When this blog was in it's first year of existence, I posted a video of Northern State University Basketball Coach Don Meyer accepting the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the 2009 ESPY's. As I mentioned in that blog, my wife's family is friends with Coach Meyer, so I had known for quite some time that ESPN's Buster Olney was working on a book about the coach.
Well, last week I sat down and read "How Lucky Can You Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer," by Buster Olney. I didn't quite know what to expect, as I knew some of the details surrounding Coach Meyer's car accident that led to the loss of his left leg and the discovery of carcinoid cancer. I had seen ESPN's story on the coach and crossed paths with him a couple of times while visiting my wife's family. I knew Coach Meyer and his wife Carmen were good people who were always good to my wife's family, and I knew the coach was always great with my kids whenever they visited Grammy's office (which, until recently, was next door to Coach's office).
What I didn't know was the story of the impact Coach Meyer has had on the lives of the men who have played basketball for him or on the communities of Nashville, TN and Aberdeen, SD. I didn't know about the impacts the people in those communities have had on the Coach and his family. I didn't know about Coach Meyer's F words...Faith, Family and Friends. I didn't know about the arduous rehabilitation process that the Coach has had to go through or any of the details about the cancer that was discovered after the car accident that nearly took his life. In short, there was a lot I didn't know.
"How Lucky Can You Be" touched me in ways I couldn't have imagined. I found myself near tears on several occasions. I found myself learning new strategies that I can apply to my life from the methods Coach Meyer uses to teach basketball. One of my favorite quotes from the book is "Do the next right thing right." I will try to live that out in my daily life.
The author, Buster Olney, has always been one of my favorite ESPN personalities. The way this book is written and the way it portrayed the entire Meyer family just confirmed that my feelings about Olney were correct. The man is a great writer, and really does a masterful job weaving this story.
This would be wonderful book for sports fans and non-sports fans alike. I think this would be a really nice book for a study, such as a Church book club or a church youth group. I guess what I'm saying is I really like this book. And, as a bonus, it's not a big time commitment...at 225ish pages, you can easily read it in just 4-5 hours. I highly recommend you read "How Lucky Can ?You Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer."
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