A mother to two boys who played a variety of organized sports growing up, Blake has parlayed many of the skills and life lessons her sons’ coaches imparted to their youth sports teams into a handy collection of ten “lessons of character,” which can be carried over into adulthood. From her young boys’ involvement in playing baseball, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, wrestling, ice hockey, and swimming, the author explores how such sport-related experiences can be applied in real-time guidance throughout one’s life. The lessons show both thoughtulness and practicality: beat the coach to practice; assume there always is practice; everyone can play every position; it’s best to make the first move; own your own equipment; learn from those who have succeeded; always do your best; when someone is injured, everybody stop and take a knee; follow through if you sign up to bring snacks; and, finally, always be your child’s biggest fan.

One definitive strength of Blake’s text includes the fact that, after an explanation of each of the top ten life lessons, she then discusses examples of “real-time applications,” where the specific topics under consideration—though primarily relevant to youth sports—are extrapolated and refined in a manner germane to everyday situations in adulthood. Further, Blake’s deep love for her twenty years of marriage and parenthood, which is referenced multiple times and with a profound sense of gratitude, shines vividly through these pages as tangible connections are highlighted between the sportsmanship lessons learned by her children and broader, real-life examples and circumstances. What she shares with her readers makes for a highly enjoyable read, at once both casual and deceptively insightful. Blake’s enthusiastic insistence on openness “to the learning and application” of additional life lessons her family will, in time, reveal proves contagious for the general reader, and happily so.

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