Let’s set the record straight.
This isn’t a sports book. This isn’t a motivational memoir with “10 steps to leadership success.” And this definitely isn’t a story where everything wraps up neatly by the final chapter.
This is a wake-up call.
Especially if you think coaching is about yelling plays from the sidelines and shaking hands after a win. Raymond Kiddy’s A Road No One Traveled – Side Effects of Coaching is an unfiltered look into the emotional toll of being the adult in the room, when the room is full of kids trying to survive real-life tragedy.
What They Don’t Tell You About Coaching?
Here’s what you don’t see on the field:
- The coach who goes home and cries in silence so his players don’t see the cracks
- The player who misses practice because she’s watching her mom fade in a hospital bed
- The team that starts the season with jerseys and ends it with funeral clothes
Sounds dramatic? It is. But it’s also true. And in this book, Kiddy tells it like it is—no sugarcoating, no spin.
“I Wasn’t Ready for This”
That might be the most powerful sentence in the entire memoir. Because none of us are ready. For the grief or the emotional weight or the moment a teenage girl hands you her pain and asks without words for you to help carry it.
And if you think coaching is just about sports, this book will shake that idea loose.
This Is the Part of Youth Sports Nobody Talks About
Kiddy doesn’t spend his time reminiscing about state titles or all-star players. He talks about standing beside a player at her mother’s memorial. He talks about trying to hold together a team of teenagers who were dealing with death before they’d even learned how to drive. He talks about the human cost of showing up, over and over again, for kids who need more than a coach.
They need an anchor.
And you know why this book hits different? Because it’s not trying to inspire you. It’s trying to wake you up to what’s really going on behind the scenes of youth sports, education, and leadership.
This book doesn’t deliver “life lessons” with a bow on top. It delivers reality. And somehow, it still manages to leave you with hope. Not the fluffy, Instagram-quote kind. The gritty kind. The kind that says:
“You don’t have to have all the answers. Just show up anyway.”
And here’s the part that might stick with you the most: Ray Kiddy never claims to be a hero. He doesn’t write from a pedestal. He writes from the passenger seat of his assistant coach’s car, exhausted after practice. He writes from the back pew of a funeral, sitting beside grieving teenagers. He writes from the sidelines, not of a game, but of their lives, trying to figure out how to keep everyone moving forward when everything around them is falling apart. That humility, that honesty, is what sets this book apart from anything else on your shelf.
So don’t read this book for the soccer, but read it for the truth. Order A Road No One Traveled – Side Effects of Coaching now at www.raykiddy.com or email Connect@raykiddy.com.
Because the real story isn’t about the game. It’s about who stands beside you when life breaks the rules.