Jon J. Kerr's Blog, page 4

Boys in Brown Blog: An Old-Fashioned Alternative to Amazon

This is the time of year, isn’t it? Each opening of the mailbox door results in a gasp, followed by a two-handed (one hand simply will not do!) seizure of its contents. Straining our hands and wrists are…catalogs. So many catalogs (I must admit flipping through the Wolferman’s Bakery pages was an exercise in delight. Dark Chocolate Chip Belgian Waffles? Giddy up.)

During the normal calendar year, such excess exposure to goods and services inspires pangs of annoyance (jeez…more crap I have to throw out). But in November, I actually take the time to look through many of them. Ideas on gifts for the nieces and nephews, or a reminder of how now might be a good time to replace the grooming kit that’s in serious decline (L’Occitane Face Mist? Sure, why not).

There’s something fundamentally traditional about catalogs. Before shopping malls or online retailers, catalogs are how millions of Americans learned about stuff to cloth, feed and fill their houses and garages with. People actually built homes via mail order in the early 20th century.

As many of you know the The Boys in Brown is available on the largest online catalog of our generation, Amazon. The platform has been very beneficial. Amazon is very much a partner to publishers–acting as distribution channel being the most effectual. But I know not everyone uses Amazon. And as an indy publisher, part of my responsibility is make sure those who want the book can get it through other means. I’m constantly trying different methods to get books in readers’ hands. So a few weeks ago, Catholic New World magazine did a write up on The Boys in Brown in one of their columns. In the column, I asked the editor, Dolores Madlener, to include a note about an alternative to Amazon. That alternative? The old fashioned mail order method:

Send me a check, I will mail you the book.

There hasn’t been a day in two weeks when, stuffed between the legion of catalogs, my weary mailbox did not include envelopes that inside, contained notes and orders for the The Boys in Brown. 

Because of the positive response, it would be an injustice not to pass along this offer to you. So through the holidays, for those who don’t want to go through Amazon, or have a relative or friend who’d like a copy of the book without having to go online, you can place an order just as your parents, grandparents and ancestors did decades ago.

 

All you have to do is send a check for $12 ($8 for the book, $4 shipping) to this address:

Enlightened Media

132 Huntington St.

Lake Bluff, IL 60044

As always, thanks to all of you for support of project. Have a great holiday–and catalog shopping–season.

 

Boys in Brown Book Giveaway: How To Get a Free Copy

We are entering the holiday shopping season. Clothes, toys, gaming, tablets…books!

I’ve got news on how you can get a free copy of the Boys in Brown.

Watch below for details.

https://youtu.be/5PbLF99mq4M

 

The Boys in Brown is now available on Amazon.

 

Blog: Behind the Book Reader Interview with Frank Lombardo

Frank Lombardo (far right) graduated from Carmel in 2000. He was a varsity football player in 1998 and 1999. He started his collegiate career at Northern Michigan before finishing at Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he studied Health and Human Performance. Frank spent a year at the University Wisconsin-Madison working in the strength and conditioning program.

He is currently an Area Sales Manager for Medronic, a medical device company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. He lives in Winnetka with his wife, MaryRay and two young children.

I interviewed Frank for our Behind the Book weekly reader series.

Q: You’ve read The Boys in Brown. What is your reaction to the book?

A: I’d heard about if for awhile that it was being written. Then I saw a trailer and was excited to get it. When it came out, I got it right away. It was an extremely fast read and I didn’t want to put it down. With my past and connection with the school and the majority of the coaching staff still there, it resonated with me, taking me back 15 years ago, not just my senior year but my other years on varsity and going through the program. I thought of my junior year and my senior year for sure. I’ll bet as you go through book, anyone from any class would tell you the same thing. It read like memoir to me.

Q: One of the central story lines of the book is the relationship between Coach Bitto and the Corsairs’ star player, Jordan Kos. Bitto was hard on Kos but there was a reason–he saw potential in the mercurial fullback and wanted him to reach his full potential. Kos graduated in 2012 as the school’s all-time leading rusher. Did that dynamic remind you of anyone you played with?

