketball team. So Ashley takes on extra work to make the money she needs to play basketball. Soon Ashley's overloaded schedule makes her too tired for school and her friends, and she can't take it when the popular girl on her team suddenly starts teasing her about her ragged sneakers. Does Ashley even want to keep playing? With the help of friends old and new, and with surprising support from her brother, Ashley figures out how to afford the price of play.

Samantha Aqsarniq Keyes is used to a life on the move. Her military family has been transferred across Canada, and she's grown up with stories of her Inuit ancestors exploring the far north. For Sam, soccer has been the one constant in her life. But now that she's thirteen, her home base isn't the only thing that's changing. Sam longs to show up Carly, her school's reigning soccer star, but Sam's new interest in theatre is taking up a lot of time. Does she have the time to practice her sport and be the lead in the school play? And just how far will she go to prove to her parents that she can handle more than one extracurricular activity?

Jazz Smith-Mohapatra is the toughest and best player on her basketball team―and this year she's determined to lead the team to a championship win. But in the last game of the regular season, Jazz sets an offensive move called a pick and roll. A player on the other team doesn't see it coming; she crashes into Jazz, and then onto the floor. Though it's a play that Jazz has done many times, she's never hurt anyone before. Now there's going to be a Fair Play Commission hearing to determine whether the play was legal or not. But even worse than the possibility of being suspended for the playoffs, Jazz's teammates are suddenly questioning her physical style of play and whether the team can make it all the way to the pennant without her.

Birch Hill Swim Club has a new coach, and the team's star swimmer, eighth-grader Lasha Boyko, couldn't be more excited. Even though the lanky swimmer comes from an immigrant Ukrainian family of modest means, she dreams big. The coach has a track record of producing Olympians, and Lasha wants to be her next star. The hitch is that she's one of the fiercest trainers in world. To achieve her lofty goals, Lasha must look within herself to find the strength. Can she be a champion?

Gavin and his friends Mido and Critter are starting high school this year, which means moving from a school with a championship-winning soccer team to a school that doesn't have a team at all. With a little encouragement from his friends and granddad, a former "footballer" from England, Gavin musters up his courage and makes a deal with the school football coach: the soccer team can share the field while the football team practices, but Gavin must be responsible for running the team. With a newbie team made up of misfits and kids just out to have a good time, Gavin soon learns that being a good coach isn't the same as being a good player.

Josh, Sam and Peter are together again for their last summer at hockey camp, and this time they're all on the same team. Josh is certain that nothing could be better than playing with his friends and cousin Troy, until he discovers that his card shark cousin is gambling with the team's success. This riveting finale finds Lorna Schultz Nicholson's celebrated characters caught up in more trouble than any of them had bargained for.

When Lizzie first asked if girls could play on the boys' soccer team at her Winnipeg junior high school she never expected to become its captain. When she does, the principal suddenly remembers her name and the editor of the school paper asks her for an interview. On the other hand team morale drops, the boys treat practice as a big joke, and she just knows someone is plotting something against her. As the pressure mounts she turns to her Greek father, a professor at the University of Manitoba, who offers her some classic advice on how to handle the boys, on the pitch and off. Soccer Showdown is the story of a strong young woman who, when faced with prejudice, reacts with grace under pressure.

KaLeah has just moved from Halifax to the small town of Trail, B.C. KaLeah's a natural at baseball, and it's what she loves to do most. But she is excluded and bullied by Nikki and her clique, the popular Valley Girls, because she is black and because she is better at softball than Nikki. She decides she wants to play baseball with the Trail Boys, the best players her age. Except it's an all-boys baseball team. But first KaLeah has to prove herself to the boys and the parents who don't want her to upstage their kids.

Fourteen-year-old Daisy Howson is a take-charge kind of girl, maybe even something of a control freak. She means well—she just wants everything to run smoothly, especially on her relay team. But when someone tries to sabotage the boys' relay team, Daisy suspects her own team may be involved. Can she sort it all out and fix everything up again before the city championship meet?

Glen and Jacob are best friends and linemates until a new hotshot, Danny, joins their soccer team. Glen thinks Danny is cool, and together they get deeper and deeper in trouble. Jacob tries to warn his old friend that he's headed for disaster, but Danny's bad attitude threatens to take the whole team down. Heads Up! is a story about the hard choices young people face every day, and how friends can help us make them. Dawn Hunter and Karen Hunter are Toronto-based editors who have watched, played, and written about sports for most of their lives.