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Review

Broomall, PA native Rene Portland's list of accomplishments is long: she was a star player with the Mighty Macs of Immaculata Collage (winners of three national championships and a second place finish in her four years there); twice voted "Coach of the Year" by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA); and head coach of Penn State's women's basketball team, the Lady Lions, for 27 of her 31 years as a college basketball head coach. She's a fierce competitor and a proven winner on the court, and part of that success, to her, may have been her strictly enforced policies of no drinking, no drugs and no lesbians. Star high school player Jennifer Harris entered Penn State and became a starting member of the team, only to find herself inexplicably removed two years later. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Dee Mosbacher (Radical Harmonies, No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon) examines Portland's coaching environment and the impact that the controversial case Harris v Portland and Penn State had on Harris, her parents (Pearl and Lambert Harris) as well as six other women who have suffered emotional scars, and the loss of scholarships and promising basketball careers when their sexual orientation was discovered. Under the terms of settlement, Harris herself is forbidden to discuss the case.

 -- Carol Coombes