Two Seasons In the Bubble: Living and Coaching Basketball in Bulgaria

Few people would voluntarily leave the safe haven of a good job, family and friends to move to a little known second-world country in Eastern Europe. Yet that is just what the author did. Two Seasons in the Bubble is his first-person account of teaching and coaching basketball in Bulgaria. His adventures are recounted with humor and pathos and masterfully interwoven with facts and observations about the history and culture of this mysterious country.

Jones' writing style is charming and captivating, but he soars when describing the on-court action and off-court antics of his Bulgarian high school team. In a land where shaking your head means yes and nodding your head means no, coaching basketball becomes the most foreign of all his experiences. Coaching a Bulgarian team with little basketball experience in a struggling, undisciplined country slowly moving its way from the old Soviet bloc world to the 21st century puts Jones in the path of snarling stray dogs, imposing, cage-like basketball gyms and chain-smoking referees. On a school campus that was run by the Bulgarian version of the KGB during the Cold War, Jones coaches basketball players and teaches students who see this school as their ticket out of the country. Two Seasons covers the unforgettable basketball journey underneath an inflatable bubble-domed roof in Bulgaria where hoop dreams take on an entirely new meaning.