About Wrestling With Tradition:
Wrestling with Tradition by Dale Stopperan is a sports drama that takes readers to a small town in Iowa called Cresco. It follows Tom Kilmer, who comes in to replace the renowned wrestling coach who had brought a lot of success to the town. Can Tom continue the tradition and keep the flame high or will the town know loss for the first time in the upcoming competitions? During the first year, the Cresco Spartans experience their first loss in almost three decades. While the community has to deal with the loss, the wrestlers and their families struggle with problems, and soon the young coach becomes a strong inspiration and support for the community.
-Tom Kilmer replaced the retiring legendary wrestling coach in a small Iowa town recognized for its deep winning tradition. In a community where winning on the wrestling mat had become a family trait, transitioning to a new coach would not come easy, and losing would be difficult to accept.
In the coach’s first year, the tradition came crashing down on the Cresco Spartans, who suffered their first losing season in twenty-eight years. The coach understood how the physical aspect of growing up working on a farm contributed to the brutal and mental toughness of being a successful wrestler. But as the wrestlers and their families struggled through personal tragedies, they found themselves depending on the young coach and his wife for support. Would his relationships with his wrestlers be enough to pull his team together before the weight of the tradition becomes too much?
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Author Bio:
The author, Dale Stopperan, currently lives in Spokane, Washington, but grew up in the rural community of Cresco, Iowa. His high school coaches were instrumental role models in Mr. Stopperan becoming a teacher, coach, and principal working in the public school system for thirty-seven years. His experience as a middle school and high school wrestling coach provided a basis for the novel “Wrestling with Tradition.”