All I Need to Know I Learned from My Texas High School Football Coach: A Handbook of Wisdom for Parents, Young People and Yes, Even Coaches!

By: Chris Doelle, Ken Purcell

Narrated by: Greg Taylor

Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

In total, Coach Ken Purcell and Chris Doelle have been involved in Texas high school football for over 87 years! They have seen the benefits of Texas high school football to young athletes from many angles...(player, coach, official, administrator, public speaker, broadcaster, psychologist, and parent). Seeing this sport from these diverse perspectives gives Purcell and Doelle unique insight into what make Texas high school football coaches so effective in positively affecting the lives of these kids.

The impact that these coaches have, reaches far beyond things like being a positive role model. They instill in their students a self-worth that makes all the difference in their adult lives.

The knowledge included in this audiobook is applicable to any parent regardless of a child's interest in sports. These are life lessons - not football lessons.

©2017 Christopher Doelle (P)2019 Christopher Doelle

Know anyone playing football? Get them to listen!

If you're looking for a storybook filled with tales of football glory, you've found the wrong book. If that's the case, go check out the book Rocket Man or Friday Night Lights.
All I Need to Know I Learned from My Texas High School Football Coach: A Handbook of Wisdom for Parents, Young People and Yes, Even Coaches!, is a book that eclipses the pure story-driven narratives, and lays out the master plan for turning rowdy boys into character-driven men by way of high school football. A career coach, Ken Purcell, teaches the psychology of the sport and its time-proven track record of turning youngsters into quality adults.
Author Chris Doelle does what a good writer should do: He gets out of the way and tells the story the best way it can be told. In this case, it's similar to sitting down with your ol' football coach at the town donut shop and getting his version of events one Saturday morning.
Their story of the methodical processes involved with this transformation may seem too in-depth for those who didn't grow up in the culture that largely plays into who modern Texans are. But in my opinion, that's why this book -- and audiobook -- were made: For those who really don't know much about the crucible of Texas high school football.
Most arguments against the bravado of "Texas high school football" fall short as those arguments routinely discount the distinctions of Texas' coaches as full-time educators, the community support of these young men and young women, and how the entire culture applies the right amount of pressure to transform carbon into diamonds.
The body of the audiobook covers content that relates to anyone parenting a child, the young men and young women who are either in high school or about to enter high school, and for greenhorn coaches. The book wraps up with separate chapters that break down the three different roles, as each is a different type of beast. As a high school and college graduate, an Army combat veteran, a journalist with over 20 years experience, and a parent to two elementary students, the wisdom passed down from Purcell explains the processes that I've personally experienced and subsequently witnessed, with ease and depth.

Hoped For More

My hope was that this book would be an insightful look at lessons learned while playing high school ball that may lead to occasional reflection or fits of nostalgia. Instead, it came across like an infomercial for Texas high school football and why it's better than every other state's football program and why football is just plain better than any other sport (reason: because it's football and we're Texas). Sometimes written for a prospective coach, other times for prospective player and others for the doubting football parent, I could never tell who this was intended for.

One thing that is clear, this book is dripping with testosterone and could not be more full of tropes from bygone eras that have proven obsolete. Throw in poor recording quality, which is a shame because I found the narrator's voice enjoyable, and you have a brutal three hour listen of half-baked thoughts.