First published 2021
Floyd "Bad News" Winter returns from the Vietnamese jungles at eighteen and faces a new mission: creating the United States All Army Wrestling Team. Winter must transform raw recruits into champions while navigating military bureaucracy and his own demons from combat. His wrestlers push their bodies to breaking points as Winter drives them toward international competition. The coach who became the first American to capture gold in Greco-Roman wrestling at the World Military Championships now stakes his reputation on building something lasting. Winter's soldiers will scatter to become generals, Olympic medalists, and special forces operatives, but first they must survive his brutal training regimen. As Winter molds champions on the mat, he discovers that teaching others to fight reveals as much about leadership as warfare ever did. This is the story of bonds forged through sweat and sacrifice, where a charismatic coach learns that his greatest victories happen when his athletes surpass him.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, american, military-fiction, sports, action, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, underdog
Setting: United States, Vietnam
Period: 20th Century
232 pages · Paperback · Independently published
Content warnings: violence