Hometown Victory: A Coach's Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home

"Lowe's storyline is the stuff of countless memoirs and films: A good-hearted teacher counsels young people whom society has sidelined, taking their football team into championship territory...There's not much surprising in the narrative, though there are a few wrinkles that teachers in wealthier schools might not encounter—e.g., one of the best players is homeless, and most grapple with broken homes and lack of resources...One memorable moment is when Lowe faces down a student armed with a shotgun, a moment he characterizes as a 'young man…crying for help'...There's some tough love here that's useful, too, as when Lowe insists, 'Anything worth a shit or worth achieving takes dedication'...Inspiring reading for students and teachers striving for excellence against the odds."

"Lowe's storyline is the stuff of countless memoirs and films: A good-hearted teacher counsels young people whom society has sidelined, taking their football team into championship territory...There's not much surprising in the narrative, though there are a few wrinkles that teachers in wealthier schools might not encounter—e.g., one of the best players is homeless, and most grapple with broken homes and lack of resources...One memorable moment is when Lowe faces down a student armed with a shotgun, a moment he characterizes as a 'young man…crying for help'...There's some tough love here that's useful, too, as when Lowe insists, 'Anything worth a shit or worth achieving takes dedication'...Inspiring reading for students and teachers striving for excellence against the odds."

"Former NFL player Lowe, who received a congressional Medal of Honor in 2020 for his heroism in thwarting an armed teenage student at Parkrose High School in Portland, Ore., recounts in this tender debut his return home to coach high school football and the incident that transformed his life years later...His narrative resonates most, though, in its compassionate depictions of the lives of his students, perhaps best exemplified in Lowe's humane handling of the would-be shooter he stopped and disarmed in the school's building in 2019...Unfortunately, just when it gets its hooks in readers, Lowe's real-life underdog story comes to an abrupt end when, after describing a triumphant playoff run, Lowe writes, 'I left the school after the second season to take on another challenge'...Still, the extraordinary empathy on display is indisputably inspiring."