Sports Culture

Most coaches know that an extraordinary culture is the secret to an extraordinary team, but how do you create a strong team culture when the culture itself is so complex and always evolving? The good news is the process of creating a culture can be simple and almost effortless when you take a systematic approach. In The Culture System, sports coach and leadership consultant J.P. Nerbun shares his proven process that will help you find joy and fulfillment as a coach, while getting the results you desire.

Building a Winning Culture: Player Development Beyond Basketball Go beyond the scoreboard and transform lives through the game of basketball. Are you a youth or middle school basketball coach who believes in developing well-rounded individuals, not just skilled players? Do you aspire to create a team environment where character, life skills, and sportsmanship are as vital as any jump shot or defensive stance? Then "Building a Winning Culture: Player Development Beyond Basketball" is your essential guide. In this insightful and practical book, seasoned coach Bryce Patton reveals that true ...

The Proven Playbook for Building Championship Teams and Cultures Looking for the secret to what makes a team that wins? Award-winning author and championship coach Lee M.J. Elias has the proven blueprint. In How to Win: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Championship Culture for Your Team, Lee expands on his acclaimed 2017 release with fresh insights, updated strategies, and practical tools. This new edition delivers more than just theory—it’s a hands-on guide filled with real-world examples, leadership lessons, and a winning mentality that any team in any sport can adopt. Whether ...

We vs Me: The Culture Shift Changing Sports By James Louis Roden Jr. Team used to mean everything. Today, it competes with everything. What happened to the game we once knew? There was a time when team-first values were the foundation of every great locker room. When athletes wore their jersey with pride, fought for their brothers, respected the coach, and lived by a code that said the name on the front mattered more than the name on the back. Coaches led with conviction, players bought into the process, and culture wasn’t just a buzzword—it was the playbook. Now we’re watching ...

Drawing on decades of expertise, visionary leader and team expert Michael G. Rogers presents an unparalleled approach to team development that sets this audiobook apart from any other in the leadership genre. With captivating stories, relatable examples, introspective activities, and actionable exercises, this audiobook challenges your team’s mindset and equips them with the tools to elevate their personal performance and that of your entire team.

In an increasingly secular, fragmented, and distracted culture, nothing brings Americans together quite like sports. On Sundays in September, more families worship at the altar of the NFL than at any church. This appeal, which cuts across all demographic and ideological lines, makes sports perhaps the last unifying mass ritual of our era, with huge numbers of people all focused on the same thing at the same moment. That timeless, live quality makes sports very powerful, and very lucrative. And the media spectacle around them is only getting bigger, brighter, and noisier.

The “riveting” (Al Michaels) story of a modern NFL that can’t get out of its own way—and can’t stop making money In recent decades, the NFL has simultaneously become an athletic, financial, and cultural powerhouse—and a League that can’t seem to go more than a few weeks without a...

In ancient Rome, death was entertainment. In their struggle, we see ourselves. Step into the roaring heart of the Colosseum—where sand drank blood, emperors ruled by spectacle, and men fought not only for survival but for eternal glory. Gladiators of Rome reveals the astonishing truth behind one of history’s most misunderstood institutions: the Roman arena. Far from mindless brutality, the games were a mirror of an empire—its politics, religion, engineering, and obsession with power. Drawing on ancient texts, archaeology, and modern scholarship, Simpson Varro reconstructs the world of...

“A raucous, smash-mouth, first-person takedown of the National Football League." —Wall Street Journal The New York Times bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town, an equally merciless probing of America's biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak...

She's a city girl returning to her hometown. He's a country boy through and through. When these two former best friends (and ex-lovers) start working together, romantic sparks fly that could ignite a wildfire... Will Regina and Blake get burned or can they tame the flames into true love? Regina Barlow never looked back after she left Chestnut Springs in her rear-view mirror. She likes living in a big city, and she's not thrilled to be going back to the small town in the Texas Hill Country. When Gina arrives at The Texas Longhorn Ranch as their new pastry chef, it's not the first time she's ...

In More Than a Game, Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun, with journalist Dom Amore, reflects on a career that transcended the basketball court and shaped countless lives. From humble beginnings in Braintree, Massachusetts, to building the UConn men's basketball dynasty, Calhoun shares the inspiring stories of players, coaches, and colleagues who embodied his philosophy: relationships and perseverance are the keys to greatness. Through the highs of national championships and the quiet moments of mentorship, this book reveals the essence of Calhoun's legacy: a commitment to being there for others.

Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestling’s formative period in the U.S., from roughly 1874 to 1941, and the contested interplay of wrestlers and promoters who built the “sport” as we know it. During this period, the major conventions that would define wrestling to the present day were perfected and codified, as wrestling morphed from a rough sport practiced on farms and at town gatherings to melodramatic mass entertainment that reliably drew large crowds in cities across the nation.

For most of the 20th century, the “Mr. America” image epitomized muscular manhood. From humble beginnings in 1939 at a small gym in Schenectady, New York, the Mr. America Contest became the world’s premier bodybuilding event over the next 30 years. Interviewing nearly one hundred major figures in the physical culture movement (including 25 Mr. Americas) and incorporating copious printed and manuscript sources, John D. Fair has created the definitive study of this iconic phenomenon.

“Sidelined is the feminist sports book we've all been waiting for.” —Jessica Valenti Shrill meets Brotopia in this personal and researched look at women's rights and issues through the lens of sports, from an award-winning sports journalist and women's advocate In a society that is digging...

Welcome to The Ultimate Baby Boomer Trivia and Quiz Book! Who placed the very first phone call to the moon? President Nixon Who, according to Joan Rivers, had gravy spurt out when her ears were pierced? Elizabeth Taylor Which of the Cartwright boys’ real name was Eric? Hoss, played by Dan Blocker Who told Americans to “Think Small” in their groundbreaking ad campaign? Volkswagen What future American ambassador was signed to play James Bond but was ultimately replaced by Sean Connery? John Gavin You’re smarter than a smartphone and cooler than a calculator. You’ve lived through ...

NBA journalist Yaron Weitzman lays out the high stakes drama happening inside the Lakers' organization as they try to juggle the warring priorities between LeBron James and the Buss family. When LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, it looked like a match made in heaven. Here...

For the longest time – I got it wrong… I thought the ultimate achievement in wrestling was to win a State Championship… It is not. The ultimate achievement in wrestling is to prepare a young man for his life by having him become the best person he can be by acquiring the “Qualities of a Wrestler” while in pursuit of a state championship. Acquiring these qualities is more important than winning a state championship. They are what is needed to become happy and successful in life. These qualities are acquired during the pursuit, and not in the winning. It is in the pursuit that a kid...

Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.

This New York Times bestselling biography tells the life story of the most iconic men's tennis player of the modern era. There have been other biographies of Roger Federer, but never one with this kind of access to the man himself, his support team, and the most prominent figures in the game...

From “the master of new journalism [who always] hits it over the fence” (The New York Times) and “one of the finest writers on sports anywhere” (USA TODAY), the scintillating story of lacrosse—the game invented by the Haudenosaunee, played with more passion than any other, that...