All The Way Down

About the Book

Derrick entered the door with a big grin. He was wearing a Mickey Mouse pullover shirt that stopped at his knees. His surfer shorts stopped at about his ankles, and he looked even more outlandish with his low-cut blue sneakers and blue and green sweat socks. My first reaction was to send him back to change his clothes. After further thought, I decided to give him a lecture and let him be his individual self. Again, George rapidly hit the door leading the players down the hall with his usual, "Lets do this fella's!" The bus loaded up with Colleen handing me a Hall's cough drop as I sat down. The cheerleader advisor knew I had been losing my voice due to yelling so much. Dave handed me an antacid tablet for later, and Lee's wife jumped on the bus to hand the players carrots. All the rituals had been completed, and the big bus moved out for the 55 mile trip to Pittsburgh. The time that I had always wanted to experience as a kid, was finally at hand. It was a chance to coach at the University of Pittsburgh floor. It was a chance to win a gold medal. The most important thing though, I thought, was for a lot of people to change their attitude's about delinquent kids. I wanted people to know that these kids were not all bad if you gave them a chance, and many would and could succeed. As the bus lurched down Interstate-79, I thought, that no matter what, win or lose----these kids had already succeeded.

About the Author

Robert W. Burnett worked as a teacher, coach, and administrator, in four different school districts as an educator for 33 years. His passion was working with disadvantaged children, and giving them hope to succeed. He had to give up coaching after 11 years of being a teacher when he accepted a principal position, but returned as a basketball coach for one year to guide his school basketball team at the juvenile correctional center school where he worked. As he had to deal with his own personal crisis of family problems at the time, he used all of his learned skills to develop a group of dysfunctional kids, into winners. His story is one of working through personal problems and changing lives. He has been a speaker and trainer of educator's for several years, providing training in student behavior and school safety.