No comments about England Player by Player.

3 comments about Beyond Winning: Memoir of a Women's Soccer Coach.

1. Dr. Hanna seems to be an interesting and amusing man. It seems he did a good job coaching his team. The memoir has some charm, and is presented with an air of rueful humor. It touches on a broad variety of topics, including (but certainly not limited to) the proper role of a coach and athletics in an academic environment, tension between men's and women's athletic programs, the dynamics of a team with a broad range of talent and experience, some details of the games played in their season, and a lot of light-hearted conversation among intelligent people.

   Ultimately, however, it is an unsatisfying read. The author is a professor of English, so I had expected some provocative insights; however, none of the topics were covered in depth or with much creativity. I am left with no new insights into any of these provocative topics, and frankly the conversations and reflections aren't interesting enough to carry the book. This is particularly frustrating because I sensed an excellent work lurking under this treatment. There is some tantalyzing discussion of team dynamics; we are presented with a strongly polarized team in the beginning of the season, and a clearly united team by the end, but given no insight into how the union was forged. Ultimately, a book entitled "Beyond Winning" has to be about people, and the most interesting people in the book -- his team -- are rarely named and for the most part ignored.

   I felt as if the book seeks to be everything to everyone, and so fails to be anything to anyone. It's not clear to me who would enjoy this book. Prospective soccer coaches will learn nothing about soccer. Sports fans will learn nothing about athletics. It's not funny enough to read for humor, not charming enough to read for joy, and most damning, no one will learn much about human nature.




2. Let me quote an early assessment by the author himself. It is classic. To wit: "This book deals with an unknown author writing about a little-known college having a losing season in a minor sport played by women." I need add only that it is, indeed, a good read.



3. Being a student of Dr. Hanna at Geneva College, I can say that he truly puts himself out onto the pages of this work. I am in a class which discusses the book, and Hanna is the same person in the classroom as anywhere else. Always ready to show something new, and smile the whole way through it. Beyond Winning tells a true account of a baseball coach and English professor who gets a job as a women's soccer coach in a small school and has a losing season. What exactly would make anyone want to read that? That question is exactly what made me pick the course and begin reading Hanna's work. See for yourself.

No comments about The Good, the Bad and the Boozy.

1 comments about Billy Wright.

1. Billy Wright was to English soccer in the post-WWII era as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider were to American baseball in the 1950s.
   
   In this updated edition of a biography published shortly after Wright's death in the early 1990s, Giller takes the reader on a sports journey with wonderful antidotes and statistics of the player who defined overcoming the odds to become a national treasure.
   
   As a teenager, Wright nearly had his pro soccer career stall because he was initially deemed not tall enough to pursue the sport. Though the war took his career to the sideline, he returned and took the sport to great levels of popularity at the club level and as an international player & captain of the English squad.
   
   He earned 105 international "caps." Though he played in front of crowds of 100,000-plus, his last international match was played in front of a sparse gathering at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.
   
   As with many superstars, Wright proved he couldn't translate his stardom as a head coach. And talk about poor timimg, Wright gave up a coaching job with the national team for a head coaching slot with Arsenal, a top club squad that was struggling.
   
   Wright was fired by Arsenal before the young players he had been developing took the club into championship contention. And his coaching slot with the national team may have led him to the top leadership role when England captured the World Cup.
   
   Giller briefly writes about Wright's overcoming his battle with alcoholism after his playing days. I feel this chapter could have been expanded; not to chop the hero down, but as a means to assist others who take the words to heart.
   
   The closing section with quotes from former players, the media, fans and family members is very long & may deserve nothing more than a quick breezing. But the biographical text makes for a great read for a soccer fan or one who is interested in English history in the post-war years.

No comments about Kenny Dalglish Autobiography.

No comments about Gordon Strachan: A Biography.

No comments about Beckham (Celebrities).

No comments about Bobby Convey: The Silver Lining.: An article from: Soccer Digest.

No comments about Leeds United Rolls Royce: The Paul Madeley Story.

No comments about Dixie Dean - the Forgotten Tapes.