Athletes overcoming adversity focus of book

Mike Sandrolini knows all about the scandals that riddle the news he covers.

But the longtime Chicago-area sports journalist is a firm believer that athletes should be role models.

So when he decided to pull together his first book, he chose not to focus on steroids or even championships, but rather on athletes who have used integrity, courage and faith to face their challenges.

The result is "All the Good in Sports: True Stories that Go Beyond the Headlines," which he'll be signing and discussing at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at Anderson's Bookshop in Downers Grove.

"I've had the privilege of interviewing a lot of great people over the years," said the Glen Ellyn resident, who is the associate sports editor at Suburban Life Publications and a freelance writer.

It was Doco Wesseh's story that inspired the idea for "All the Good in Sports." Sandrolini had interviewed Wesseh after the star soccer player at Judson College in Elgin was named 2004 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

What Wesseh had overcome impressed Sandrolini even more than his soccer skills. The young man, who had grown up in the West African county of Liberia, had fled his home on Christmas Eve when he was just 10 years old after rebels invaded his nation's capital.

Fearing capture by troops who would force them to fight, he and his classmates hid in the jungle where they survived on dirty river water and whatever food they could find. He witnessed beheadings, stabbings and shootings.

Wesseh would not know until more than a decade later that his parents had survived.

"This guy was so laid back you would never know he had been through all this," Sandrolini said. "This story was just so compelling."

Sandrolini wrote a profile of Wesseh for "Sports Spectrum," a Christian sports magazine, and thought of other inspiring stories the publication had printed over the years. "All the Good in Sports" contains 25 stories adapted from the magazine that Sandrolini and others had written.

Published last July by Regal, the book has gotten a good response, he said.

"These athletes show that faith has carried them through a lot of hardships in life that a lot of people go through so I think people can relate," he said.

For instance, readers will learn of former Chicago Bears player and football coach Mike Singletary's struggle to come clean with his wife about past infidelities early in their marriage; NBA play-by-play announcer Jerry Schemmel's survival of a plane crash in which his close friend died; and tennis player Christie Schweer's admission of an eating disorder that nearly ruined her career.

Others featured in the paperback include football coach Tony Dungy, baseball player Albert Pujols, basketball player Dwight Howard, football players Kurt Warner and LaDanian Tomlinson, golfer Payne Stewart and gymnast Mary Lou Retton.

All the subjects are professing Christians, but they do more than talk about their faith, Sandrolini said.

"These people lead by example and that's the way I think it should be," he said.

Joe Yovino, online editor and former sports editor at Suburban Life Publications, said Sandrolini's choice of subject matter wasn't surprising. When Sandrolini wrote sports profiles for the newspaper, he'd always find a different angle, Yovino said.

"He genuinely has a love of sports, knows everything about the history of sports and all the obscure players," he said.

Sandrolini's passion for sports came early. When he was growing up in Peru, Ill., he played baseball at LaSalle-Peru Township High School and shoveled snow off the Illinois River to play hockey with his friends.

"There wasn't a skating rink for 60 to 80 miles," he said.

He wrote his first sports story on hockey for a Teen Trib section published by the News Tribune in LaSalle, where he started his career. In the Chicago area, Sandrolini has worked as a reporter, editor and columnist for three different newspapers.

A regular Saturday guest on WJJG 1530 AM's "The Don of Sports" program, he also has started a blog at allgoodinsports.blogspot.com.

But Sandrolini is not all about sports any more than the athletes he writes about. A drummer who favors classic rock, he plays at his church, Willow Creek West, which meets at Wheaton Academy in West Chicago.

Sandrolini says he doesn't have any plans for another book at this point, but he won't rule anything out.

"Certainly, there were a lot of stories and we couldn't get them all in," he said.

If you go

What:Mike Sandrolini book signing and discussion of "All the Good in Sports"

When:7 p.m. Feb. 28

Where:Anderson's Bookshop, 5112 Main St., Downers Grove; a book signing at Borders Books and Music in Oak Brook will be in March

Info:(630) 963-2665