Get With It, Girls! Life Is Competition [Hardcover]

Teri Clemens (Author), Tom Wheatley (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2001

The winningest coach in all NCAA Collegiate Volleyball history at all levels, Teri Clemens and award-winning sportswriter Tom Wheatley offer insight and instruction to young women ages 14-21 on how to be an effective competitor in all aspects of life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a great teaching manual to help you with life's lessons on and off the field. What great insight..." -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee, three-time Olympic champion

"...comes closer to the essence of what sports should be about than virtually anything we find in the day-to-day headlines..." -- Bob Costas, NBC Sports

"Teri focused on all the right things for girls who aspire to be successful as athletes." -- Val Ackerman, WNBA president

About the Author

In 14 years at Washington University in St. Louis, Coach Teri Clemens won seven NCAA III national volleyball championships. She was named the NCAA III national coach of the year six times and was the USA Volleyball Coach of the Year in 1997. She coached 19 different All-America players, seven national players of the year, and two players chosen as Division III All-Sports Female Athlete of the Year. Teri's players also excelled in the classroom. Five were named to the Academic All-America team and two were chosen as Academic All-America of the Year.

Teri, a graduate and Hall-of-Famer of Truman State University has coached in two Olympic Festivals, and speaks on motivation and competition all across America. She and Tom Clemens, both lifelong residents of St. Louis, have been married for 20 years and have adopted six children: Terri Renee, Will, Eliott, Manda, Carly and Gabrielle.

Tom Wheatley, a graduate of Bucknell Univeristy and four-time Missouri Sportswriter of the Year, writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He met his wife Suzanne when both were Marine Corps lieutenants. Married for 24 years, they have three children: Tom, Katie, and Carrie.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (March 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888698373
• ISBN-13: 978-1888698374
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Other Team Sports > Volleyball
  • #40 in Books > Teens > Sports & Hobbies > Girls in Sports

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An awesome book by an awesome lady and coach., May 2, 2001

By 

P. Wung "Engineering is my vocation, volleyba... (Tipp City, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Get With It, Girls! Life Is Competition (Hardcover)

For those who have kept track of collegiate volleyball during the 1990's, the name Teri Clemens should bring a smile and a look of appreciation to your face. For those of us who are lucky enough to live in St. Louis in that period, it was a golden time for volleyball in this region. Coach Teri Clemens coached the Washington University Bears to seven NCAA Division III volleyball titles in her tenure as coach. She did this with non-scholarship atheletes attending one of the premier institution of higher learning and one of the most demanding liberal arts institution in the nation, and she did it with a myriad of very different groups of personalities. Her motivation skills are on a par with Pat Summitt and John Wooden, it is no wonder that she is considered to be on that same echelon of collegiate coaches.

Now, after reading her book, I know what gives her the edge over other coaches in Division III. The sense of fun, competition, and excitement that explodes into your mind as you read this book is contagious. I now know why every single one of Coach Clemens' players that I have ever met all have the same three attributes: a love of the game of volleyball, a take charge attitude about life, and an undying love and respect for Teri. You can feel her love for the game, her players, and competition coming through each page of this very short book. Her lessons are simple, almost obvious, but never obvious enough for the rest of us to understand by ourselves, because we if we did, we should be applying the things she elucidates in the book by ourselves. Her comments are always timeless and to the point. No time to pussyfoot around the point, just get to the lesson.

Every single Wash U team I have seen are well prepared, confident, fun loving, disciplined, and incredible to watch. I have seen better athletes and better volleyball in college volleyball, but rarely have I seen a TEAM that cared for each other so much AND win so much at the same time. Coach Clemens has laid out her philosophy and touchstone, now it is for each and every athelete to devour this book and come up with their own success story.

I have had the good fortune of attending one of Coach Clemens coaching seminars recently, I never laughed so hard in my life, and I learned a lot in the period of fun and exchange. This book is an extension of her philosophy and it is a great reference point for her way of motivating athletes. Each of the chapters contain one idea that she expounds on, she uses her player's experience as examples and she makes an excellent case for each one of her points. She is never preachy and always humorous. I will have this book with me all the time as I coach my junior select club team because everything she mentions is important for all ages. She has rejuvenated me and recharged my thought process this season.

I can not express how important this book is to the female athletes that are out there striving for excellence. This is one heck of a blueprint to help them get started.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get With It Girls! Life Is Competition, April 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Get With It, Girls! Life Is Competition (Hardcover)

As a former volleyball coach and a dad of a Division II volleyball player, I recommend that every volleyball coach read this book and make it mandatory reading for their team.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Motivational Read!, April 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Get With It, Girls! Life Is Competition (Hardcover)

Teri Clemens' book is a great "pocket motivator" -- for those who are involved in sports AND those who may not be. As a coach and a teacher, I plan to use this as a great reference book for my athletes and students alike, as a way to inspire them both on the court and in life.