Kick the Balls

A Bruising Season in the Life of a Suburban Soccer Coach

Alan Black

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Paperback

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English

Plume
26 May 2009

Memoirs; Sports training & coaching; Football (Soccer, Association football)

A ""hilarious and utterly irreverent tale"" (Irvine Welsh) of a year in the life of an abrasive pee-wee soccer coach

Growing up in Scotland, Alan Black learned that soccer was no mere game; it was a matter of life or death. In this harshly hilarious tale, Black, a Glasglow transplant living in suburban California, coaches the Dragons, a peewee team that proves an embarrassment to his beloved sport. They're pampered. They're soft. They've been told by their overprotective parents that (gasp!) ""winning isn't everything."" Using drills and bombast, Black attempts to whip the team into shape.

Kick the Balls is a sidesplitting memoir of grass stains and free kicks, a no-holds-barred account of one man's bafflement by an alien culture, and a stinging satire of American parenthood. Alan Black's voice-howling from the sidelines-is that rare thing: a fresh, original, winning comic talent.

By: Alan Black
Imprint: Plume
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 127mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 215g
ISBN: 9780452295391
ISBN 10: 0452295394
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 26 May 2009
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Inactive

ALAN BLACK is the literary manager of San Francisco’s famous bookish venue Edinburgh Castle Pub. His work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon.com, and The Christian Science Monitor. He is cofounder of the Scottish Cultural and Arts Foundation and coeditor of Public House, an anthology.

Reviews for Kick the Balls: A Bruising Season in the Life of a Suburban Soccer Coach

Savagely hilarious.--Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life? Any suburbanite with kids in organized sports will find Black a riot.--Publishers Weekly A fast-moving mix of game recaps, childhood flashbacks, semi-sincere soul-searching, and politically incorrect analysis of his players' and their parents' shortcomings. The author doesn't spare himself, either, and his self-mockery provides some of the funniest passages in this very funny book. --Keir Graff, Booklist