Finding Their Stride: A Team of Young Runners and Their Season of Triumph [Paperback]

Sally Pont (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2000

In Finding Their Stride, Sally Pont, a runner, teacher, and second-generation coach, tells of her first year coaching a co-ed cross country team to victory, both on and off the course. A surprising story of triumph, as well as an endearing tale of driven athletes, Pont shares the highlights and heartbreak of her young runners at Moravian Academy, a small, independent school near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Every page is infused with Pont's affection and respect for her runners, and as the season unfolds, we see the team beginning to find a new stride. While the boys struggle, the girls soar to new heights, going from last place to first. “Uplifting and engaging, Finding Their Stride is "about attaining and teaching excellence, whose metaphor happens to be a high school running team" (Kirkus Reviews).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There are certain staples in the canon of sports literature, and they're staples because they continue to work. One of the biggies is the tale of the disparate group molded into a winning team by a dedicated coach. In Finding Their Stride, the theme again hits its own.

Pont teaches English at a small, co-ed private school in Pennsylvania, where she also coaches the co-ed cross-country team. It's a quirky squad--Moravian Academy's strength is its brains, not its brawn--and the eclectic group that Pont takes on would just as soon burn the midnight oil, paint a picture, or perform on stage as cover a distance of ground. Naturally, they're the league doormats, wandering egos in search of cohesion. Over the course of one magnificent season, Pont finds ways to wake within them a dormant love of sport and competition, and they bloom, racing as a unit toward a Hollywood ending. After the season is over, after the accolades and prizes have been dispensed, after a long run of her own, Pont manages to supply an almost mystical meaning to what she--and they--have done: "I stop in front of my door, bend over, hands on knees, and breathe deep. My run over, I wonder, what does the Hindu desire after she has plunged into the Ganges? Hope to do it again." In the end, it's that simple. The humor, beauty, and depth that Pont puts into her stirring chronicle make the journey as rousing as its conclusion and its inevitability more renewing than trite. --Jeff Silverman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

As the cross-country coach, an English teacher and dean of students at Moravian Academy, a small independent high school in eastern Pennsylvania, Pont should be eminently qualified to tell the true-grit story of her team of young, determined distance runners pushing themselves toward a winning season. But Pont has trouble finding her own stride in this overwritten personal narrative. Her attempts to describe the physical and emotional challenges she and her students face too often falter on awkward metaphors: "The cartilage in her knees under the taut skin appears to be smiling with bright molars." Pont expresses deep affection and admiration for her students, and readers will believe they are worthy of it. But her efforts to paint these young athletes as interesting individuals never quite succeed, as their stories and personalities blend together. Keeping them straight is much like watching the very races Pont depicts: readers get occasional glimpses of runners as they emerge from the pack or drop behind, but they're too far away, and the course is too spread out, to appreciate any one performance.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156011824
• ISBN-13: 978-0156011822
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,132,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding Their Stride: A Team of Runners Races to the Finish, August 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Finding Their Stride: A Team of Young Runners and Their Season of Triumph (Paperback)

What a wonderful book!

Sally Pont truly captures the pain and glory of running in this elegant portrait of the Moravian Academy co-ed cross-country team. If you've confronted and embraced the daunting task of running at any time in your life--especially on a competetive level--you will love Sally Pont. As an extremely involved coach and teacher, Pont takes us on a journey through the fall cross-country season, showing us the changes in the leaves and the obstacles her athletes encounter as they continually ask themselves: Why run?

Surprisingly, this book is not just about or for the runners. Reaching into her bag of literary treats, the English teacher in Pont emerges as she looks lovingly at her athletes and compares them to Shakespearean characters or analyses the team in terms of Greek mythology. Her writing is lyrical and beautiful; even for those who have never run a mile, this book is inspirational in the pure feeling that Pont puts into her prose.

In glorious detail, she describes the ins and outs of training for a 5 kilometer race (3.1 miles), the struggle for improving a personal time, and the team effort that is its own ultimate reward at the end of the day. Through Pont, the reader shares in this experience as we find ourselves cheering through each winning race and empathizing with the disappointment of defeat.

An inspiring read for both runner and non-runner alike--I highly recommend Sally Pont's book for all readers!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ms Pont never fails, September 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Finding Their Stride: A Team of Young Runners Races to the Finish (Hardcover)

Reading this book about my own cross country team, our own stuggles, adventures, and laughter, inspires me. No matter how cynical anyone on this page can be about Finding Their Stride, don't worry Pont, you have made us all proud. In your eloquent style of writing (which parallels your speaking that can always wake us up in the middle of a god aweful boring chapel), you have depicted us all beautifully and given us immortality, the only kind, which Gilgamesh found out was fame. Thank you for everything, for your book, for your coaching, for your inspiration. We'll never forget you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It was heartwarming, realistic and inspirational all in one., May 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Finding Their Stride: A Team of Young Runners Races to the Finish (Hardcover)

I thoughroughly enjoyed this book. I could not put it down. I found each chapter interesting as they each had their own identity. However they all flowed together very well. I felt the book was interesting to me because I am a runner and have been a coach. I could see both perspectives, that of the runner as well as the author. I recommend this book to anyone who is a runner, coach or parent or someone how is inspired by a heartwarming story.