January 2009

Volume 1, Issue 1  

My Personal Best  

by John Wooden with Steve Jamison  

Copyright 2004  

McGraw-Hill  

reviewed by Jeff McKinley  

While still in grade school John was the top scorer on the pint-size team. They had their scheduled game cancelled because the opponent’s bus had broken down and they would not be able to come. At lunch John took this jersey home and left it there. When he came back to school the announcement came that the bus was fixed and the game was on. John, being a little cocky informed the coach that he left his jersey at the farm. He assumed (hoped) the coach would let him play without it or send another kid to go get it for him. He was the top scorer. Well the coach just asked another player if he had his jersey which he did, and the coach informed him he would play for John that day. John ran home grabbed his jersey and ran back as fast as he could. But, he sat on the bench through the first quarter, the second, the third, and into the fourth. With just a few minutes to go down by two point John asked the coach to let him play and if he did they could win. The coach said “Johnny, I know we can, but there are some things more important than winning a game. Besides, you’re probably tired from running home for your jersey. Now go sit down and rest.” They did lose the game and the lesson that John learned that day is that: no player is bigger or better than the team.

John grew up in the middle of Indiana basketball and was in the State Championship game three years in a row. In 1926 they lost, in 1927 they won, and in 1928 they were the returning champions and were expected to win. John was the captain of the team. With just second to go in the game they were leading by one point when a player from the other team flung a shot underhand from half court and it came down right through the hoop. They had lost by one point. Afterward his team members were sitting on the bench holding towels over their faces crying. John could not cry. It hurt, he was devastated and depressed, yes, but he remembered his dads words “don’t try to be better than somebody else, but never cease trying to be the best you can be” he had done that, he put dad’s instruction to the test and set the example. He writes in the book. “You lose, you feel bad-sometimes very, very bad. But a much worse feeling is knowing that you haven’t done everything you possibly could have done to prepare and compete.”

This is not a “how-to” book or a “follow my rules to success” book. It is a biography of an extraordinary person. If you are looking for a great example of one man’s successful journey, this is it. Do your best in everything, even the small stuff. Get excited about the preparation, not just the game. THIS IS A MUST READ!

Young Readers

A Secret Garden 

reviewed by Victoria McKinley