Five years ago, when my daughter was in the 8th grade, she fell for a boy with strict, religious parents. Tall and slender with luxurious hair that swooped stylishly across his delicate face, he resembled a shy, well-mannered Justin Bieber.
They both played soccer for their middle-school teams. My daughter — tall for her age — had been recruited by the school’s soccer coach, who had attended a girls’ basketball game in which she had fouled out.
The coach told her that the girls’ team needed an enforcer. (She had never played soccer.) During their courtship, this shy Justin Bieber look-alike promised to teach her how to score if she taught him how to knock people down.