A: I think there’s a Jordan Kos every year. When I played, it could have been myself or Jermaine Freeman. We were two guys who played both ways and never came off the field. There were other guys who graduated later, like Matt Roe or the Larson brothers. It works putting guys in that pressure cooker. It’s incredible, lumps of coal keep getting pumped into this furnace and Coach Bitto keeps popping out diamonds. It’s shown that kids who don’t take well to coaching won’t do well when they have a tough boss. No one works for someone who says, ‘nice try, did you have fun?’ That’s not how the real world works. There were 65 guys I played freshman football with when Coach Manfrey was our coach. There were maybe 25 by my senior year. That’s just the nature of the sport. One thing I’ve learned form other families that have gone thorugh Carmel is Coach Bitto demands a lot from his guys. And that goes way beyond the football team. That goes from walking through the halls at school to playing on a Friday night. They are held to a higher standard. They don’t show that in your tuition breakdown. Character redevelopment is not a line item on your tuition bill.

Q: What do you remember about your Kairos experience?

A: Unless you have an older sibling who goes through it, you don’t know. It’s a retreat where you go away and you are out of school for three days. As you get up in school, you learn about it. It’s more specific to your class. I led the last group of my classmates who had to go. I was a little immature my junior year and had a better experience and understanding of what my classmates were going through.We left the retreat knowing a lot about each other. It hits people in different ways. We did a one night Lock in specific for football. We slept in the upstairs wrestling room. Coach Bitto took us onto the field, turned the lights on and told us we’d remember this for the rest of our lives.

Q: You attended St. Francis De Sales in Lake Zurich before enrolling at Carmel. Now as an adult with a career, family and grown up responsibilities, does your Catholic educational experience still carry through?

A: It’s still a part of who I am. Most kids who come out of there would agree with that. There were kids who didn’t go K-8 and and went to public school and came through Carmel and pivoted there lives. When I got to be 21 or 22 I realized I should have listened to a few more people when I was in high school. You know, I went to high school with the kind of guys that are in the book. When we played our last game, there were some that couldn’t wait to get their shoulder pads off. But there are other guys that are still emotional about it. I’ve got a soft place in my heart as it’s about something very important to me. More than anything in the world I loved being a Carmel football player. Coach Bitto is a very special man and does things the right way and that carries into how I approach being a dad.

The Boys in Brown is now available on Amazon.

Blog: Behind the Book Reader Interview with T.J. Brown

The Boys in Brown was released on Sept. 1 by Last Mile Publications. Author Jon J. Kerr interviews readers of the book each Thursday.

In 1993, T. J. Brown graduated from Carmel Catholic. He went to Indiana University before becoming a newspaper man.

He eventually left the newspaper business, got his MBA at Loyola in Chicago, got married, had two children and is now a marketing and sales manager for a manufacturing company in Niles. He and his wife, Joanna, currently reside in Northbrook.

I interviewed T.J. for Behind the Book, and he shares his thoughts on The Boys in Brown, his time at Carmel and how much of his adult life is shaped from his experience attending a Catholic high school.

T.J. did a great job and goes in depth on several issues, so I hope you are enlightened and enjoy his perspective.

Q: What did you first think when you learned of the book The Boys in Brown?

I learned of the project during the 2010 season. At the time, I was freelancing for the Daily Herald and had the opportunity to cover a handful of Carmel games. Early in the season, Jon was identified as the “guy writing the book.” I was, of course, interested as a Carmel alum and someone who has followed the football program as a student, alum and a reporter since I was a freshman there in 1989.

Andy Bitto was one of the more interesting personalities at Carmel when I was a student, and he was easily the most fun football coach to cover in Lake County. There’s a lot of depth to Bitto, and I was interested in reading someone else’s take.

Q: How was book’s portrayal of the football program, school and community at large?

I’ve been away from Carmel 22 years, and I don’t sit around rehashing my high school days. They aren’t that exciting. Still, high school is a transformative time for most everyone, and I am glad to have been at a place like Carmel.

The Boys in Brown evoked many long ago memories that I forgot how impactful they were on my life. Carmel’s community extends across Lake County, from Zion to Barrington, and even beyond. Why would someone work multiple jobs to help pay the tuition and then drive in from Johnsburg every day? Why would someone who lived in Barrington and had an excellent public high school so close by? In the 1990s, it was the way the Carmelites and BVMs incorporated their mission into everyday student life. It became apparent as you began to build friendships across a wide and diverse area. The teachers at Carmel in the 1990s helped carry that culture. You appreciated that most of the staff there remained at Carmel because they believed strongly in the school’s commitment to its mission. The late Dr. Bob Watson, a math teacher at Carmel forever, greeted my high school math class on its first day with him introducing himself and his credentials. And he concluded his introduction by saying, “I choose to remain at Carmel because I believe Catholic education works, and I enjoy helping make it work here.” Later in the year, he had a stroke in our class. It happened literally while working on an equation and he was able to walk out of the classroom and to one of the offices so he could get whisked to the hospital. He returned in a couple weeks. He couldn’t stay out of the classroom. There was Joe Scordino, a wrestling coach and economics teacher who stayed at Carmel until his health failed.

