Losing High School Football Team Find Redemption on Baseball Diamond
Assistant baseball coach Steven M. Reilly tells the remarkable true story of a small Connecticut high school football team's road to redemption after suffering a devastating end to their 28-year winning streak.
Seymour, Connecticut (PRWEB) February 19, 2007 -- It has been fourteen years since the 1991 season that left a Derby, Connecticut high school football team destined for a legacy of embarrassment. With vivid clarity, Steven M. Reilly recalls the stunning events, and the players search for atonement in his new book, "The Fat Lady Never Sings: How a Football Team Found Redemption on the Baseball Diamond" (ISBN 978-0595394678, iUniverse, 2006).
This remarkable story that will forever highlight the Derby, Connecticut history books sounds more like the feel-good movie of the summer rather than real life. But is was real, and remains to this day a story that brings Derby townspeople to tears as they recollect the dramatic events that transpired for their famed football and baseball team.
As with most small towns across America, Derby's mainstay was football. Their high school football team has a twenty-eight year winning streak, elevating the status of these young men to the pride of the town. This remarkable quarter century record ended on Thanksgiving Day 1991 with a devastating loss that sent the town into shock, and branded three seniors teammates as "losers." Determined to seek redemption by playing on the baseball team, these multi-sport athletes forever leave their mark by helping the team advance to the championship game of the state baseball tournament.
"The Fat Lady Never Sings," is narrated by life long baseball fan, and then-assistant coach of Derby's Red Raider baseball team, Steven M. Reilly. He recounts the football loss and the damaging effects it had on the team, the coaches and town, as well as the abiding strength and tenacity of the young men. Reilly's recollections of the crucial championship baseball game resemble the pace of a play-by-play, and are remarkably accurate towards the high emotion and anticipation of the game. With one out remaining, the "fat lady" prepares to sing as the quarterback steps into the batters box.
"The perseverance and determination of these young baseball players is what life is all about," says Reilly. Citing the old adage that the game of baseball is a microcosm of the game of life, "The Fat Lady Never Sings" is not just another sport story, it is a real-life demonstration of the power of the human spirit to overcome insurmountable odds.
Steven M. Reilly has coached baseball in Connecticut's Lower Naugatuck Valley since 1976. He has coached Babe Ruth, Senior Babe Ruth and American Legion teams and has spent the last 20 years assisting high school coaches. He assisted at Derby High School from 1986-1995, and has spent the last ten years coaching at Seymour High School. A practicing Attorney since 1980, Reilly and his wife live in Seymour, CT. "The Fat Lady Never Sings: How a Football Team Found Redemption on the Baseball Diamond" (ISBN 978-0595394678, iUniverse, 2006) can be purchased at local and online bookstore. For more information, visit www.thefatladyneversings.com. Review copies available upon request.
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