Offside

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Trying to prevent his best friend, Ryan Davis, from taking real drugs,
Calgarian Joel Swystan, 15, passes off an over-the-counter sinus
medication as a sports or performance-enhancing drug. When the pair
perform particularly well during their next hockey game, the other
members of the Falcons hockey team demand that Joel also supply them
with the “drug.” Caught between revealing the truth to Ryan or
becoming a “dealer,” Joel elects to go offside by choosing the
latter, and the team becomes convinced that their success is due to the
“stuff.” When Joel’s flakey stepmother accidentally discovers his
“stash,” he reveals all and promises to stop the charade by telling
his teammates he can no longer get a supply. But Joel can never find the
perfect time for enacting his plan as changing circumstances seem to
demand that the team needs the “drug’s” psychological lift.

One interrelated storyline involves Ryan’s manic depressive mother
who has been hospitalized and who really does need to take drugs in
order to maintain her mental balance. A second one involves Joel’s
rocky romance with Valerie Sherman, a synchronized-skating team member.

A much longer than average young-adult novel, Offside sputters somewhat
near the end. The outcome of a meaningless exhibition game between the
Falcons and an old-timers team assumes too much importance, and the
novel concludes before the Falcons play in the big U.S. invitational
tournament. Beveridge’s recreations of hockey games are well written
and will attract young hockey fans. Recommended.