In his novels Wrestling Sturbridge and Shots on Goal, young adult novelist Richard Wallace has used "the metaphors of sports to explore universal themes of emerging adulthood and self-definition," according to Horn Book reviewer Maeve Visser Knoth. "Like other good writers," stated Ken Donelson in the St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, "Wallace recognizes the importance of telling a story that involves readers--mostly boys, but also girls and women--who recognize that the book is about sports and much, much more."

Wallace was born January 29, 1957, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Raised by his college-educated parents along with six brothers and sisters, Wallace, as he told Authors and Artists for Young Adults (AAYA), started writing "little stories" in the first grade. But academics were not Wallace's strong suit. As he remembered, "I found school generally a bit boring, and I stopped reading much of anything I didn't have to from...