Season of Life- A Football Star- a Boy- a Journey to Manhood Description:
Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood review:5 stars (Caught-up in the story) - Jeffrey Marx began to contact "old" Baltimore Colts' players after "saying" goodbye to fabled Memorial Stadium just before its demolition in 2001. One of those players was Joe Ehrmann, the All-Pro leader of the Colts' "Sack Pack" in the 70's. Ehrmann had nicknamed him, Brillo, when Marx was a Colts' ballboy. At that time, Ehrmann was an example of a the stereo-typical fun-loving, hard partying and substance abusing athlete that "graces" the news from time to time. When Marx traced down this former Colt, he found that much had changed. After thirteen years of professional football, Ehrmann's "calling" had finally found him. He had since founded and led a wholistic ministry in Baltimore's inner city for 20 years and was volunteering as a coach at Baltimore's Gilman School. He had founded "Building Men for Others" and was also serving on the staff of a Baltimore area church. As Marx traces Joe's journey and the journey of the Gilman School's 2001 season, he is drawn into his own "journey to manhood." His "side-by-side" story-telling draws in the reader as well. A very good read and must reading for every father, for every father's son and for every woman who wants to better relate to the men in her life.5 stars (Should be required reading for coaches) - I bought this book as I was told it was an inspiration. It truly is, and I've passed it along to many people, most importantly anyone who works with kids. With such an emphasis on "winning at all costs" these days, this puts being on a "team" into perspective. I then thought it would make a great gift for my daughter's coaches. It is one of the best books I've read, and think it should be required reading for all coaches!!! Lisa5 stars (You don't have to love football to love this book!) - Loved SEASON OF LIFE by Jeffrey Marx . . . it is the author's account of the Gilman High School football team that is unlike any sports book that I've ever read, in that it is more about how Gilman's coaches use the game to teach such principles as love, empathy, integrity and living a life of service.
The 2001 Gilman Greyhounds did not go undefeated; in fact, they barely had a winning season (having previously been one of the top teams in the country) . . . however, their record was never the important thing.
As the head coach noted when a mother asked him how successful did he think the boys were going to be, he replied, "I have no idea. . . . I won't really know how successful they're gonna be till they come back to visit in twenty years. . . . Then I'll be able to see what kind of husbands they are. I'll be able to see what kind of fathers they are. I'll see what they're doing in the community."
Marx often quotes Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL football star and volunteer Gilman coach . . . now also an ordained minister, Ehrman devotes his life to teaching the Gilman team the precept of his Building Men for Others program: Being a man means emphasizing relationships and having a cause bigger than yourself. It means accepting responsibility and leading courageously. In addition, it means players saying "I love you" to each other and coaches professing their love for their players.
There were several memorable passages; among them: * [Erhmann] "And I think the second criterion-the only other criterion for masculinity--Is that all of us ought to have some kind of cause, some kind of purpose in our lives that's bigger than our own individual hopes, dreams, wants, and desires. At the end of our life, we ought to be able to look back over it from our deathbed and know that somehow the world was a better place because we lived, we loved, we were other-centered, other-focused."
* "I expect greatness out of you," Biff [Poggi, the head coach] once told the boys. "And the way we measure greatness is the impact you make on other people's lives."
* Ultimately, Biff said, the boys would make the greatest overall impact on the world-would bring the most love and grace and healing to people-by constantly basing their thoughts and actions on one simple question: What can I do for you? . . .
"Because in case you haven't noticed yet, we're training you to be different," Biff said. "If we lose every game of the year, go oh-and-ten on the football field, as long as we try hard, I don't care. You learn these lessons, and we're ten-and-oh in the game of life."
Toward the end of the book, there's a thrilling account of Gilman's last game of the year . . . yet I was even more moved by the author's last chapter . . . at the conclusion of the season, he visited his father and took some of the lessons that he had learned during the season to help revitalize that relationship.
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