Download or read book The Middle School Rules of Skylar Diggins written by Sean Jensen and published by BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Skylar Diggins is a basketball phenomenon, receiving her first letter of interest from a respected college coach when she was in fifth grade. She is an icon: signing as the first female client of Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports, serving as the face of Nike’s Women’s Basketball Collection, and establishing herself as a must-follow on social media platforms such as Instagram (931,000 followers) and Twitter (604,000 followers). The Middle School Rules of Skylar Diggins features Skylar’s defining childhood stories and lessons about growing up in a diverse middle-class family. Young readers will learn how Skylar dealt with bullying, struggled to fit in at school, and figured out how to excel in basketball despite never being the tallest, strongest, or fastest player. Skylar shares personal anecdotes that helped her become the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year and one of the most decorated collegiate basketball players. “She was the most important recruit in the history of our program,” Notre Dame women’s basketball head coach, Muffet McGraw, says. “Skylar was in our own backyard, and we couldn’t let her get away.” Skylar Diggins did not disappoint. A four-time All-American, Skylar finished her career at Notre Dame owning or co-owning 32 game, season, or school records, and earned the distinction as one of just six NCAA Division 1 players to compile 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists, and 300 steals in a career. In the WNBA, Skylar, is starting guard for the Dallas Wings, a two-time All Star Starter, WNBA’s 2014 Most Improved Player and Named to WNBA’s 2014 First Team. Off the court, she oversees Skylar’s Scholars, a program that highlights the academic achievement of youth who have overcome challenges or achieved goals, and she serves on the board of directors for the GenYouth Foundation. Aside from sports mediums like ESPN and Sports Illustrated, Skylar has also been featured in Vogue and Self, and has been on MTV.

Download or read book The Middle School Rules of Brian Urlacher written by Sean Jensen and published by BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a decade, Brian Urlacher was the face of the Chicago Bears—one of the NFL’s most storied franchises. An eight-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker, Urlacher established himself as one of the league’s preeminent defenders with his athleticism, intelligence and ferocity. He is widely expected to gain entrance into the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he is eligible in a few years which is not bad for an athlete from Lovington, New Mexico, where his coaches didn’t even see college potential in him until his junior year of high school. The Middle School Rules of Brian Urlacher features the real-life childhood stories and exploits of young Brian Urlacher and illustrate how they shaped him into the world-class athlete he became. The first of The Middle School Rules series, these books not only entertain, but also inspire greatness in the next generation by highlighting the importance of being your best, overcoming adversity, and reaching your dreams through discipline and hard work.

Download or read book Everything Is Possible written by Jen Bricker and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born without Legs, She Inspires Others to Overcome Jen Bricker was born without legs. Shocked and uncertain they could care for her, her biological parents gave her up for adoption. In her loving adoptive home, there was just one simple rule: "Never say 'can't.'" And pretty soon, there was nothing this small but mighty powerhouse set her sights on that she couldn't conquer: roller-skating, volleyball, power tumbling, and spinning from silk ribbons thirty feet in the air. Everything Is Possible is her incredible story--a story of God working out his plan for her life from before day one. Readers follow Jen from the challenges of growing up different to holding captive audiences numbering in the tens of thousands. Everything Is Possible shows readers what they can accomplish when they remove the words coincidence and limitation from their vocabulary. Filled with heart and spirit, as well as Jen's wit, wisdom, and no-holds-barred honesty, this inspiring true story points the way to purpose and joy. Foreword by Nick Vujicic.

Download or read book The Middle School Rules of Thomas Morstead written by Sean Jensen and published by BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Before he earned a Super Bowl ring and started a foundation, he had to survive middle school.” Thomas Morstead entered his 12th NFL season with the New Orleans Saints, distinguishing himself as one of the league’s top punters. In Super Bowl XLIV, he executed an onside kick that the Saints recovered and parlayed into a touchdown to take a 13-10 lead. The Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts to win the Super Bowl. In 2014, Thomas and his wife Lauren started What You Give Will Grow, a foundation committed to improving the lives of those in need, with a strong focus on children and cancer initiatives, in New Orleans and the Gulf South communities. The Middle School Rules of Thomas Morstead shares how Thomas learned about his cultural roots, handled being bullied for his appearance, and dealt with the disappointment of not making the high school varsity soccer team. Inspired by many, including his parents, Thomas pushes himself in every area of his life and boldly chases his dreams.