But many of the teachers that I knew back then are still there today (or have only recently retired): Jim Nolan, Cathy Smolka, Bob Kuykendall, Lynne Strutzel, Jim Halford, Sister Mary Sattagast, Kent Parry, Ben Berg, Jerry Rejc, Jim Rejc, Michael Fitzgibbons, and Andy Bitto. That’s a dozen teachers that were on the faculty at Carmel when I walked in the door in the Fall of 1989. Except for Bitto and Kent Parry, none of these people were new teachers at that point either. That speaks to the community built at Carmel.

The alumni community is strong. Some 17 years ago, Fitz led Carmel to the State Quarterfinals in what would be his last year there. I was working in LaPorte, Indiana as a sportswriter, and as fate would have it, I had that Friday off, and decided that maybe I could drive 60 miles across I-80 to Morris. A couple buddies who lived in Libertyville and the city met me there. We ran into a handful of guys from our class at the game — more than five years after we had graduated and all the way in Morris. The night concluded at some bar in Beverly having a couple drinks before I continued my way to NW Indiana and a bunch of guys I hadn’t seen in years headed home.

In 2002, Carmel played Mount Carmel at Gately in the state Quarterfinals and I went — as a spectator this time, and again bumped into more than a dozen classmates without even trying almost 10 years out of school

Contrast this to another school with a strong sense of community. I saw Libertyville play — and demolish — Lake Forest this year. Libertyville is real good this year, and they have a legitimate shot at a state title. I mentioned this to a few friends who played football at Libertyville and was met with indifference.

The Boys in Brown evoked the feeling of community I felt at Carmel. I think it also gave a great portrayal of the football program. It is what Fitz, the Rejcs, Ben Berg and Andy Bitto have poured their lives into. It’s more than the option offense and the string of success of late. The people that come out of the football program are better than those that go in.

You might get an interesting perspective on how the football program changed over the years by talking to some players. Mike Wagner, the starting strong safety on the Steelers’ Iron Curtain Defense, is the first major success story to come out of Carmel. Then there’s Jeff Zgonina, a monster for Fitz in the late 1980s, who went on to star at Purdue before embarking on a long pro football career. Zgonina won a Super Bowl with the Rams, steps away from Steve McNair when he was stopped short of a potential game-tying touchdown.

There’s Sean McGrath, the quirky tight end for the Chiefs and Seahawks, who had to attack his personal demons in college before becoming a bit of a folk hero in Kansas City.

Finally, there’s Pat Kraft, the new athletic director at Temple. Pat is a couple years younger than me, but played some varsity football his sophomore (my senior) year. He went to Illinois Wesleyan to play football before transferring to Indiana and playing Big Ten football even if he wasn’t quite the size that you’d like. Pat then focused on sports management, earning a doctorate at IU before becoming a business professor at Loyola a few years ago. I was earning my MBA there, and I saw him at a reception right after he started there. He then went from Loyola back to Bloomington where he was a deputy AD for a couple years. Ironically, Loyola hired Indiana’s assistant AD, Grace Calhoun, and stayed at Loyola for a few years before he had the opportunity to become assistant AD (and now Athletic Director) at Temple.

Pat grew up two streets from me in Libertyville, went to the same Parish as me, was in Bloomington for some of the same time I was, was part of the Loyola community when I was there, and if you would tell me what my No. 1 memory of Pat Kraft was, it would be the gym class we were in when I was a senior and he was a sophomore and he spent the whole class talking about how excited he was to face Joliet Catholic that night. I think of him more of a Corsair than a Hoosier (and he has his IU jersey hanging at Nick’s!)

Q: What are social and societal issues touched on that you found the most interesting?

