David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

girl learned much more valuable lessons
—that effort can trump ability and that
conventions are made to be challenged.
But the coaches on the other side of
Redwood City’s lopsided scores were
disinclined to be so philosophical.
“There was one guy who wanted to
have a fight with me in the parking lot,”
Ranadivé said. “He was this big guy. He
obviously played football and basketball
himself, and he saw that skinny, foreign
guy beating him at his own game. He
wanted to beat me up.”
Roger Craig said that he was
sometimes startled by what he saw. “The
other coaches would be screaming at
their girls, humiliating them, shouting at
them. They would say to the refs, ‘That’s