Download or read book The Middle School Rules of Jamaal Charles written by Sean Jensen and published by BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five running backs were selected in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft. Jamaal Charles was not among them. Despite piling up the fourth-most rushing yards at the University of Texas in just three seasons, he waited for eight other running backs to get selected ahead of him. The Middle School Rules of Jamaal Charles features the stories and lessons of Jamaal’s childhood, defined by people overlooking him. Young readers will see how Jamaal deals with bullying and endures teasing because of a long undiag- nosed learning disability that enabled him to participate in the Special Olympics as a 10-year-old. The gold medals he won at the Special Olympics empowered him, and Jamaal displayed a rare work ethic and determination in everything he did on the field and in the classroom. “I just kept working, just kept fighting,” Jamaal says. “If you give up, you will not ever know how far you would have gotten.” A state champion hurdler, Jamaal ran for 4,107 yards and 50 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Memorial High School in Port Arthur, Texas. But readers will see how hard Jamaal had to study to earn a high enough mark on a standardized test to qualify for a full athletic scholarship. Dogged by doubts about his size, Jamaal is already the Chiefs’ all-time leading rusher, a four-time Pro Bowl selection and has more career rushing yards and total touchdowns than all but two of the eight running backs selected ahead of him in the 2008 NFL Draft. In fact, Jamaal owns a special NFL re- cord: More yards per carry (5.5) than any other running back with at least 1,000 career carries! Jamaal wants his legacy to extend beyond football fields. His Jamaal Charles Youth Matters Family Foundation promotes the development of healthy minds and bodies and reinforces the motto that, “Determination wins.” Jamaal inspired mil- lions at the Opening Ceremony of the 2015 Special Olympics in Los Angeles by sharing his story of struggle and triumph. “I was afraid. I was lost. I had trouble reading. I found out I had a learning disability,” he said. “People made fun of me. They said I would never go anywhere. But I learned I can fly... the Special Olympics gave me my first chance to discover a talent I did not know I had.”

Download or read book The Middle School Rules of Charles Tillman written by Sean Jensen and published by BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Middle School Rules of Vontae Davis written by Sean Jensen and published by Broadstreet Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before he became a first-round draft pick in the NFL, he had to survive middle school. Over one million boys play high school football every year. About 6.5% become collegiate players. Of those, only 1.5% reach the NFL. Those odds were daunting for a young Vontae Davis who endured many challenges as his parents battled addiction. At age 11, Vontae and his siblings faced living in separate foster homes, but Grandma Adaline refused to allow it--adopting and raising all seven children despite financial difficulties. With some guidance from his older brother Vernon (two-time Pro Bowl tight end) Vontae earned a college football scholarship, and after three years entered the NFL. The Middle School Rules of Vontae Davis features Vontae's defining childhood stories and lessons learned growing up in a rough Washington D.C. neighborhood. Young readers will see how Vontae thrived with the support of those around him--none more important than his grandmother. A two-time Pro Bowl selection, Vontae was named an NFL Players Association Community MVP during the 2015 season.

Download or read book Rising Above written by Gregory Zuckerman and published by Philomel Books. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Athlete after athlete in this book found discipline, hope, and inspiration on the playing field, rising above their circumstances. Filled with first-hand accounts from stars who exemplify the idea of enduring at all costs, Rising Above will serve as a must-read source of inspiration for kids and sports fans of all ages"--

Download or read book Finding a Way to Play written by Joanne Lannin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finding a Way to Play is full of stories about girls and women who have gone to great lengths to play the game of basketball. In this book you will read about:* Early pioneers, such as Senda Berenson, who played despite concerns about risks to their health and femininity* Black and Native American women, such as Shoni Schimmel, who endured racial discrimination as they searched for opportunities to play* Lesbians, such as Brittany Griner, who hid their identities for fear of being denied the chance to play* Women over 50 who ignore aches and pains to rediscover the joys of a childhood passion. Readers will come away with an understanding of the roads women have traveled to bring the game into the future. Those who grew up before Title IX may find themselves or loved ones in the stories of women who kept the earliest flame alive.

