I know why I put “Soccer Dad” on my list – the title and the price. But I don’t think I really knew what I was getting into when I bought it other than it was about soccer. That seemed like enough of a reason for me.

But W.D. Wetherell‘s commemoration of his son’s final season of high school soccer ended up justifying my decision even if I had moments where I wanted to just give up. That had nothing to do with the story since I’m a sucker for a good sports story. So let’s get some of the bad stuff out of the way. I had a big problem with Wetherell’s connection to soccer.

He represents a kind of soccer fan which drives me nuts – the Europosuer. I know it’s a good three hours from his home in New Hampshire to the home stadium of the New England Revolution, the closest Major League Soccer team, so I didn’t expect him and his son to have season tickets. But for a book which espouses how amazingly special soccer is, I’d expect at least a passing mention of the top domestic league.

We got nothing. Not a single word. I’m cool that his kid has learned by watching Manchester United and other English teams, but it just irks me that people who have such a connection to the sport blatantly ignore it when it sits just a few hours from their front door. The Revolution appeared in their third straight MLS Cup final during the fall chronicled by the book. They had a reason to pay attention to the sport within the country and seemingly chose not to. I don’t even remember a mention of the U.S. national team. That’s no way to raise a young soccer player – constantly looking elsewhere for examples of success.

So that’s one of two personal complaints from me. I really did enjoy the book although he does sometimes seem like he acts as if he’s above the elites around him by not being as elite by them which only makes him sound more elitist. That only gets in the way a little bit.

In the end, he does a wonderful job chronicling a very special season for his son and his teammates. Because of his understanding of the sport and the nature of a small-school community, he really conveys the ups and downs well. He admits from the beginning that he does not have the proper perspective and backs this up by pretty clearly showing how even he can get caught up in things too much with opposing fans.

I thought one of the best decisions Wetherell made was including some excerpts from his son’s journal about the season. We got a look at what a kid sees from that situation. With a nationally-covered cheating scandal at his school, the pressure of college selection and the difficulty of being a star player, Matt Wetherell (who finished a sucessfull college career) added that extra touch with his recollections.

The book caught my eye and kept my attention because of soccer, but it will stay in my head because of the connections that family and community play in the lives of the people in the book. That’s what makes it work.