Laron’s journey throughout the book will obviously stick with me. People like the Bieres are part of Carmel. I think, too, there’s a bit of an underlying theme about the role of the Church in modern America. You can see subtle references to the fact that church is not the influence it once was.

Fitz sees that his calling in campus ministry is to put God and spirituality out there for students to seize. Andy Bitto understands that football can play a role in bringing people close to God.

Q: At the end of the book, the character of LaRon refers to Kairos. Throughout the book, there are scenes that directly and metaphorically describe Kairos. As a Carmel grad that went through the retreat, what was your reaction?

Kairos was an experience I would hope for everyone to share. You have to have an open mind and open heart for it. When you arrive at Carmel as a freshman, you hear about Kairos, but you don’t get much information about it. The blackout of information was intentional, and it also has to be impossible today. A quick Google search of “What happens on Kairos” yields links to pages that detail the retreat. I advise anyone planning on going on Kairos to resist the temptation to do that.

Without getting into some of the passages where Kairos is referenced indirectly — it is only directly mentioned once –  I will say that some of the emotions I felt then while I was on the retreat came back. It truly is an awesome experience, and it’s the centerpiece of what campus ministry does for the person at Carmel.

If you want to know what Kairos is about and you haven’t gone on it, I’d just advise you to have no expectations or impressions of what it might look like and to trust in the leaders. The Boys in Brown does evoke some memories of Kairos as it is a highlight of just about every student’s senior year.

Q: The book is set in 2010. Do the storylines relate to the culture today?

I think so. As I said earlier, some scenes evoked memories of 20 years earlier. Some things translate well over the years.

The Boys in Brown is now available on Amazon.

 

 

Behind the Book: Reader Interview with Enzo Magrin

The Boys in Brown was released on Sept. 1 by Last Mile Publications. Author Jon J. Kerr interviews readers of the book each Thursday.

Every story needs a muse. In The Boys in Brown, there were several. One of them was Enzo Magrin.

A 1970 graduate of Carmel, there isn’t much Enzo hasn’t seen. Football is high on the list–he’s only missed nine games since 1965.

In The Boys in Brown, Enzo was a prayer whisperer, someone whom I could speak to about the importance of faith and spirituality. He had an almost ubiquitous presence around the program, as written in Chapter 25:

On this mid-November late afternoon, the view from Enzo’s Prayer Cave is wondrous. Snowflakes glitter in the artificial light. The natural autumn shade mixes harmoniously with football’s classic soundtrack–shouts, shoulder pads and whistles. The accumulation of snow makes it hard to stand. But when one strolls through the clouds, the ground beneath is often hard to feel.

As part of a new Behind the Book series, I interviewed Enzo. Here is an edited version of our conversation:

WHAT ARE YOUR GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK?

I thought it was very touching. I liked the people, the way the personalities were brought  out and their philosophies on life and family.

HOW DID YOU FEEL YOUR CHARACTER WAS DEPICTED?

I felt like i was depicted truthfully. I felt kind of bad that Frank Rejc wasn’t in the book. He’s one of the hearts and souls of the program. He’s seen almost every game.

WHO IS FRANK?

The lead camera man of the football team. He is the father of Jim and Jerry Rejc (coaches on the 2010 team). He’s been there since 1967. He was there when they were taping and after a game he’d have to go into the city and get the film processed so the coaches could stay up all night and watch film. He gave a lot. He was the head photographer for Abbott Labs. A sniper during World War II. He’s just an amazing guy. On the St. George at Evanston National Championships high school football team. A semi-pro football player and amateur baseball player. A wealth of stories.

WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON THAT SEASON WHAT STANDS OUT?

I knew Jordan Kos would be good but not as good as he became. Michael Panico’s speed. The team came together more than other teams. The defense. The linebackers were so good. And the strength of the defense. I think the coaches were very good as people and as coaches.

WERE THERE ASPECTS OF CARMEL YOU LEARNED ABOUT FROM THE BOOK THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE?

For me, i was really worried when we starting losing priests and brothers at the school. I started thinking, ‘where are we going?’ I knew there was always prayer in school. I’d like to see more but there’s more than I thought. I didn’t know they were having mass before home games or away games or prayer meetings that Fitz was running. That really touched my heart. You could see the religious aspects that God was always hovering around. That is what I would want for Carmel. That’s another reason I liked it. In the scenes that depict Kairos, to read how the people really thought and their feelings. I’ve talked to kids who have gone there. But with LaRon, he was having problems I didn’t realize. He’s talking about his feelings, about the after life. It made me glad to read that he thought about an after life. I don’t he would have done that as deeply unless he’d gone to Carmel.

