In the summer of 1962, the peripatetic and irrepressible Pete Gill was hired on a whim to coach basketball at tiny Ireland High School. There he would accomplish, against enormous odds, one of the great small-town feats in Indiana basketball history. With no starters taller than 5'10", few wins were predicted for the Spuds. Yet, after inflicting brutal preseason conditioning, employing a variety of unconventional motivational tactics, and overcoming fierce opposition, Gill molded the Spuds into a winning team that brought home the town's first and only sectional and regional titles. Relying on narrative strategies of creative nonfiction rather than strict historical rendering, Mike Roos brings to life a colorful and varied cast of characters and provides a compelling account of their struggles, wide-ranging emotions, and triumphs throughout the season.

"One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational. . . This isn't merely a book about baseball. It's a book about heart." -- Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois, playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats, defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to represent the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There the Ironmen would play against a Chicago powerhouse in a dramatic game that would change their lives forever. In this gripping, cinematic narrative, Chris Ballard tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet: a hippie, dreamer, and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966, bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era. Beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly took over the ragtag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life as baseball. Together they embarked on an improbable postseason run that buoyed a small town in desperate need of something to celebrate. Engaging and poignant, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the power of high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, and it reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among a coach, a team, and a town. "Macon's run at the title reminds us why sports matter and why sportswriting has such great power to inspire. . . [It's] one hell of a good story, and Ballard has written one hell of a good book." -- Jonathan Eig, Chicago Tribune

Will lightning ever strike twice? Can David beat Goliath a second time? These questions haunt everyone in the small town of Milan, Indiana, whose basketball team inspired Hoosiers, the greatest underdog sports movie ever made. From a town of just 1,816 residents, the team remains forever an underdog, but one with a storied past that has them eternally frozen in their 1954 moment of glory. Every ten years or so, Milan has a winning season, but for the most part, they only manage a win or two each year. And still, perhaps because it's the only option for Milan, the town believes that the Indians can rise again. Bill Riley follows the modern day Indians for a season and explores how the Milan myth still permeates the town, the residents, and their high level of expectations of the team. Riley deftly captures the camaraderie between the players and their coach and their school pride in being Indians. In the end, there are few wins or causes for celebration—there is only the little town where basketball is king and nearly the whole town shows up to watch each game. The legend of Milan and Hoosiers is both a blessing and a curse.

In 1964, the Evansville College Purple Aces raced undefeated through the Indiana Collegiate Conference, posting a perfect 24–0 regular-season record and winning the College Division NCAA championship. The skeleton of this season exists in newspaper archives and in books that capture the on-court action, but the flesh and blood has never been written—until now. This is the story of Russell Grieger, a starting guard, and his observations, feelings, reactions, and struggles of that season. It provides a game-by-game look into the team, showcasing Grieger's teammates, Coach Arad McCutchan, and Evansville's love for the Aces. The Perfect Season is an insider's inspiring story of a team whose motto—"If you're going to go, go big time or don't go at all"—inspired them to achieve their dream.

From an accomplished lawyer, judge, coach, and community servant comes a fast-moving tale of colorful characters in a small, blue-collar, coal mining town deep in the hills of Kentucky. Tales of a Small-Town King traces the struggles to find upward mobility in Appalachia, all while navigating the unique culture smothered by isolation, expansive poverty, drugs, crime, and political corruption. The product of a hard-working band of Greek immigrants, with mentoring from his Uncle Miklos, Takis Tsegellis rises as the town’s favorite son – hopscotching through varied career and community projects along the way – only to ultimately leave in disgrace, however, rejected by the town he spent 40 years trying to help. Now, as he returns to town to give the eulogy at his Uncle Miklos’s funeral, he must confront his unresolved love and hate for his hometown, and his ambition to topple it, all while discovering that his family and career were never the American dream he hoped them to be. He may finally reach the mountaintop he’s always sought, just not as the person he’s always been.

All architect Tess Roussel has ever wanted is to open her own design firm. She gets the chance when she returns to California and wins a coveted waterfront project. It's the contractor hired for the job who's got her distracted. John Jameson Quinn isn't her choice. And definitely not her type. Tess doesn't go for brooding bad boys—especially one who isn't shy about going after what he wants. And he wants Tess. Never mind that he's got a scandalous past to overcome. A daughter to raise. A boss—Tess—and a town to answer to. Quinn follows his own drumbeat. Only, now Tess is starting to hear it, too. Because he's good. And they're good together. Her design. His construction. Can they build a love to last?

