When Seattle filmmaker Ward Serrill met Bill Resler, a college tax professor who moonlights as a girls’ basketball coach, he didn’t realize that he was about to embark on an incredible seven-year journey. Serrill, camera in hand, followed Resler into the Roosevelt High School gym and soon discovered a group of girls whose unbridled toughness, passion, and energy he came to call The Heart of the Game. Then, one day, onto the court walked Darnellia Russell—a tough, inner-city girl whose off-court struggles would eventually threaten to crash the star athlete’s plans to play college ball and be the first person in her family to get a college education. At the center of the film is Darnellia’s unforgettable story. With Coach Resler, her team, and her family standing by her side, she takes on enormous personal obstacles as well as the ruling body of high school sports in Washington State.