In what has been a renaissance of documentary filmmaking in recent years, The Heart of the Game sticks to the basics. There is no need for stylistic bells and whistles in this story of a girls' basketball team at Seattle's Roosevelt High School. Documentary maker Ward Serrill spent seven long years chronicling the Roughriders team, and what he found was a dramatic goldmine -- a story rife with emotion and excitement, adversity and triumph.

The impetus for this often-rousing tale is Roughriders coach Bill Resler. A tax professor at the University of Washington, he lands the coaching job after offering such radical ideas as doing away with any offensive strategy and maintaining a full-court press for the entire duration of games.

With his heavy eyelids, scraggly beard and generally rumpled appearance, Bill Resler is a collection of quirks. He wallpapers his high school office with pages of the federal tax code. He is an unequivocal master of using the cheesy metaphor for motivation, telling his team to imagine themselves as a tropical storm, pride of lions or a pack of wolves -- depending on what year it is. "We're going to kill the moose," Resler tells his Roughriders in a professorial tone. "We're going to devour the moose, and then we're going to go crazy." The girls play along. "That's so Bill," says one.

But there is brilliance in his madness. With his arrival at the school, the Roughriders begin to win, and win big. For the first time in the school's history, girls' basketball draws greater crowds than the boys' team. The team makes it to the state finals in Resler's first season.

Resler's oversized personality meets its match in Darnellia Russell, a brassy and supremely talented point guard who quickly becomes the Roughriders' star player. It's not an easy transition for Darnellia, an African-American from a modest socioeconomic background who feels somewhat isolated at the predominantly white and middle-class Roosevelt. Although the girl is obviously smart and intuitive, her grades plummet – but Resler's coaching skills extend off the court, as well.

Despite a bit of meandering, The Heart of the Game hits its dramatic stride when Darnellia becomes pregnant and temporarily drops out of school, throwing her hoops future in jeopardy. Her would-be return to basketball is subsequently fought by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), setting the stage for a series of challenges that Heart of the Game filmmaker Ward Serrill couldn't have dreamed up better.

Serrill delivers straightforward storytelling here, relying heavily on a just-the-facts-ma'am narration by rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges. The voiceover gives the film a somewhat awkward and dated feel, but the engrossing saga that unfolds on screen more than compensates for any flaws in presentation.

Presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, The Heart of the Game was shot on video, and it shows. The picture quality tends to be flat and soft, but these are quibbles that do nothing to detract from the movie.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track doesn't take full advantage of the sonic possibilities, but the audio is certainly good enough, free of distortion or drop-off. Audio and subtitles are available in English and Spanish.

Perhaps it's only fitting that a film about the passion of sports also turns out to be about the passion of moviemaking. Miramax provides some excellent extras here that illustrate how The Heart of the Game was a true labor of love for documentarian Ward Serrill.

The best of the lot is easily Making of The Heart of the Game (26:05), a soup-to-nuts featurette in which Serrill explains what drew him to the saga of Roosevelt's girls' basketball team. He discusses why he stuck with the project for seven years and details a number of wonderful anecdotes that might even make you a bit misty-eyed.

Much of the same material is covered in Serrill's engaging and informative commentary. The only complaint: looong stretches of dead air. Why didn't Resler or some of the girls turn up on the commentary track, as well?

The 14-minute, 27-second On the Road with Heart covers Serrill, Resler and Darnellia Russell promoting the movie at the American Film Institute's SILVERDOCS documentary film festival.

As you'd expect with a documentary that ended up with more than 200 hours of video, plenty of good material failed to make it past the cutting-room floor. Twelve deleted scenes, all of which boast optional commentary by Serrill, are worth checking out for additional information about Bill Resler, Darnellia Russell and others. The deleted scenes have an aggregate running time of 27 minutes, seven seconds. Additional clips include Darnellia and family (5:07) and Bill and his daughters (1:53). What Happened To? is a one-minute, 16-second bit that brings us up to date on four of the people featured in the documentary.

In a two-minute, 17-second interview with Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, the rap artist explains he became involved with the project partly because "a lot of women have self-confidence ... self-esteem issues." Um, right -- this from the guy who wrote "Move Bitch."

Also included are sneak peeks to Meet the Robinsons, The Queen and Déjà Vu.

A straightforward telling of a modest but extraordinary story in the world of high school athletics, The Heart of the Game is an uplifting, involving tale that transcends its subject matter. Thankfully, Miramax gives the DVD the treatment it deserves, with a smattering of bonus material to enhance the viewing experience. Highly recommended.