UCBA English Professor Mike Roos’s new book, “One Small Town, One Crazy Coach,” is a very fun read. Even if you do not possess even the most basic knowledge of basketball, you will understand that this crazy, eclectic coach, Pete Gill, means business, and you will see how his small town Indiana high school basketball team, the Ireland Spuds, grows as a whole towards each of its achieved victories.
Gill, the central character of the book, is portrayed as being propelled by an unconventional sense of sportsmanship. He offers himself up on crazy incentive tactics. He hides neither a sense of frugality nor a personality, which many regarded as crass, or “not-so-Dimp-Stefenagel,” the previous coach.
As a reader, I developed a connection with Pete Gill, Red Keusch, Jim Roos, and other characters as they each entered the story from separate angles and combined to form a most unlikely successful school sports team.
The book does present its own element of believability, as the team wins almost all it hopes to, on its way to the Indiana Sweet Sixteen, before losing to the much bigger defending state champions, Evansville Bosse.
Since Ireland had never won a post-season tournament under legendary former coach Dimp Stefenagel or any other coach, for that matter, each win becomes more monumental than the previous.
At the conclusion of the story, Pete Gill comes full-circle from being the supposed athletic heretic of the town to being a small town hero. The reader is saddened that the journey has come to an end.
However, it holds within itself what all literary works do-a great story that lives on, forever!
The book is published by Indiana University Press and is available at most bookstores and online.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025