Customer Reviews

Beyond Winning: Memoir of a Women's Soccer Coach

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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.

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.

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.