Download or read book Sprawlball written by Kirk Goldsberry and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2019 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Beautifully illustrated and sharply written, SprawlBall is both a celebration and a critique of the 3-point shot. If you want to understand how the modern NBA came to be, you'll need to read this book." --Nate Silver, editor of fivethirtyeight.com From the leading expert in the exploding field of basketball analytics, a stunning infographic decoding of the modern NBA: who shoots where, and how. The field of basketball analytics has leaped to overdrive thanks to Kirk Goldsberry, whose visual maps of players, teams, and positions have helped teams understand who really is the most valuable player at any position. SprawlBall combines stunning visuals, in-depth analysis, fun, behind-the-scenes stories and gee-whiz facts to chart a modern revolution. From the introduction of the 3-point line to today, the game has changed drastically . . . Now, players like Steph Curry and Draymond Green are leading the charge. In chapters like "The Geography of the NBA," "The Interior Minister (Lebron James)," "The Evolution of Steph Curry," and "The Investor (James Harden)," Goldsberry explains why today's on-court product--with its emphasis on shooting, passing, and spacing--has never been prettier or more democratic. And it's never been more popular. For fans of Bill Simmons and FreeDarko, SprawlBall is a bold new vision of the game, presenting an innovative, cutting-edge look at the sport based on the latest research, as well as a visual and infographic feast for fans.

Download or read book Statistics Using Stata written by Sharon Lawner Weinberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-19 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engaging and accessible to students from a wide variety of mathematical backgrounds, Statistics Using Stata combines the teaching of statistical concepts with the acquisition of the popular Stata software package. It closely aligns Stata commands with numerous examples based on real data, enabling students to develop a deep understanding of statistics in a way that reflects statistical practice. Capitalizing on the fact that Stata has both a menu-driven 'point and click' and program syntax interface, the text guides students effectively from the comfortable 'point and click' environment to the beginnings of statistical programming. Its comprehensive coverage of essential topics gives instructors flexibility in curriculum planning and provides students with more advanced material to prepare them for future work. Online resources - including complete solutions to exercises, PowerPoint slides, and Stata syntax (do-files) for each chapter - allow students to review independently and adapt codes to solve new problems, reinforcing their programming skills.

Download or read book Tall Men Short Shorts written by Leigh Montville and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This "part memoir, part sports story" (Wall Street Journal) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Big Bam chronicles the clash of NBA titans over seven riveting games—Celtics versus Lakers, Russell versus Chamberlain—covered by one young reporter. Welcome to the 1969 NBA Finals! They don’t set up any better than this. The greatest basketball player of all time - Bill Russell - and his juggernaut Boston Celtics, winners of ten (ten!) of the previous twelve NBA championships, squeak through one more playoff run and land in the Finals again. Russell’s opponent? The fearsome 7’1” next-generation superstar, Wilt Chamberlain, recently traded to the LA Lakers to form the league’s first dream team. Bill Russell and John Havlicek versus Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. The 1969 Celtics are at the end of their dominance. The 1969 Lakers are unstoppable. Add to the mix one newly minted reporter. Covering the epic series is a wide-eyed young sports writer named Leigh Montville. Years before becoming an award-winning legend himself at The Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated, twenty-four-year-old Montville is ordered by his editor at the Globe to get on a plane to L.A. (first time!) to write about his luminous heroes, the biggest of big men. What follows is a raucous, colorful, joyous account of one of the greatest seven-game series in NBA history. Set against a backdrop of the late sixties, Montville’s reporting and recollections transport readers to a singular time – with rampant racial tension on the streets and on the court, with the emergence of a still relatively small league on its way to becoming a billion-dollar industry, and to an era when newspaper journalism and the written word served as the crucial lifeline between sports and sports fans. And there was basketball – seven breathtaking, see-saw games, highlight-reel moments from an unprecedented cast of future Hall of Famers (including player-coach Russell as the first-ever black head coach in the NBA), coast-to-coast travels and the clack-clack-clack of typewriter keys racing against tight deadlines. Tall Men, Short Shorts is a masterpiece of sports journalism with a charming touch of personal memoir. Leigh Montville has crafted his most entertaining book yet, richly enshrining luminous players and moments in a unique American time.

