Back of the Net is a 2019 comedy film produced by The Steve Jaggi Company and distributed by Umbrella Entertainment. Directed by Louise Alston and written by Alison Spuck McNeeley and Casie Tabanou. The film stars Sofia Wylie, Christopher Kirby, Melissa Bonne, Trae Robin, Tiarnie Coupland, Kate Box, Yasmin Honeychurch, Gemma Chua-Tran and Raj Labade. The story follows a smart and brainy American girl named Cory, who seeks to spend her semester on a science research program before she accidentally gets on the wrong bus and ends up spending her semester at the Harold Soccer Academy.
Plot
Cory Bailey, a science student, living in Los Angeles, dreams of researching the ocean professionally. Her parents, David Bailey and Rebecca Bailey support her aspiration of becoming a scientist. During the summer holiday, Cory decides to join the Sea Science program organized by the Harold Academy. However, she gets on the wrong bus and finds herself arriving at the training center of the Harold Soccer Academy. Unwilling to miss the research program, she tries to contact the person in charge of the Sea Science program to escape. Unfortunately, she fails and has to stay in the soccer camp.
On the first day of the camp, she needs to attend various lessons, from science lessons, soccer training to experiment lessons. She performs well in both science and experiment lessons but does poorly in soccer training. However, her masterful performance during experiment lessons catches the attention of Oliver, the most talented soccer player in the school, to make friends with her.
After the first day of training, a room has been assigned for Cory to rest. She meets a lot of friends who are amateurs of football like her. They name their team as the Worst of the Best (WOTB).
As the day of the National Soccer Competition approaches nearer, Cory and Oliver become closer due to the post-class discussion about the scientific theory of football. This triggers the jealousy of Edie, the best friend of Oliver since they are young. Edie decides to prank Cory on her glowing pickle demonstration. She destroys the experimental setup of Cory and insults her for her soccer skill after training.
Cory feels depressed and demanding after being insulted; she wants to give up on football and change to a new school to continue her research. Fortunately, her friends come to Cory, who is deeply disappointed to comfort and cheer her up. She is touched that her friends support her all the time and decides to move on.
After hearing the news from Coach Smith that the school will not be sponsoring WOTB the upcoming year unless the team has stellar results, everyone is devastated as they think it is impossible for them to win any match. Rather than being struck a blow, Cory is motivated to explore new ways to help the team overcome this daunting time. She applies her knowledge of science into the mode of training of the team. Combining with the theory of physics, the performance of the WOTB improves drastically in the latest pieces of training.
On the day of the National Soccer Competition, Worst of the Best beats various teams from other schools and promotes to the final. The opponent in the final is the Elite team of the Harold Soccer Academy. The score was tied towards the end of the match. Unfortunately, one of the team members of WOTB accidentally gets hurt, and Cory has to go into the match to replace her teammate. Applying her science knowledge, Cory scores at the last minute of the match, and the team finally wins the title of the competition.
After WOTB wins the competition, Cory does not celebrate and insult Edie about the competition. Instead, she comforts and cheers her up that every day is a chance to be someone you were not yesterday. Edie feels touched and apologizes for the prank on Cory. At last, they become friends and celebrate the honor of Harold Soccer Academy together.