Iron Valley: A Football Story About Belief, Brotherhood, and Second Chances

Jack Mercer took the Iron Valley job because nobody else wanted it.The program has lost for nine straight years. The town has stopped showing up on Friday nights. The seniors have already decided how this season ends, and half of them are looking for a reason to quit before the first cold night in October.Mercer has his own reasons for being here, and he is in no hurry to explain them. What he has is a plan, a whistle, and about forty kids who have never once been asked to believe anything.Wins come slow. Losses leave marks. And belief has to get built long before anybody gets to celebrate it.Iron Valley is the story of a coach, a town, and the year a group of young men found out what they were made of. It will feel familiar to anyone who has stood on a sideline, sat in the stands, or wondered whether the work matters when the scoreboard says it does not.From Kenny Simpson, a high school head coach for more than seventeen seasons and the author of more than forty books on coaching and leadership."Kenny Simpson does a magnificent job of encapsulating the pressures, downfalls and victories of high school football." - Barry Grooms, Hooten's Arkansas Football"As exciting as a two-minute drive in the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl. Don't miss it!" - Carl Dueker, Author"Never have I read a work of fiction that was more real." - Chip Seagle, Coach