I spoke at my first parents’ meeting tonight in Farmington, Minnesota. I only spoke for a few minutes, but I had a blast. Afterward, I had the opportunity to sell BasketCases to parents for the first time. It was extremely rewarding and fulfilling to place this book in the hands of parents and coaches for the first time.

Earlier in the meeting, the Farmington board did a great job of setting parental expectations about playing time and being respectful to the coaches, which I really think is important for any youth basketball board to do. The best line of the night was learning that Farmington has a 24-hour cooling off period if a parent has a beef with a coach. They have to wait one full day before placing that phone call. I immediately plan to work that into my repertoire when a parent or coach has a gripe with me. I can’t wait until I see someone’s face when I tell them that they have a 24-hour cooling off period before they can lodge a complaint. I love it.

I just couldn’t wait for the 24-hour cooling off period before sharing that BasketCases is now in the hands of parents for the first time. Thanks again to all the people who helped me bring this from a concept to a published book in the marketplace. 

“BasketCases: How Youth Basketball Parents Can Lower Their Blood Pressure and Keep Their Sanity” is now officially published!!! I received 10 advance copies of the book today, and although I am absolutely biased, it looks phenomenal. I’m thrilled with how the book looks and reads. Big thanks especially to Mike Gonzo for concepting and designing the cover, Wade Gardner for his illustrations, Clay Schotzko for his interior book design, Michele Bassett for her proofreading, NBA Referee Ken Mauer for writing the foreword and his support from the beginning of this project nearly four years ago, Tom Collins for designing a great web site, my wife Staci for her support, Milt Adams and the publishing team from Beaver’s Pond Press for deciding to publish the book and many other supporters, including San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, KARE 11 Sports Anchor Randy Shaver, NBA Referee Steve Javie, Ron Weill, Eric Martin, Jeff Gould, Kim Odens, Buddy Hemric, Jeff Stottlemyer, Jay Howard, Brian Lam, Dan Novack, Neal Fox, George Robinson, Jerry Johnson and several others I probably overlooked.

Now the job gets harder. I am busy contacting youth basketball associations to make presentations at board meetings and parents meetings. I had a good visit with the Lakeville South Boys BB board tonight and have another board meeting tomorrow. As I said to the board this evening, every parent, coach and official associated with youth basketball needs to read a copy of BasketCases. It’s that simple. It’s a great resource, specifically for those three audiences.

BasketCases received a nice mention in Charley Walters’ Sunday column in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In case you missed it, here is a link to the column: http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_10400320