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Basketball fans awaiting the Portland Fire’s first game after the Las Vegas Aces, coached by Becky Hammond, took home the championship last week can fill the void with Samantha Saldivar’s novel Play You For It (Dell Books, 352 pages, $18). Saldivar, a Portland-born former KGW reporter, tapped into career experience to pen her latest queer romance novel, which was published Oct. 21. Saldivar will discuss the book with fellow author Jen Comfort at Powell’s on Friday, Oct. 24.
Play You For It is the tale of two successful women: Jordan, the first female coach of a Division I men’s basketball program at the fictional David Douglas University, and Beck, a sports broadcasting journalist. The two women meet on business—in a world where they are both outliers—to discover they have undeniable romantic chemistry that puts their hard-earned professional careers in jeopardy. The book explores the nuanced dynamics of women loving women in a world where they must fight for acceptance and leadership roles in male-dominated spheres.
Saldivar’s characters—Jordan, who is influenced by Becky Hammond, plays opposite Beck, who is inspired by Saldivar’s own work in sports media production covering the Oregon Ducks—act as foils, with opposite career paths, yet united by their ambitions to pave a way for women in the world of sports. Jordan finds herself thrown into the position of head coaching in a scenario similar to that of Hammond, who made history as the first female acting head coach in a NBA regular season game. Beck finds herself enamored by not only the achievement, but the woman at the center of it all.
“[Hammond] was the assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs a while back. She actually became the first woman to be the head coach of an NBA team because the head coach got thrown out of the game,” Saldivar says. “He tapped Becky to step in and finish the game and coach it. I thought that was so cool. I remember seeing the news stories…she got some spotlight after that. That totally inspired me because I was like, why aren’t women coaching on the men’s side?”
Play You For It depicts an assistant coach promoted to head coach in the midst of a promising season. Saldivar reaches into the corners of not only her journalistic experiences, but her athletic achievements to fictionalize a coach she wished she’d had. Her first female soccer coach was hired during her junior year of high school, which she describes as a game-changer.
“That was a cool experience: having a woman be my coach and the different communication styles, emotional layers, or having some of the same experiences,” Saldivar says. “It’s just interesting because you don’t see that on the reverse side, women coaching men’s sports.”
Play You For It inbounds sapphic fantasy into a realistic world without leaving out the tough stuff of modern relationships. The forbidden romance undertones create just enough tension without sensationalizing the story. Jordan and Beck are relatable and admirable characters to root for, on the court and behind closed doors.
“Jordan, at least what I wanted to portray in the book, is under a lot of pressure and continues to have to prove herself as opposed to having people behind her,” Saldivar says. “[She has to] prove that she won’t be overly emotional—she does know the game, and she’s trying not to jeopardize that.”
SEE IT: Samantha Saldivar in conversation with Jen Comfort at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323, powells.com. 7 pm Friday, Oct. 24. Free.
