Customer Reviews

Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mark Kreidler is a true wordsmith, as he clearly demonstrates in "Four Days to Glory." A remarkable tale, he vividly brings to life the trials and tribulations of two high school wrestlers in wrestling-mad Iowa and their quest to win their fourth state championships. Wrestling in Iowa is much like football in Texas, and "Four Days to Glory" should reach the same heights as "Friday Night Lights."

I purchased Four Days to Glory the moment it hit the book stores. I was one of the thousands of people in "the barn" when both wrestlers made it to their final matches. For them it was the culmination of their high school careers in wrestling. For me, it would be the first time I'd ever been to a match. I left Des Moines that afternoon a lifelong fan of not only Jay Borschel, one of the two wrestlers for which the book chronicals, but a fan of the sport. Mark Kreidler is true to that in his account of what happened, i.e. even a non-fan becomes a fan of these two extraordinary young men as they battle against tremendous odds to do something very special.

The movie, when it comes out, is sure to takes its place right along side "Rudy".

Wrestlers toil in relative obscurity, except perhaps for certain Midwestern states like Iowa, where wrestlers are gods. This entertaining book takes the reader through the life of high school amateur wrestlers during their fateful senior year season, where they attempt to become state champions. In Iowa, that is a huge deal.

If you or in any way a fan of amateur wrestling, this book will be a sweet dessert. It provides insights as to the physical, mental and emotional (as well as dietary) sacrifices that these athletes must make. We will never definitively settle the argument about which sport is toughest or produces the best athletes, but from reading Four Days to Glory, you could make a compelling case that wrestling deserves the top spot.

Worth the price of the book alone is the chapter profiling legendary wrestler and then coach Dan Gable. It is, at the same time, a rather pitiful characterization as you meet a one-time world champion who is now reduced to hobbling around on crutches, the result of 16 or 17 surgeries he has had on his deteriorating body. One cannot escape the impression that Dan Gable mortgaged his health in order to become a fantastic wrestler and wrestling coach.

You can view this as Hoosiers for wrestling fans, but you owe it yourself to view it as a compelling story of athletic sacrifice and success.

As someone who grew up in Iowa, I am familiar with many aspects of Mark Kreidler's book. However, because I did not wrestle growing up, I found the personal accounts of Borschel and LeClere's quest for a fourth state championship to be fascinating. I cover wrestling at the college level, and continually amazed by the physical and mental sacrifices these athletes make on a daily basis. This book offers insight into those sacrifices and the thought process that goes into them by both the athletes and coaches. Kreidler does a wonderful job of taking the reader into the practice room and on to the mat during competition. Highly recommended.

This is a fantastic book that anyone who enjoys sports would like to read. Mark Kreidler artfully tells the compelling story of 2 high school seniors as the strive to reach goals that only a few before them have achieved. In doing so, he takes the reader into the world not only of Iowa wrestling but into the world of life in the middle of America. I am not a wrestling fan but found the book fascinating.

While this is a must read for a wrestling fan, any sports fan or a person that enjoys reading about another way life will thoroughly enjoy this very well written book.

I have been a High School wrestling Coach in New York State for the past 19 years and nothing comes closer to telling the tale of our sport than this book. I couldn't put it down. It is a great read about the trials and tribulations in the wrestling careers of two young men in the state of Iowa. Iowa is the mecca of our great sport and Mark Kreidler does a masterful job of bringing the sport of wrestling to life and showing that dedication and hardwork can lead to great things. Kreidler 's account shows valuable insight into the sport and how it can prepare you for life. His chapter on America's Ledgendary Olympian Dan Gable and his many contributions to the sport was filled with great information and details. I brought my copy to our year end Sectional wrestling championships and coaches all wrote down information and purchased this great book. The next weekend at our State Qualifiers I was lauded by those who bought the book and had read it quickly just like I had done.

