Raising a Team Player

Description

Youth sports have become a pressure cooker of expectations. Parents scream abuse at players, coaches, and referees. Coaches demand that their teams win, at any cost. Kids practice day and night. They face intense pressure to score, to win, to succeed. But is this the measure of success we want to impress upon our children? In RAISING A TEAM PLAYER, Harry Sheehy answers this question and many more. Offering lessons and wisdom learned from more than seventeen years of working with elementary school children, secondary schoolers and college players. Sheehy encourages parents to get involved in their kids' athletic experiences. He offers advice on how to praise, encourage, inspire, build, temper, support and teach, working with children on everything from setting goals to teaching sportsmanship and humility to building character and a sense of self-worth.

Danny Peary is an American film critic and sportswriter. His film writing has been published in Focus on Film, Newsday, Film and Filming, The Philadelphia Bulletin, Movieline, Cineaste, Video Times/Video Movies, The New York Daily News, The Boston Globe, Soho News, Timessquare.com, brinkzine.com, The Sag Harbor Express, and FilmInk. He also authored the highly influential three-volume Cult Movies series, Guide for the Film Fanatic, and Alternate Oscars. Additionally, he is the writer-researcher on the long-running national sports interview television program The Tim McCarver Show, and has written three books with McCarver. He collaborated with Ralph Kiner on his autobiography, Baseball Forever, and coauthored Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero and Gil Hodges: The Brooklyn Bums, The Miracle Mets and the Extraordinary Life of a Baseball Legend. He has recently collaborated with Olympic gold medalist and cancer survivor Shannon Miller on her memoir, It's Not About Perfect. Harry Sheehy, a 1975 graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, returned to coach at his alma mater in 1983. He was Head Men's Basketball Coach for 17 years, during which his teams compiled a record of 324-104 (.757), the fourth best winning percentage in the history of Division III men's basketball. He was selected Northeast Coach of the Year (1990, 1997, 1998), Eastern Basketball magazine's Coach of the Year (1998), and Conference Coach of the Year (2000). He now serves as Athletic Director at Williams.

"Sheehy is, at heart, that rare thing: a good teacher. His noble integrity, cogent observations, and experienced advice shine here. Sheehy's heartfelt, instructional work is highly recommended..." --Library Journal "Raising a Team Player is insightful, challenging, and much needed. . . . Harry Sheehy and I agree that whether you're a professional athlete or a 7-year-old, it all boils down to these five simple words: Do the best you can!" --from the foreword by Joe Torre "I applaud Harry's enthusiastic commitment to making integrity, character, sportsmanship, and dedication the most important lessons kids learn through sports. Harry instills this hardworking, fair-play attitude in all his players, and with this timely book, he inspires it in parents and coaches everywhere." --Bill Cosby "Harry Sheehy writes with true conviction and makes real sense. If you're a coach or a parent whose child plays sports, then his book is essential reading." --FOX baseball analyst Tim McCarver "Every kid should play for a coach like Harry Sheehy. He has provided parents with a primer on navigating the choppy seas of youth sports. Candidly relating his experiences as a young athlete and, later, as a highly successful coach, Sheehy cuts through the outsized emphasis that troubles kids' games at the turn of the century and reminds us that sports can help children grow by teaching teamwork, sportsmanship, and humility. After my son's next game, I'll ask him Sheehy's three most important questions: 'Did you have fun? What do you remember about the game? Now what are you going to work on?''' --Tim Layden, columnist, Sports Illustrated