Muck City by Bryan Mealer tells more than the story of a high school football team. Muck City tells the tale of a poverty stricken town that is filled with purely crime and betrayal. Any high school teenager can pick up this book and understand how cruel the world can be. Muck City allows the reader to quickly understand how differently life can be through the course of 300 pages. The book tells the reader the lives of many different struggling people through the point of view from a living room up to the Florida State locker room. One can realize the impact Christ can have for those who are having a difficult time in life. Not only do the teenagers of Belle Glade not have parental figures to look up to, but they are not able to successfully grow in life due to the poverty in the town. For a town once known as, “the AIDS capital of the U.S.”, Muck City shows how a teenagers can rally together through football to turn their lives around and create a brighter future. Belle Glade High has improved their academic grade from a D to a B over the course of a few years. With this academic success this has allowed an incredibly higher amount of students to be academically successful outside of just football. Muck City not only informs readers about a high caliber football team in Florida, but it informs readers about the many different obstacles life can be thrown at an individual. The significant issues are the high crime rate, orphaned children, and constant betrayal Belle Glade presents. Most of the young men use high school football as a way to be recruited to become successful at major university but with so many obstacles Belle Glade has, it has become a major problem for almost every teen living there. After reading Muck City the reader will definitely appreciate the things given to them in life and realize how much more difficult life can be. Not everyone is blessed with an easy going life. For one who is not faced with the struggles of Belle Glade, this book will be a reality check for any type of reader. In Muck City, the goal is not to just win championships, but it is to win over the kids and help create a brighter future for the Belle Glade “prisoners”. This story of struggling athletes, coaches, and students is one of the best books I have read. It teaches not only character and discipline, but it teaches how to cope and overcome the many struggles life can bring to a person.