As the father of a son who wrestled for three years in high school after being cut from the varsity basketball team, this brought back all the memories of three years of agony and ecstacy. I remember going to my kid's matches and wishing they were over before I got there so I would not have my stomach in knots every time he was out there. And this, in the Philadelphia area, was not the same level as Iowa, but nonetheless the joy and pain was identical. The author kept you on edge throughout and I had no idea how it would end until I got to the final chapter. And I have to admit my heart was pounding as the state tournament began in the book. I cannot remember the last book which made me feel that way. I, too, saw my son sitting in his room with a small cup of water by his desk every week, especially when he went from 160 to 152 for the sectionals. I was on the road when he won his first two matches and he called my after each one. I made it home for the finals and I will never forget the parade of the final contestants that night as they entered the gym on opposite sides. My joy when he pinned his man (from the host school) in the first period to win the Sectionals in 1999 will last a lifetime and my wife went down to the floor when he got on the trophy stand to take photos. He had owed some money on a moving violation with his car and I told him if he won the Sectionals I would ay the fine. It was the happiest fine I ever paid. I also will never forget the disappointment when he blew a 5-0 lead in the first round of the Districts and lost 9-5 because he was out of gas from cutting weight two weeks in a row, so much so that he dropped out rather than try for the "wrestle backs" which, today, we both agree, he certainly could have won as the guy he pinned in the sectionals actually qualified through the wrestlebacks for the regionals until he was disqualified for poor sportsmanship. That was his senior year. This book brought it all back (senior night, etc.) and I was glued to the pages and finished it in less than two days. And I love Dan Gable. Anyone who ever participated or had a son who did should read this book.

This book is not for those who have never known wrestling, either as an active participant or an involved family member. To truly appreciate this book, one must know first-hand what goes into making a high school, collegiate or olympic wrestler. That is not something that can be learned vicariously. This is a well-written book that only makes sense to those who know what it is to experience the honest, lonely, agonizing and extremely rewarding sport. The book reaffirms everything I ever thought about wrestling -- the good and the bad. Wrestling is a sport that makes men of boys and this book clearly demonstrates that -- but only for those who already know it.

This non-fiction book takes us into the lives of several high school wrestlers and their quest to become state champions. It helps that the wrestling takes place in Iowa, the epicenter of American wrestling, which makes the journey with the boys tense and thrilling. The author also profiles some notable names in the amateur/Olympic wrestling world, including Tom Brands and Dan Gable. Dan Gable is profiled extensively, which will delight any wrestling fan. The book is much harsher on former Iowa Coach Jim Zalesky, who replaced Dan Gable, essentially calling him an insufficient recruiter for the University of Iowa. (The criticism may be unwarranted: another Zalesky brother coaches at UC Davis, which produced the incredible Derek Moore.)

As an ex-high-school wrestler myself, I approached the insights into the wrestlers' training regimen and daily life without surprise. While this author describes the wrestlers respectfully, the multiple maneuvers and tactics in wrestling make it difficult to convey the sport's complexity secondhand. Although this book did an admirable job providing some insight into the lives of the high school wrestlers, ex-wrestlers will not gain any new information besides the conversations with Coach Gable and the pressures of being a wrestling coach in the Midwest. The conversations with and the author's profile of Dan Gable are the highlights of the book, and for those people who have not wrestled, this book provides a good view into a little-followed, but inspiring sport.

This excellent piece of reporting follows two premier high school wrestlers and their families through the last year of their high school careers in a place where becoming elite at the sport takes some doing. In some small towns in northern Iowa, wrestling is even more popular than football or basketball. But even where it's not, the wrestling fanatics will use that fact -- being outsiders -- to whet their competitiveness. This book clearly points out the grueling physical punishment the kids undergo on and off the mat, as they accompany their brutal workouts with starvation diets in order to keep their weight as low as possible. And these lads are at the age when they're supposed to be taking in plenty of nourishment for the growth that is normal during high school. It's surprising that they emerge with as little damage as they do. The part their families play is extensively explored. Also investigated is the influence on Iowa wrestling of the great champion Dan Gable and the generation of fans and coaches he produced through his career on the mat as wrestler and as a coach of wrestlers and coaches.