Beyond Winning: Memoir of a Women's Soccer Coach [Hardcover]

S. S. Hanna (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996

Beyond Winning: Memoir of a Women's Soccer Coach profiles the birth of a small-college program in women's soccer. It also explores the rewards and tensions of the program's first season while commenting on important issues in small-college sports and especially women's sports.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"BEYOND WINNING: MEMOIR OF A WOMEN'S SOCCER COACH by S. S. Hanna has become one of my favourite books ever." D. Irak, September 18, 2011, Women's Soccer United.com

"A cute memoir... Hanna, an English teacher and comic writer, spices the chronicle with literary references..." -- Reference and Research Book News/ July 1997

"BEYOND WINNING is the story of Dr. S. S. Hanna, an English professor by trade, and his successful attempt to start a women's soccer program from scratch at tiny Geneva College in Pennsylvania. [Hanna's]... story is one that we need to hear. It is the tale of a professor and students whose dedication to amateur athletics was so intense that they played on despite the lack of proper facilities and equipment, little funding, and almost no initial institutional support. It is, in short, a book that gives one a glimpse of college coaches, professors, and athletes acting the way they would if college sports were truly about education, personal growth, and amateur ideals." -- Sports: A Reference Guide and Critical Commentary, 1980-1999. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut. London

"Beyond Winning is very rewarding reading for anyone interested in college athletics and a rousing good memoir..." -- Midwest Book Review Feb 1997

"Hanna advocates women's sports..." "The book lends insight into the struggle to establish a new team..." -- Choice, June 1997

About the Author

The author, who holds a Ph.D and teaches English at Geneva College, was the head coach of the women's soccer program covered in the book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Colorado; First Edition edition (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870813986
• ISBN-13: 978-0870813986
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,299,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Indeed a good read., October 27, 1999

By 

Edmon L. Rowell, Jr., senior editor, Mercer U... (Macon, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Winning: Memoir of a Women's Soccer Coach (Hardcover)

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.

2.0 out of 5 stars Unfocused and unmoving, May 20, 2001

By 

dondo (Issaquah, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Winning: Memoir of a Women's Soccer Coach (Hardcover)

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars from a student's POV, March 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Beyond Winning: Memoir of a Women's Soccer Coach (Hardcover)

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.