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Hometown Victory. Keanon Lowe.

 

 


 

Hometown Victory.   Keanon Lowe.

A Coach’s, Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home.

 

This is an interesting story of a hometown area kid that made good on his high school academic and football opportunities suddenly returning home to give back to the community.    The author, Keanon Lowe, is a former Division I and NFL football player from Portland, Oregon.    Lowe also got into coaching as his playing days came to an end.    Even though he was a rising assistant coaching star in the NFL some setbacks and personal draw led him to eventually take over a moribund high school football program in the city where he once played prep ball.

Lowe accepts the job and tackles the many upcoming challenges of a high school football program that had not won a game in several seasons.    Along the way he assembles a staff and writes about his trials and tribulations of regrouping a team of high school players.   These are players not used to winning or fighting through adversity.   The new coach and staff have to show them how to develop a work ethic, learn to play winning football and become true teammates of one another.  

As the summer schedule wanes and the season starts, the team gains some success in the first season, ultimately making a playoff appearance in year one.    Lowe and Parkrose high school actually go on to make the playoffs again in year two and win their first ever post-season contest.  

All of this alone makes a good story but the most poignant section of this tale takes place in the latter stages of the book.    The author, now working security in the off season for the Parkrose High School, experiences a brush with an alarming trend at schools in this country.    

While it was worth the wait to read about Lowe’s interaction with a troubled student one wonders if this could have been included sooner in the book or simply made into a stronger feature of the story.   In addition, Lowe discusses a previous tragedy experienced in his life and goes into some detail in the 2nd chapter but the rest of the book does not strongly connect the adversity to the foibles of coaching a new team.    Even the successful second season gets limited mention in the last quarter of the book.

For a first-time author, the writers (with Jason Spizman) make a pretty good effort to keep the reader informed and engaged.   One can learn about how to coach a team from scratch along with persevering through personal setbacks and fighting through adversity under less-than-ideal circumstances.    The book picks up intrigue in the last two chapters or so and in the process generates another victory in itself.  

  • You might like to read this book if you are a fan of Parkrose High School athletics.
  • You might like to read this book if you are a fan of Keanon Lowe as a player and coach.
  • You might like to read this book if you are a fan of the Oregon Ducks.
  • You might like to read this book if you are a high school or college football fan.

  • You might like to read this book if you enjoy reading about personal and team struggles to overcome barriers and obstacles along the way to achievement and accomplishment. 

 

Read more about the author on Twitter:   https://twitter.com/KeanonLowe

 

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