WAS THERE ANYTHING ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF MARION YOU RELATED TO?

I taught at a place for disabled kids and there were many people like her. She could have been one of our staff members. We had a lot of people that truly cared about kids and adopted people Our people adopted people as adults, Marion knew there would be problems with LaRon but did not know all of what she would have. I wish I’d gotten to know her. She seemed like a great woman.

WHAT WOULD YOU WANT READERS TO GET MOST OUT OF BOOK?

That God is behind everything. And everyone. In every way. They can expect that God will be there. Things won’t always go right but they should be at peace about things knowing God is directing them. Parents should know that if they send their kids to Carmel they are going to get a good education, get people who care. And that we are not going to agree all the time in everything but we are going to respect one another and try and see the other person’s view point and come to some consensus with what should be done with a problem and always with the guidance of the Holy Sprit.

The Boys in Brown is now available on Amazon. 

 

 

 

 

 

Brown Footnotes: What Makes A Rivalry? (Why Carmel And St. Viator Clearly Are)

The Boys in Brown was released on Sept. 1 by Last Mile Publications. Author Jon J. Kerr blogs occasionally on topics pertaining to the book post-publication. 

Some of the best quotes in history are on the topic of rivalries.

Jimmy Connors, the great tennis pro, once said about his rivalries with John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and Bjorn Borg:

“Everybody knew there was tension between us, on court and off. That’s what really ingrained in my mind, ‘this is real. This isn’t a soft rivalry.’ There are no hugs and kisses.”

Victor Hugo, the author of the novel Les Miserables, wrote this about men vying for the affection of a woman:

“In love, there are friends. Everywhere where there is a pretty woman, hostility is open.”

Is all fair in love and sport?

What makes a rivalry?

In The Boys in Brown, there are several scenes on the topic of rivalries. In Chapter 4, Carmel plays Libertyville in the second game of the 2010 season:

One traffic light, 1.3 miles. That is all that separates Carmel and Libertyville High School. One is public, one private. One pulls students from a defined district, the other has no borders. One plays in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, the other in the North Suburban Conference. One wears brown and white, the other orange and black. One mascot is a species of cat that roams three continents. The other is a pirate, which rambled along the Mediterranean seas centuries ago. One time of year these separate communities assemble around a like-minded passion. Tonight, September 3, 2010, for a football game, is that time.

Carmel went on to beat Libertyville that night five years ago, 55-27. In fact, the Corsairs beat the Wildcats in all four meetings between 2007-10.

At the time, Coach Bitto said, “I don’t think they want to play us anymore.”

And they haven’t.

I would argue Carmel-Libertyville is a rivalry. Both programs have tradition–Carmel won a state title in 2003, Libertyville the following year. But more than anything, it’s the proximity that makes it so.

The subject of rivalries and tradition is topical this week. For one, it’s homecoming at Carmel. This is always a special week. Homecoming is as much a part of football history as the sport itself, conjoining a school’s past and present. Here is an excerpt from the speech Coach Bitto gave to the boys before they took the field to play Notre Dame in the Homecoming game from The Boys in Brown:

    Homecoming conjures up a lot of cool stuff. I don’t know if it does at other places but I know it does at Carmel. Carmel is a place where if you play football, part of you stays with the next team and the next team and the next team. So, therefore, anyone who has ever played Carmel football is with us this year. You’re taking the next extension of that idea. I shook hands with so many guys that played in the 1960s all the way through last year. They are reliving their Carmel experience. I’m not talking about football. I’m talking about Carmel! What does it mean to be at Carmel? That’s what makes homecoming different. What does it mean? It means to do whatever it takes to make this community the best in the country. You guys are here because you want to be better people and better players. Most of all, Carmel homecoming is great because you guys are going to fight for each other and fight for all those players before you, because tonight you are representing the greatest high school in the country, Carmel Catholic High School!”

Carmel won the game that year, 49-7.

Friday, the Corsairs host St. Viator. This pivots back to the topic of rivalries. And there is no question the Lions are a rival of the Corsairs.

