I kind of dig year end lists – best books, best films, best sports moments (love those highlight reels!), best photographs, and so on. So now that all of the New Year’s craziness has started to subside (I watched Cool Runnings with my family, ate some delicious finger foods, barely made it to midnight, and then had wonderful friends over for brunch the next day), I took a few minutes to think about my year with ONE GOAL. I know I’m missing a whole bunch -- there is no way to express how wonderful meeting readers & having people send me photos of the book out in the wild has been, or seeing my byline in Sports Illustrated, or getting a "Kirkus Star" or celebrating yet another Blue Devils soccer state championship. So even though keeping the list to ten was pretty impossible, here it is:
1. Celebrating the book’s publication in Lewiston with the folks at MEIRS and at the Lewiston Public Library (where Coach McGraw introduced me in such a way I didn’t think I’d be able to take the podium myself), watching some of the players and one of the “dedication kids” autograph books for people, and yet again appreciating the intrepid sportswriters at the Sun Journal.
2. Having John Green tweet about how much he loved ONE GOAL, not to mention Jeff Pearlman, John Branch, Grant Wahl, the folks at Burn It All Down, and the young woman who tweeted that she stayed up all night reading it, sobbed, and now cared a whole lot about a soccer team in Maine.
3. Being on NPR’s “Only A Game” and getting to hang out in the WBUR studios in Boston with Coaches McGraw and Gish, and rock star Blue Devil soccer player Bilal Hersi.
4. Watching Abdi H. play in the big leagues at the UMASS Lowell v. Quinnipiac game.
5. Attending the MAHPERD dinner to see Dan Gish accept his educator of the year award while sitting with his colleagues and family, and then getting a standing ovation for my keynote the next day.
6. Making end of the year lists, including the Wall Street Journal, Library Journal, and the Boston Globe.
7. Hanging with the brilliant Etan Thomas and Bill Littlefield and Howard Bryant at the Boston Book Festival, and then watching our session a week later on C-SPAN’s “Book TV.”
8. Meeting playwright at Rohina Malik at On Cue, and then doing a book signing in the “Connectivity Lounge” next to Tom Brady and Deepak Chopra.
9. Having the Little Free Library’s “Action Book Club” select ONE GOAL for its “Coming Together” theme.
10. SEEING THE BOSTON RED SOX WIN THE WORLD SERIES (which kind of counts, because NESN’s one and only Tom Caron has been such a kind and generous supporter of ONE GOAL).
Here’s to a new year, and to the publication of the paperback – February 26, 2019!
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