Ah, bliss: Oklahoma's coach Sherri Coale has a new blog entry where she talks about the fabulous author Pat Conroy.

In 2003, Conroy published “My Losing Season”, a novel based on his personal experience at the Citadel as a point guard whose passion for the sport of basketball leaps in and out of his sentences like a perfectly dropped dime to a backdoor cutter. I hid the paper cover as I carried it with me on road trips (we were struggling and our team didn’t need subliminal messages!) where I devoured every word. I have not seen, since John McPhee’s linguistic portrait of Bill Bradley, words woven together so perfectly around the essence of a ball player. Had I been a college coach in 1963, I would have recruited Pat Conroy if I could have found him. I don’t care how rough the edges of his game.

Coale's writing style, gift for storytelling and eye for detail kinda makes me wish she were a Divsion 3 coach. Think about it: she'd still be responsible teaching a full course load (lucky students) and might take a year off to produce that book she needs to complete her PhD in writing (lucky readers).

Sigh. I can dream, can't I?

By the by, "My Losing Season" is an amazing read.