For one, they are a conference opponent, meaning the teams play each other every year. This is essential for a rivalry. Second is the proximity argument. St. Viator is located less than 15 miles due south of Carmel’s campus. Although Arlington Heights is in Northern Cook County while Carmel is in Lake County, the two share feeder middle schools, most predominately St. Mary’s in Buffalo Grove. So think about this–from the time a child is a kindergartener, assuming he or she attends a Catholic school, he or she is exposed to the ‘St. Viator or Carmel’ debate. So there are issues beyond sport that can gin up a rivalry.

Oh, and there’s hate. A strong word that often makes people uncomfortable. But appropriate when talking about rivalries.

During my time with the Carmel program in The Boys in Brown, the only time the word hate was spoken was when referring to St. Viator. For the coaches, this stemmed from a number of incidents over the years that spiked their disdain for the Lions. I write about a few in the book. Here’s one from Chapter 7′s “Catholic League”:

There are numerous incidents the coaches refer to when discussing St. Viator. The earliest occurred in the late 1980s. Before entering the field for the second half, offensive coordinator Ben Berg was pushed in the back by a St. Viator player. The Lions player took the field for the second half unpunished. “If that stuff happened here, they would be tossed off the team,” Berg said. In a home game in 1994, Carmel had gone ahead by four touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Fitz, the head coach at the time, pulled his starters from the game. Against Carmel’s second-team defense, the Lions scored two touchdowns. The Corsairs put their starting offense back on the field. “I’m watching this like it’s a movie,” Berg said, who was not coaching but sitting in the stands. “One of their coaches calls a time-out. He comes out to talk to his kids and he’s screaming at our quarterback [Nick Yeager]. I don’t know what he’s saying but he’s screaming at him.” Jim Rejc, who was coaching for the Corsairs that night, said: “The St. Viator coach was screaming not only at Yeager but at his players to get Yeager.”

         After the time-out, Carmel called a simple dive play to run the clock down, hoping the runner would fall forward. Instead, “The kid breaks it for a touchdown,” Berg said. “Our receiver was blocking one of their kids on their side of the field. I don’t know if he said something but he gets in a melee with that kid and their bench jumps on our kid.”

         Nine of Carmel’s offensive players rush to help their teammate. A brawl ensues. “All nine of our kids got suspended the following week,” Berg said. “They had 30 suspended and had to forfeit their next game.”

         In ensuing seasons, there have been other incidents, albeit of a more non-violent nature, and over time, memories of games fade. But not all memories.

The excerpt is an extreme example. To be clear–I don’t believe Carmel hates St. Viator. That’s too curse and too general of a statement. It’s more appropriate to call the relationship dynamic one of competitive friction. And that can be healthy among passionate, high-achieving individuals. But wild episodes such as the one written about above provide another data point in the rivalry debate. Sure, no current player on either team was alive when the incident happened. Few coaches are still associated with the programs. But you can be sure that story (with varying degrees of accuracy, depending on your point of view) has been passed down over the years.

So make no mistake, when Carmel and St. Viator kick off Friday night, players, coaches and fans will feel the tension of what is a not-always-friendly competition between two rival schools. 

And that’s why we love sports.

The Boys in Brown is now available on Amazon. 

 

 

Brown Footnotes: How to Comment About Book

Ooops…sorry. I just realized I missed an important detail from the message I sent out this morning.

How to comment about the book.

If you so choose, there are multiple ways you can leave a note:

1. FACEBOOK. At the bottom of each email, there is a button that says “Share with Facebook.” You can click that button, which takes you to your Facebook page. You can also go to the book Facebook page and leave a comment.

2. BLOG. Most of you reading this receive updates directly to your email box. There is no comments at the bottom. But on the blog website, there is. There, you can leave a note in the comments section at the bottom of the post.

3. AMAZON. This is for those that have read the book. If so, I encourage you to leave a review. What you write doesn’t have to be long. A few sentences will do. The way Amazon’s algorithms work, more reviews (good or bad) allow others to find the book that otherwise would not. So if you are more comfortable with this, please leave a review.

This is a time I’d like to hear from you (feel free to drop me an email as well at jon@boysinbrown.com). Whether it’s an answer to the questions posed in this morning’s post, or just your general feelings on what you read, don’t feel uncomfortable sharing your thoughts. Help build a community of readers.

Jon

Brown Footnotes: How Readers Are The Best Educators

Long before the release of the The Boys in Brown, I wrote down a few ideas on issues within the culture I thought the book touched on.

