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It was one of the most positive and touching reading experiences I’ve had this year.

—William Palmer, award-winning author of the Dickens Series

I finished reading The Coach, and was very impressed. The book had a great story line and many chapters that brought the reader more intensely into the story. I give the author an A+.

—Jack Hardy, Hall of Fame high school basketball coach in Illinois

The book was full of true life happenings in the life of a young man interested in playing sports and later becoming a coach. It’s a story of making choices for the future, serving his country in the WWII, going to college after the war, getting married and starting a family, getting the first teaching/coaching job, enjoying his career, overcoming difficult time in coaching and teaching. Along with the basketball coaching is the story of the joys and heartbreaks in family situations.

This book covers all those events with great emphasis on remaining positive and true to the author’s core beliefs without seeming ‘to good to be true’ I thoroughly enjoyed every part of this book.

—Rick Reeves, one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Indiana and Michigan. (Rick was a conference coach of the year in both Indiana and Michigan.)

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I was glad he focused on the individual people involved. Everyone knows what happened game to game. Not too many people know the rest of the story. I think Tom Speaker did a really great job

—Daniel Wodicka, Indiana’s Mr. Football

I loved the book. Tom Speaker did a great job with this book. Everything in the book is very accurate especially the information about the state championship week.

—Marshall Overley, West Lafayette Head Coach

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The Battle of Waikiki is certainly not your usual battle-scarred war memoir. Tom Speaker brings a whole new attitude and a wonderfully reader-friendly voice to the whole wartime memoir genre. In short, this is one of the funniest books about the American military to come along since Catch-22. Don’t get me wrong, The Battle of Waikiki has its serious moments, but it is all presented with such good humor that one can’t help but enjoy the whole experience of surfing your way through Army life.

—William Joseph Palmer
Director of Graduate Studies at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
Author: The Detective and Mr. Dickens, The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens, The Hoydens and Mr. Dickens, The Dons and Mr. Dickens

The Battle of Waikiki is a humorous and delightful read. The story of a young man’s maturation kept me turning the pages to learn what was going to happen next. I found the story to be very entertaining, easy to follow, and a quick read.

—Steve Akers, Ph.D.
Executive Associate Dean of Students
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

The Battle of Waikiki is an excellent story; very well narrated and made to be humorous and fast-paced, as well as interesting and at times enlightening. The parts on Father Damien, The French chapter, and the sports sections all add to the flavor and serve as semi-educational for readers, but it all adds to the “melting pot” to create a wonderful book.

—Mark Hooper
Chief Editor, Angel Editing

Hello Private Mike Teague,

I want you to know that I finally finished reading what I am sure will be first of many of the books that you will write. I am very impressed with this book and I am really looking forward to buying your first copy of  The Coach.

I must admit, I am very impressed with your quality of writing. I said to myself several times when I was reading your book that it just sounded like you were talking and I could hear the words come out of your mouth. I also was impressed how you started out writing about Mike Teague’s wise guy attitude and how he grew into an adult with your religious feeling and values that you have today.

—John Conkright
CEO of Conkright Enterprises
Belleville, Illinois