Charleston County Public Library

Hometown victory, a coach's story of football, fate, and coming home, Keanon Lowe, with Justin Spizman

eng

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autobiography

Hometown victory

compact disc

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1310273349

Keanon Lowe, with Justin Spizman

a coach's story of football, fate, and coming home

Keanon Lowe was working as an offensive analyst for the San Francisco 49ers when his childhood friend and former high school teammate suddenly died from an opioid overdose. Keanon dropped everything, including the plum NFL job he had been working towards since childhood, leading him to a position as football coach at a struggling high school back in his hometown outside of Portland, OR. At the time, Parkrose High School was in the middle of a 23-game losing streak, they were the ultimate underdogs. In many ways, the road to Parkland was paved by Keanon's life-defining experiences. From a childhood spent dodging racist bullies, finding the support and mentorship he craved on the football team, to an NFL season when he worked closely with Colin Kaepernick as he evolved his sideline protest, Keanon was drawn to the young men on the team, and to the school itself. After two years, he pushed them to become conference champions, mentoring countless players along the way. But still, there was that nagging sense that his calling wasn't meant to stop there. He was at that school for a reason. In May 2019, he got his answer when a 19-year-old student named Angel Granados-Diaz entered a Parkrose classroom with a trench coat and shotgun, an attempted school shooting. Keanon disarmed him, with a hug, telling him he cared about him. In Angel, Keanon saw himself, and so many of the young men he grew up with or mentored along the way, and weren't so many of them just looking for acceptance, for comfort, for love?

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