One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season

One Shot at Forever is a heartwarming and inspiring true story of a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois who defied convention and the odds in 1971.

Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make it to the state final.

This gripping narrative tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet, who brought progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era.

Despite being beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly took over a rag-tag team with unconventional methods and led them on an improbable postseason run that infuriated rival coaches and buoyed an entire town.

The book takes readers on a journey back to the Ironmen's historic season and then on to the present day, exploring how the game affected their lives' trajectories and the men they became because of it.

With engaging and poignant storytelling, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the power of high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, reminding us that there are few bonds more enduring than those formed on the field of play.