Camp Fire Site

  The Big East.    Dana O’Neil Inside the most entertaining and influential conference in College Basketball History.   If you were an adolescent in the early 1980’s and a college basketball fan growing up in the north it was easy, if not inevitable, to be enamored or even consumed with Big East basketball.    The author, Dana O’Neil, shares some fascinating, humorous and insightful stories about some of the most noteworthy figures that helped form and shape the conference at inception and into its heyday. Now The Big East is not a chronological history of the conference.    However, O’Neil shares with the reader in how it all began.   The first commissioner, Dave Gavitt, is featured prominently throughout the book.    Readers are informed of his upbringing, background, playing days and early delve into college basketball coaching.   His greatest accomplishment, though, was how he attracted some of the bigger name schoo...

  Spirals.     Timothy B. Spears A Family’s Education in Football.     Ivy League educated college professors often make good writers.     Professors experienced in playing college football and that write about it are credible sources.     Families that possess lineage of Timothy B. Spears, the author of Spirals, are likely to have unparalleled insight to what it is like to coach and/or play college football in the Ivy Leagues.     The back drop is clearly the game of football---particularly college football.     However, as with most non-fiction sports-related book, there is more to the story than that.    Spears discusses his upbringing in the mid-west, his father’s experiences in high school, college and as a parent, as well as his grandfather’s rather illustrious career and persona in the college football arena.    Is it worth it?    That is, is it wort...

      Across the River.    Kent Babb Life, Death, And Football in an American City.     At least once a year we get a hold of books that are gripping, compelling and immediately capture our attention.    Kent Babb’s, Across the River, does this in no small order.     The backdrop is football but the story is really about what takes place on the west banks of New Orleans, Louisiana.    The institution prominently featured is the renown Edna Karr High School located on the other side of the Mississippi River in New Orleans.   The main character is the head coach at Karr.    An interesting, complex character who is portrayed as a gifted coach but conflicted about the right path to take in his life.    Meanwhile, the Karr football program continues to churn out successful seasons due the immense talent, ardent coaching and cemented culture.       But life is...

    Paradise Found.     Bill Plaschke . A High School Football Team’s Rise from the Ashes.   The advance praise for the book includes terms like spirit, touching, heartwarming, empathetic, resilient, big hearted and devastating.     All of these words aptly describe what happened in this small northern California town in early November of 2018.     This is a story of heart break and devastation that ultimately results in perseverance of the human spirit. Fortunately for the readers, the author, Bill Plaschke, is more than able to tell the tale of what happened in Paradise, California that day and throughout the next year.     Many characters are introduced in the book and each story is more depressing than the previous.      The main character, coach Rick Prinz, and his staff cajole the players to regroup and participate in the ensuing 2019 season.    It takes some doing since m...