Heading for Home: My Journey from Little League to Hollywood! [Paperback]

Kent Stock (Author), Ken Fuson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2009

People who witnessed this true story still can't believe what happened. It was so inspiring that Hollywood came calling and retold the story of a small school's baseball team in the motion picture "The Final Season." It's about family, about faith being tested and affirmed; it rings with the truth that if you never give up, incredible things can happen. Sean Astin, the star of "Rudy" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, played Coach Kent Stock in this movie filmed mostly in eastern Iowa.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kent Stock, born and raised in Iowa, spent twenty-three years in education and is currently working as a relationship manager with a bank. He is also a powerful inspirational speaker. Kent resides with his wife and children in Marion, Iowa. Co-author Ken Fuson fell in love with baseball by listening to radio broadcasts of the St. Louis Cardinal games. He has won many writing awards during his thirty-year newspaper career, and is a freelance writer from Des Moines, Iowa.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Arrow Publications, Inc. (August 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886296545
• ISBN-13: 978-1886296541
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,227,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Teacher, coach, principal, banker,husband, parent and powerful speaker, Kent Stock is also the man who coached the 1991 Norway High School baseball team during their now-famous final season. As depicted in the 2007 film, The Final Season, the nationally recognized Norway baseball team came together under inauspicious circumstances. They defied the odds under the leadership of then first-year head baseball coach, Kent Stock, and proceeded to win Norway's 20th state title.


Growing up in central Iowa, Kent excelled at baseball with the support of his close-knit family. To begin his college career, Kent selected Waldorf College, whose baseball program was then ranked 13th nationally. He played second base for Waldorf and then transferred to Luther College his junior year. There he continued to pursue his love of the sport while earning his undergraduate degree in business management with a minor in education.


Kent began his career in Belle Plaine, Iowa where he became well known and respected as both a teacher and coach. While scouting a game he met the head coach of nearby Norway, Iowa's famous baseball team, Jim Van Scoyoc, who agreed to interview Kent for an assistant coach position that had just opened up in Norway. Over the years, Norway, a tiny community of less than 600, defied statistical probability by producing 16 professional baseball players and countless college players. Baseball was pivotal in this small Iowa town.


"As a kid, I always wanted my parents to move to Norway so I could play Norway baseball. Jim Van Scoyoc was a legend in the area and to talk with him was like meeting one of my childhood heroes," remembers Kent.


After a year as Van Scoyoc's assistant, Kent became the head coach just as Norway was notified that the school would be merging with a neighboring school in the fall, making the summer of 1991 the last baseball season as Norway High School. The team, led by 30-year-old Kent, had only one goal in mind as they started their final season - to win Norway's 20th State Title. As you'll see in the movie, they accomplished just that.


Kent remained at Belle Plaine High School another seven years before earning his Masters degree from Drake University in education administration.


Today, Kent is a relationship manager at Community Savings Bank in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he lives with his wife, Laurie and two daughters. In 2006, that memorable summer of 1991 was brought to life again by film-maker David Mickey Evans and the star-studded cast of the 2007-released film, The Final Season.


While a long-time inspirational force for the many students he has taught and coached over the years, their families and countless educational providers, Kent launched his professional speaking career in 2007. His messages of motivation and relationship building have a powerful impact on young and old alike. His stories transcend the baseball field, class and office. In 2009 Kent released his book titled "Heading for Home; My Journey from Little League to Hollywood".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, well told, from a good man, August 29, 2010

By 

J. Steffens (Iowa, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heading for Home: My Journey from Little League to Hollywood (Kindle Edition)

Heading for Home is Kent Stock's autobiographical story of how he ended up the coach of, pound for pound, the greatest high school baseball program in the state of Iowa--Norway--in its final season in 1991 and how he led that team to its 20th state championship. The story is fascinating enough that a movie was made out of it (The Final Season), though the book was written after the movie. In fact, the final portion of the book is the fast-page-turning tale of how the movie came to be. Kent's good character comes through in the book. (I call him by his first name only because I know him, having the privilege of serving with him on a nonprofit board.) Unlike many autobiographies, he does not put down or make fun of others. If he had anything bad to say about anyone, he kept it to himself. Heading for Home preserves for Iowa baseball an important part of its history, but it is more than a baseball story and appeals to more than just baseball fans or people from Iowa. It is simply a good story, well told, from a good man.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pick it up - and challenge your assumptions., January 21, 2010

By 

Kristin White - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heading for Home: My Journey from Little League to Hollywood! (Paperback)

There is much more than meets the eye - in this book, and in Kent Stock. Yes, it's an inspiring story about baseball and faith in a dream...and yes, they made a movie about him and his winning team. But that's not what the book - or he, as it turns out - is really about. This book is for anyone who did not achieve his or her life's dream. Kent Stock didn't. This book is for anyone who has struggled with faith. Kent Stock did. With delightful humor and unexpected humility, Kent (with Ken Fuson) describes his life's path, which winds ever further away from his dream. And, incredibly, it's his deep integrity that helped lay that path. This book is about a real guy who opens himself up to wherever the path may lead, faces disappointments and loss, adjusts his goals with impressive maturity (without self-pity, resentment, or even resignation), and as a result, finds joy and fulfillment in places he never expected.

Read this book. If you're not careful, you will smile, laugh out loud, and feel your eyes well up with tears...in places you never expected.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great gift idea, February 7, 2011

By 

Steve Mindrup - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heading for Home: My Journey from Little League to Hollywood! (Paperback)

Told with veracity and wit, this is the story of a life that started down one path, and ended up on a different, yet equally rewarding path. The lessons on life contained in this story would make a great gift for dads, grads, and anyone else whether they are sports fan or just a fan of a good read. Very well written, and gives a more complete view of what happened leading up to, and after the motion picture, "The Final Season."