High school coaches shape millions of lives. These 30 short and inspiring stories show the diversity of approaches by coaches nationwide in building athletes' hearts, minds and bodies to form successful teams, strong individuals and future leaders. The coaches profiled in this book come from every corner of the nation and every socio-economic setting, highlighting how they combine imagination, a selfless commitment to their athletes and a strong internal compass. In this book, you will find true stories of coaches who lead male and female athletes in a wide variety of sports. "From these interviews and vignettes come narratives that will keep coaches going-even on days when players are ready to quit. They will quench the thirsts of professionals eager to drink from a well of peers' stories. They pack practical insights for how to build the trust and confidence that teenagers deeply crave and need," writes veteran journalist G. Jeffrey MacDonald in this book's Foreword. "Although the book is explicitly about coaching high school sports, it delivers many a transferable insight for parents, teachers, pastors and others who'd like to engage the teens in their lives more effectively. Who couldn't use more of that?" Duncan Newcomer, the Lincoln scholar who wrote the first volume in this series, Thirty Days with Abraham Lincoln, also emphasizes this book's broad and timely appeal. "There is an audience of good people doing deep work with young people, their bodies and their spirits, that is character building, virtue raising and soul-making. They will find in this book and its stories the truths they live and would want told, and they will tell others. " That's because Martin Davis so thoroughly understands the challenges high school coaches, players and their families face every day, writes University of Denver professor Brian Gearity in his Preface to this new book. "I'm a hardcore professor of sport coaching. I write a lot of long research papers with big words, which most people don't read. For over a dozen years now, I've taught college students what, why and how to coach. Now, I'll be using the stories in this book to show what sport coaching is all about. We will discuss the culture, time period, and psychology of the coaches and the storytellers in this book." Thirty Days with America's High School Coaches also comes with a complete Discussion Guide, which breaks down the book into themes and sections readers can discuss with friends, colleagues in sports, and people across the community.

Playing a sport for Coach Les Hipple meant a life of rigor, clean living, modest behavior, and self-denial; even so, many boys were eager to meet these demands for the right to play on one of Hipple’s teams. In A Coach’s Life, author Dan Kellams narrates the story of one of the greatest high school coaches in Iowa’s history, an extraordinary man who lived according to the principles he taught, even when it meant losing a game or a championship—or the job he loved. Kellams, a former Hipple athlete, offers a vivid portrait of a coach who imposed stern discipline on hundreds of boys and, in the process, transformed them into champions. A Coach’s Life recalls Hipple’s eighty-six full years, focusing on his long career at Marion High School in Iowa, where he led his Indians to championships in football, basketball, track, and cross-country, giving the town its most glorious years in sports. Many young men learned unforgettable life lessons they later passed on to others around the world. Meticulously researched, this biography is set against the backdrop of small-town America during the 1940s and 1950s. Its poignant stories include those of a superb athlete who died on the verge of greatness, a school controversy that turned brother against brother, and a changing society that trapped a great coach in the vise of his own principles. “Part Hoosiers and part Our Town ... Tough and to the point.” —Phil Grose, author of South Carolina on the Brink

Variant title : USA Track and Field. From USA Track & Field, Inc.

I wish someone else had written this book, but no one has. It may be ironic that I entered the public schools as a teacher and a coach in the same year (1959) that C. P. Snow wrote The Two Cultures. I certainly did not perceive the two roles as being in conflict, nor did I see them in that sense for much of the twenty-five years I served as high school principal. As a coach, I won a state championship (1961 Massachusetts High School Ice Hockey Championship); and as a principal, I was named Administrator of the Year (1971–72) by the National Association of School Counselors. During my time in the public schools, I did many of the things I will argue in this book should not be done. —From the author’s preface

Bill Courtney Ñ entrepreneur, football coach, and subject of the 2011 Oscar-winning documentary Undefeated Ñ shares his hard-won lessons on discipline, success, teamwork and triumph over adversity, in time for FatherÕs Day.

From tennis elbow to severe trauma, Dr. James Andrews has treated countless sports injuries during his unparalleled medical career. An orthopedic surgeon, well known for performing Tommy John surgeries, and a consultant to some of the fiercest teams in college and professional sports, Dr. Andrews is the father of modern sports medicine and one of the most influential figures in the world of athletics. In Any Given Monday, he distills his practical wisdom and professional advice to combat a growing epidemic of injury among sports’ most vulnerable population: its young athletes. Every year more than 3.5 million children will require medical treatment for sports-related injuries, the majority of which are avoidable through proper training and awareness. Any Given Monday is Dr. Andrews’s sport-by-sport guide to injury prevention and treatment, written specifically for the parents, grandparents, and coaches of young athletes. From identifying eating disorders to preventing career-ending ACL tears and concussions, Any Given Monday is a compendium of practical advice for every major sport, including football, gymnastics, judo, basketball, tennis, baseball, cheerleading, wrestling, and more. This invaluable guide reveals how young athletes can maximize their talent and maintain a lifetime of health both on the field and off.

If it can happen in Beverly Hills, it can happen anywhere. The Poisoning of an American High School is a feat of investigative reportage and the product of four years of research by award-winning journalist Joy Horowitz. Making lucid the tangled issues of public health, regulation, and the political power of industry, it tells a riveting tale ripped from newspaper headlines--a cancer cluster affecting graduates of one of America's most affluent schools, Beverly Hills High. The Poisoning of an American High School presents the behind-the-scenes saga of the 2003 landmark toxic tort suit, in which more than one thousand plaintiffs, with the sensational Erin Brockovich as their champion, claimed their illnesses could be traced to exposure to the oil derricks just yards from school grounds.

The Native American Contest Powwow introduces Cultural Tethering Theory to convey the importance of the contest powwow in the celebration and preservation of Native American culture. The book addresses the concepts of culture, cultural change, acculturation, assimilation, and illustrates how competitive powwows align with and differ from competitive sporting events. Authors Steven Aicinena and Sebahattin Ziyanak go on to explain how the modern intertribal contest powwow evolved and why modern Native American cultures are experiencing an erosion of traditional values, a rapid loss of traditional languages, dysfunctional changes in social organization, limited opportunity to transmit culturally valued knowledge, and reduced opportunities for youths to observe culturally appropriate behavior. The authors also examine Native American identity and explore who can legitimately claim to be a Native American under current laws and customs. Additional topics addressed include blood quantum, cultural knowledge, cultural participation, being Indian, and playing Indian. Finally, the authors describe the difference between being Native American and playing Indian in powwow and pseudo-cultural powwow environments.

THE HEART OF A CHAMPION The Heart of A Champion trumpets the Golden Age of Long Island Basketball, from the late-1950s through the mid-1980s, producing 25-30 division I players. Coach Gus Alfieri took his 1973-1974 St. Anthony's High School Basketball Team and used it as a microcosm of the era. In this memoir, he describes how he got into basketball, what inspired him to become a high school coach, and how he turned an inexperienced and struggling program into the #1 high school in New York State, #1 Catholic School in the country and the fifth best overall team in the nation. The climax of the book centers around St. Anthony's defeating Lutheran High School in the first unofficial state tournament, held at Hofstra University before 6,500 basketball enthusiasts. This climatic game was labeled by Larry Sherman of the Long Island Press as, "The Super Bowl of High School Basketball." Besides giving St. Anthony's national attention, the victory over Lutheran was the 39th straight win on its way to a 49-game winning streak.