Download or read book The Locker Exchange written by Ann Rae and published by Wattpad Books. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Westwood senior Brynn Cadence, high school drama is taken to a whole new level when she discovers the dead body of a classmate on the football field one Friday night. When she tells the police she saw a masked figure fleeing up the bleachers, they dismiss her and label the death accidental. With no one believing what she saw, Brynn’s internal walls start to go up. But there’s one wall she has no control over—the one that separates her and Kyler Fellan’s gym lockers. That’s right, Brynn opens her locker only to find herself face-to-face with the shirtless abs of the school’s star football player and resident flirt. While not an unwelcome surprise, Brynn knows she should leave her fluttering feelings for Kyler on the locker room floor in order to focus on exposing the truth of her classmate’s death. But Kyler’s top jock status has made him privy to some potentially useful gossip, making him a helpful and trustworthy partner in her investigation. As two find themselves delving deeper into the case, they are inevitably drawn closer to each other—even if that isn’t safe for either of them.

Download or read book Pippa Park Raises Her Game written by Erin Yun and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A CONTEMPORARY REIMAGINING OF GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR MIDDLE GRADERS Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her family to the other kids at school, has a plan for how her life should look. So when Pippa gets a mysterious basketball scholarship to Lakeview Private, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself by following the "Rules of Cool." At Lakeview, Pippa juggles old and new friends, an unrequited crush, and the pressure to perform academically and athletically while keeping her past and her family's laundromat a secret from her elite new classmates. But when Pippa begins to receive a string of hateful, anonymous messages via social media, her carefully built persona is threatened. As things begin to spiral out of control, Pippa discovers the real reason she was admitted to Lakeview and wonders if she can keep her old and new lives separate, or if she should even try.

Download or read book Lizzy Legend written by Matthew Ross Smith and published by Aladdin. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Ludicrous—and a whole lot of fun…an enjoyable sports fantasy.” —Kirkus Reviews “Infused with silliness and sugar, but the banter is fast and sassy…Funny and believable.” —BCCB A basketball-loving girl makes a wish to never miss a basket in this charming middle grade novel that pushes girl power to the max! Lizzy Trudeaux loves basketball. She doesn’t have much by way of money, but she has access to the community court and a worn ball named Ginger, and she practices constantly. After fighting to join the boys’ team at her school, Lizzy is finally given the opportunity to show off her hard-earned skills. When she answers what she believes is another bill-collecting phone call, Lizzy receives a magical wish: the ability to sink every shot. Pure Swish. Now eviscerating the competition in the boys’ league is small potatoes—she has the skills to dominate in the NBA. With the help of her BFF Toby and some viral video action, Lizzy goes all the way to the Philadelphia Bells’s starting lineup, making history and taking names. Then, just as she’s about to go face-to-face with her hero, the best player on the planet, things begin to fall apart. But Lizzy isn’t a quitter and she’ll play her hardest for the love of the game.

Download or read book Building the WNBA written by Georgia Munro-Cook and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Matheny Manifesto written by Mike Matheny and published by Crown. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny's New York Times bestselling manifesto about what parents, coaches, and athletes get wrong about sports; what we can do better; and how sports can teach eight keys to success in sports and life. Mike Matheny was just forty-one, without professional managerial experience and looking for a next step after a successful career as a Major League catcher, when he succeeded the legendary Tony La Russa as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012. While Matheny has enjoyed immediate success, leading the Cards to the postseason four times in his first four years−a Major League record−people have noticed something else about his life, something not measured in day-to-day results. Instead, it’s based on a frankly worded letter he wrote to the parents of a Little League team he coached, a cry for change that became an Internet sensation and eventually a “manifesto.” The tough-love philosophy Matheny expressed in the letter contained his throwback beliefs that authority should be respected, discipline and hard work rewarded, spiritual faith cultivated, family made a priority, and humility considered a virtue. In The Matheny Manifesto, he builds on his original letter by first diagnosing the problem at the heart of youth sports−it starts with parents and coaches−and then by offering a hopeful path forward. Along the way, he uses stories from his small-town childhood as well as his career as a player, coach, and manager to explore eight keys to success: leadership, confidence, teamwork, faith, class, character, toughness, and humility. From “The Coach Is Always Right, Even When He’s Wrong” to “Let Your Catcher Call the Game,” Matheny’s old-school advice might not always be popular or politically correct, but it works. His entertaining and deeply inspirational book will not only resonate with parents, coaches, and athletes, it will also be a powerful reminder, from one of the most successful new managers in the game, of what sports can teach us all about winning on the field and in life.