Over the last few days, I revisited that file. A few of the words I discovered were:

SPORTSMANSHIP

COMMITMENT

MENTORSHIP

LEADERSHIP

FAIRNESS

HONOR

COURAGE

TENACITY

DECENCY

OBLIGATION

Through a book’s character, or more than one, I hoped readers would identify with of one of these themes–or more than one.

With Coach Bitto, his attempts to balance toughness and fairness. It’s delicate line. But when you are in a position of mentorship, you keep going. The next day offers another opportunity.

With Jordan Kos, I think of tenacity. It’s not easy being a star player. Throw in a demanding coach, and the result is a tense environment. But Jordan never backed down from the challenge. He stayed true to himself, to his teammates and coaches, and to his school.

With Luke Venegoni, I think of honor. Living up to a legacy family name is on one hand, a privilege. He was proud to be a Venegoni, proud to wear the brown jersey with the eight family letters on the back. But as is often the case with teenagers, he struggled with his identity. There were days he didn’t feel like showing up. But he did. There is honor in showing up.

With Fitz, commitment and obligation. He took a floundering football program and built it to a state championship-quality level. This with no playing or coaching experience when he arrived. He grew the school’s spiritual footprint. And he stayed, almost now at four decades. He still remains the campus minister (although he is not coaching this season).

With LaRon, there’s courage. He began his life with so many hurdles to overcome–drug addiction, abandonment, an orphan. How does one resolve such prenatal issues? Can they be resolved? LaRon took on those challenges head on. There were moments of struggle, and times of bad decision making. But during the moment in time featured in the book, he never stopped looking within himself in hopes of finding answers. This continues to be true as an adult.

And Marion, her actions fit each noun. I’d like to add one. To reverse a life otherwise destined for failure, making her life hard at a time it could have been easy, is also heroic. We often throw that word around a bit to freely these days. But not in Marion’s case. I hope readers agree.

Since the book has come out, I’m hearing from readers with their own interpretations of characters they identify with.

Some relate to Coach Bitto, others to Fitz. Others identify with Scott and Beth Carr, who opened their home that season. There basement was a sanctuary for expressing gratitude and building community.

I’ve heard “devotion” used quite often in reference to Marion.

So I pose a question to you…what word(s) come to mind when describing a character from The Boys in Brown? It can be more than a word. How is your worldview impacted by the characters? Please leave comment below. I want to hear from you.

 

Blog: The Book is Here (Finally! And Asking For Your Help)

So here were are.

Almost five years since I scribbled down my first observations about a football program in Mundelein, IL, we have a finished product.

Today, The Boys in Brown is launched. You can get a paperback copy or Kindle version on Amazon.

If you pre-ordered a digital version, it will be delivered to your Kindle today.

This day would not be possible without all of you. The book is about community and all of you are a big part of that. I can’t thank you enough.

And I have two favors to ask.

The only way more people can learn about the book is through sharing. Social media is a powerful means with which to spread ideas. I believe–I know you do as well–that the themes of The Boys in Brown (of community, of sportsmanship, of citizenship, of family) are worth sharing with the world. All I ask of you is to share the news of the book release with as many people as possible.

Feel free to click the Facebook or Twitter link below. Or send your own Facebook message. Or an email to a friend. Or text a friend. Or call. However you are comfortable. My only request is to share. The Amazon link is below:

http://amzn.to/1O3ujgP

The other favor I ask is for those of you who read the book, leave a review on Amazon. So many of you make book buying decisions on Amazon. You understand the value of reviews. A positive review means more potential readers will be exposed to the book. Thank you.

This is a fun time for me as I now get to share. So I hope to hear from many of you. Feel free to drop a note via social media or the old fashioned phone.

Again, I owe so much gratitude to so many of you.

And I hope you enjoy the book.

Jon

Boys in Brown Blog: Behind the Book (It’s Out Sept. 1!)

As the release of the non-fiction book The Boys in Brown approaches, author Jon J. Kerr takes readers inside the process. On Tuesdays, the series Brown Beginnings gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the conception and reporting of the story. Thursdays, he blogs about the writing and publishing steps before launch.

More news…official release date is here!

Details in video.

Sept. 1 you can get both paperback and Kindle version on Amazon.

As always, thank you for your support.

Jon