Concordia University Mequon president Rev. Patrick Ferry recently completed his book, Faith in the Freshman: A Story of Hopes and Hoops. Ferry will officially launch the release of his book tonight at a book signing and reading in the Concordia University Todd Wehr auditorium at 7 p.m.
โItโs really an interweaving story that has been tied together across generations,โ Ferry said. โWhile basketball is an important theme, I hope that anyone who reads it will realize that itโs about so much more. Itโs about pursuing dreams and knowing that refining dreams along the way is OK and that itโs more about the journey.โ
The memoir is based on Ferryโs own life, and follows his college basketball career along with his son Andrewโs.
It contains some of lifeโs most powerful lessons on family, faith, academic and transformation, Ferry said.
โI was actually writing Andrewโs part of the story as it was in progress,โ Ferry said. โHis story was made more interesting by the fact that he was diagnosed with type one diabetes in high school. His dream is still to play college basketball, and the book demonstrates the challenges that he faces with being undersized and the other complications and so on.โ
Ferry hopes that his book can serve as a way for others who face similar obstacles and challenges to be encouraged. The book portrays his sonโs struggles as a college freshman basketball player with home sickness and chronicles Ferryโs own hopes, fears and dreams for his son.
โI think the book will be useful and helpful for people who are like me, parents of children in college, parents of children with diabetes, who ask ourselves questions about how we help our children chase their dreams without pushing too far or trying to re-live our own experiences through them,โ Ferry said. โIn my honest assessment that has been something I havenโt been very successful at doing.โ
Ferry wrote the first draft of his book in about four months.
โI turned 50 this year, and as part of my new yearโs resolution I decided I needed to do it now,โ Ferry said. โIโve been journaling for quite some time, and thinking about this for a while so it came together pretty quickly.โ
The book offers an overview of Ferryโs college experience in what he calls one of the โworst basketball programs in the country.โ It flashes back and forth to his son Andrewโs basketball career which begins at Valparaiso University.
The book is available at Concordia Universityโs book store, as well as local book stores in the Milwaukee area. It can also be purchased online at www.faithinthefreshman.com or on Amazon.com. All proceeds from the book will go towards Concordia University and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
โWe really wanted to support the causes that are important to us,โ Ferry said.