In addition to being a frequent guest lecturer at universities and writers’ conferences, Ms.
Casey served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin Counties,
Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators from 1991 through 2003.
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
There has probably never
been a time when I didn’t enjoy sports on some level. As a young child it
was with the innocence and wide-eyed excitement that goes hand-in-hand with
competing and winning a prize. Later, the rewards were less material and
somehow more spiritual in nature. When I married Willis Casey, however,
my enjoyment and appreciation of sports, especially collegiate sports, took on
a totally new and deeper meaning. I could no longer be satisfied to just
sit on the sidelines and cheer. I quickly became aware that there were
other factors involved in the so-called game of sports--factors that played a
critical role in the over-all scheme of things as they existed within a
university.
Willis was the director of athletics at North Carolina State University in
Raleigh. It was through his eyes I learned that collegiate sports was not
“just a game,” and that a winning athletics program was much more far-reaching
than I had ever imagined. It influenced things like student enrollment,
scholarships, donations, accreditations, standing within the community, and
even the personal development of young men and women. As I became more involved,
I began to experience the ever-changing and often volatile emotions that
existed with each game played, or each event. If a team won, the
exhilaration was unreal; but if it lost, there was only the feeling of despair.
With time I adjusted. I allowed myself to be interested, but not so
emotionally involved that it spilled into all the other areas of my life.
I thought I was in control. Nothing, however, prepared me for that
season when the men’s basketball team went to Albuquerque and won the NCAA
National Championship.
Under the direction of a highly emotional, super-charged Italian coach by the
name of Jim Valvano, this team game after game seemed to lose, only to pull out
a win in the last seconds of regular play or in overtime. It managed to
survive the regular season, and as underdog, the Wolfpack team took not only
its fans but the entire country by storm and marched into “The Pit” as it was
called at the University of Nevada to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the
history of collegiate basketball. It is still talked about today as
though it just happened.
Willis and I were sitting in the stands at center court that final game as we
watched the winning dunk shot. The entire coliseum exploded. Willis
pulled me through masses of cheering fans, past the security guards and onto
the court. The Wolfpack players were laughing and crying and piling on
top of each other in a heap. Coach V, as he was affectionately called,
was running around wild-eyed, flailing his arms, searching for someone to hug.
He found Willis. Then he found me. The overwhelming joy of the
Wolfpack fans was so strong that time seemed to momentarily stop so that the
enormity of what had just occurred could catch up with reality.
The Coach’s Wife is not reality. Nor is it a replay of an
unbelievably thrilling event that took place during Willis’s tenure as
athletics director. It is a story that is simply the product of my
imagination brought to life on a printed page. Within that story,
however, is a spirit that reflects something that is real—that one glorious
moment when winning the NCAA Basketball National Championship became a reality
for the Wolfpack.
Barbara Casey
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title- The Coach’s Wife
By- Barbara Casey
Genre- Mystery/Suspense
Publication Date- March 2014
Published By- Archebooks Publishing
Blurb-
Marla Connors, recently married to head basketball coach Neal Connors, travels with her husband to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the Piedmont State University Coyote team is playing in the NCAA Finals. Marla has not been accepted by the Coyotes, that loyal bunch of fans who follows the university team, partly because she is almost twenty years younger than Coach Connors and a divorcée, but also because the fans are afraid she will distract her husband from his duties as head coach. They see her as someone who married Coach Connors just for his money. Only Gale, the older wife of assistant coach Stu Simmons, goes out of her way to be a friend to Marla.
The Coyote team is plagued with problems from the very beginning of the season, and when they finally manage to reach the NCAA Finals, it's even worse. Their center is caught using drugs, Athletics Director Charlie Morgan, who is also in Albuquerque for the games, makes a pass at Marla in her hotel room, and Coach Connors comes down with the flu. No one believes that State can win the big game.
With so much happening, Marla can't shake the feeling that something evil is taking over her life. She tries to convince herself that it is emotional anxiety left over from the abuse she experienced during her first marriage to Dr. Martin Andrews and that the stress from the tournament has brought it once again to the surface. She soon learns, however, that the evil is real and it threatens not only everything she loves, but her very life.
AN EXCERPT
Everything
you can imagine is real.
Pablo Picasso
Prologue
Marla
Connors wrapped her full-length, black mink coat tightly around her and sat
back in the rich brocade chair--one of a matching pair--that faced the ivory
damask sofa. She had chosen this
particular chair in the lobby because it allowed her full view of the front
entrance of the hotel as well as the bank of brass-framed elevators located off
to the right. She watched a group of
noisy Wolfpack supporters get off one of the elevators, all of them wearing red
and white and carrying an assortment of pompoms, banners, and other displays of
school spirit to wave during the basketball game. Several other people, also Wolfpack fans who
had waited to see if State would make it to the NCAA semifinals, were trying to
check in at the hotel desk.
Even
though Marla could easily see anyone coming into or leaving the lobby of the
hotel through the massive glass doors, as well as anyone using the elevators,
she for the most part was hidden from view by a tall palm and several smaller
potted plants placed around the seating area.
And even if someone did notice her sitting there, no one would recognize
her--not with the wig. The
shoulder-length blond hair and heavy makeup, as well as the coat, made her look
older than her thirty-three years.
Another
group of loud fans clamored out of an elevator.
Charlie Morgan, the new athletics director, and his assistant, Ray Knox,
were among them as well as Stuart Simmons, one of the assistant coaches. The Piedmont State University Wolfpack team
was scheduled for the first game of the semifinals in the NCAA National
Championship basketball playoffs, and many of the fans had already started
drinking. Their boisterous and obnoxious
behavior was only a mild indication of what they would be like during and after
the game.
He
entered through the glass doors and stood for a moment in the sunlight that was
scattered on the thick maroon carpet.
Tall, muscular, erect, his sixty-year-old body looked like a poster ad
expounding the benefits of keeping in shape.
He had probably been doing a pre-game interview outside for one of the
television networks. His thick graying
hair was slightly wind-blown giving him a boyish look, and he still had on the
sweats he had worn to practice that morning.
Marla crossed her legs and when she did the coat opened slightly,
exposing her bare leg and thigh. She
smoothed the blond hair with her hand and licked her lips. Other than that, she made no movement. He would see her. He always did.
SPECIAL LINKS
Amazon Hardcover- http://www.amazon.com/The-Coachs-Wife-Barbara-Casey/dp/1595070427/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1398571611&sr=8-5
Amazon Paperback- http://www.amazon.com/Coachs-Wife-Barbara-Casey/dp/1595072586/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-5&qid=1398571611
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