The first three standalone books in the Applebottom series is now available in one boxed set! · A nice relaxing weekend read that will warm your heart, feed your soul. ~ I Dig Good Books · Full of spunk and small town wit. ~ Incidentally Book Blog BOOK ONE: THE SWEETEST MATCH: A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE She hid secret messages in frosting, thinking no one would notice. When Sandy Miller emerges from her shack on the edge of town after eighteen years in isolation, she finds a job decorating cakes for a little shop on Town Square. But then everyone starts spotting secret words of love and longing on her cakes. Andrew McCallister is the first to admit that he never got over Sandy when she dropped out of high school and disappeared. But now she’s back. He just has to get the guts to talk to her. When the town summons the pair to plan the school’s centennial bash, Andrew and Sandy discover they are the only two members of the committee. As they attempt to rekindle the long-lost flame, Sandy realizes her messages must have been seen by the town. And love is even sweeter the second time around. BOOK TWO: THE PERFECT DISASTER: A PUPTASTIC ROMANTIC COMEDY Her giant pup drags her across town, right into the arms of the football coach. Ginny Page arrives in Applebottom with a problem -- a Great Dane she rescued three days before her big move. An untrained Great Dane that outweighs her by twenty pounds. When Roscoe trashes the doggie bakery on Town Square, the locals send their strong, single football coach to help Ginny tame her new addition. Carter McBride is a favored son despite his team’s losing tradition. He got his heart broken on national television, and he’s content to hide in Applebottom and underachieve himself into oblivion. Until Ginny. Her devotion to her students and this wild, crazy dog inspire him to be a better man. With the town’s encouragement, Ginny and Carter learn that sometimes life’s biggest setbacks can turn a disaster into the perfect match. BOOK THREE: THE IRRESISTIBLE SPARK: A FIREFIGHTER ROMANCE She started the blaze. The firefighter fanned the flame. When Lorelei decides she's over that guy who ditched her a year ago, she dumps all the clothes, stuffed animals, notes, and mementos from the relationship on her front lawn. Then, she sets the pile ablaze. It feels great. Until it catches the grass on fire, too. Then the neighbors show up. And, of course, the volunteer fire department is called. Micah arrives on the scene and handily douses the blaze. But the fire he puts out sparks a new one in his heart when he realizes this feisty woman with a zeal for life might be exactly what he's been looking for. __ Don't miss all of Abby's books: -- The Sweetest Match: Sweet Small Town Second Chance -- The Perfect Disaster: Small Town Dog Lover Sports Romance -- The Irresistible Spark: Sweet Small Town Firefighter Romance -- Mistletoe Summer: Sweet Small Town Grumpy Sunshine Military Romance -- The Unexpected Shelter: Sweet Stranger in a Small Town Romance -- The Special Delivery: Sweet Small Town Single Dad and Nanny Romance -- Belated Kiss: Sweet Late in Life Mature Romance (over sixty) -- Runaway Cove: Small Town Family Saga on the New England Coast

**Winner of the 2021 Montana Book Award** **Winner of the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona General Nonfiction Book Award** **Finalist for the Spur Award for Best Contemporary Nonfiction** **A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick** "A heart-stomping, heart-stopping read. Unsentimental. Unforgettable. Astonishing. Brothers on Three captures the roar of a community spirit powered by blood history, loyalty, and ferocious love." —Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red From journalist Abe Streep, a story of coming-of-age on a reservation in the American West and a team uniting a community March 11, 2017, was a night to remember: in front of the hopeful eyes of thousands of friends, family members, and fans, the Arlee Warriors would finally bring the high school basketball state championship title home to the Flathead Indian Reservation. The game would become the stuff of legend, with the boys revered as local heroes. The team’s place in Montana history was now cemented, but for starters Will Mesteth, Jr. and Phillip Malatare, life would keep moving on—senior year was just beginning. In Brothers on Three, we follow Phil and Will, along with their teammates, coaches, and families, as they balance the pressures of adolescence, shoulder the dreams of their community, and chart their own individual courses for the future. Brothers on Three is not simply a story about high school basketball, state championships, and a winning team. It is a book about community, and it is about boys on the cusp of adulthood finding their way through the intersecting worlds they inhabit and forging their own paths to personhood.

Filled with charts, worksheets, and profiles of folks who've made the move (and love it), Moving to a Small Town is an inspirational guide book dedicated to helping you pinpoint your ideal small town and make your life there work - permanently. Thinking about leaving the city? Or just wishing you could? You're not alone. America is undergoing a rural renaissance, as countless thousands seek a simpler life and a safe, comfortable community in which to start businesses, raise families, and eventually retire.

As the popularity of women?s basketball burgeons, Karra Porter reminds us in Mad Seasons that today?s Women?s National Basketball Association, or WNBA had its origins in a ragtag league twenty years earlier. Porter tells the story of the Women?s Professional Basketball League WBL, which pioneered a new era of women?s sports. ø Formed in 1978, the league included the not-so-storied Dallas Diamonds, Chicago Hustle, and Minnesota Fillies. Porter?s book takes us into the heart of the WBL as teams struggled with nervous sponsors, an uncertain fan base, and indifferent sportswriters. Despite bouncing paychecks, having to sleep on floors, and being stranded on road games, the players endured and thrived. ø Karra Porter brings to life the pioneers of the WBL: ?Machine Gun? Molly Bolin, who set lasting scoring records?then faced an historic custody battle because of her basketball career; Connie Kunzmann, a popular player whose murder rocked the league; Liz Silcott, whose remarkable talents masked deeper problems off the court; Ann Meyers, who went from an NBA tryout to the league she had rebuffed; Nancy Lieberman, whose flashy play and marketing savvy were unlike anything the women's game had ever seen. ø A story of hardship and sacrifice, but also of dedication and love for the game, Mad Seasons brings the WBL back to life and shows in colorful detail how this short-lived but pioneering league ignited the imagination of a new generation of female athletes and fans.