Upright(s): My Season as a Rookie Christian Mentor and Kicking Coach for Cardinal Gibbons High School

"The quiet was the weird thing. When you're on a bus with 33 high school football players, two trainers, a student reporter, and five coaches, quiet wasn't generally something I had experienced this football season. Previously, it had been whoops, hollers, laughs, gases emerging from various teenage bodies. But now, the quiet was eerie. Understandable, but eerie."

The opening lines of "Upright(s): My Season as a Christian Mentor and Rookie Kicking Coach for Cardinal Gibbons High School" show the final stage of the Cardinal Gibbons Crusaders' 2011 football campaign - the quiet, strange bus ride back to Raleigh from a loss in the playoffs. Starting with this scene, Dr. Kurt Ehlert takes the reader through his experiences as a novice high school football coach who is asked, and desires, to mentor and develop his charges in a Christian manner. Dr. Ehlert explores how he has struggled with purpose in his life, how he came to be baptized, and the path that led him to understand his passions, as well as to coaching kickers at Gibbons. Part diary, part self-examination, and part instruction manual for Christian leaders, "Upright(s)" explores many of the topics a Christian man will encounter as he approaches middle age. In addition, it is a football story about the fascinating world of high school football.