Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference

This book was given to me while I was in Sloan Kettering in January, by Steve Valerio and his wife Jennifer. For a couple of years while I was coaching the North Jersey Rugby Club, Steve was the president of the club. He wrote a really lovely sentiment in the front of the book, for which I am greatly appreciative. Coach is not the type of book I'd buy for myself, but it was pretty good! I really enjoyed it. There are 25 reminiscences by a variety of people - mostly professional writers and authors - about coaches who deeply influenced them. Of course some of the essays were pretty average - to be expected when there are 25 of them - but some of them were really quite brilliant. My favorite was by Jane Leavy (never heard of her before reading this book) entitled "Coaching Bob" and it's different from the rest of the essays. In it she describes coaching Bob - a man suffering from AIDS - on how to live his life and face his impending death. The last three essays were by well-knwn sports writers and commentators Bob Wolff, Ira Berkow, and Bud Collins. All very good. The fellow who gave me the book, Steve Valerio, is your typical great guy rugby player. When I started coaching North Jersey, Steve, who was called "Flash" because of his (lack of) speed, was playing wing, the speed position on the rugby field. After a while, having discerned his (lack of) speed, we moved him to wing forward, where he never let us down.

I picked up this book because I thought it was about Creativity Coaching, one of the Life Coaching specialties I use in my professional life. Then I saw it was about ATHLETIC coaches - and writer's relationships with SPORTS coaches. I rolled my eyes at myself at making such an assumption.... I decided I would read some of the selections anyway. I turned first to John Irving - a writer whose work I especially enjoy. His quote, "When you love something, you have the capacity to bore eveyone about why - it doesn't matter why." and decided that quote may be the very reason this book called out to me. The other selection I found incredibly compelling was from writer Lauren Slater. I was in tears as I sat in Barnes and Noble reading this lush, evocative entry. She allowed us to witness her trip to Summer Camp and the deep sadness and horrible inner battle she had as she separated herself from her mother, as well as the movement from it thanks to Coach Kim. This would be inspiring to any kind of teacher and any kind of writer, though those who actually ARE athletic coaches may find it the most helpful of all.