Shawn's blogging. www.shawnfury.blogspot.com. Check out the new FAQ page. NFL.com writer Gregg Easterbrook labels Keeping the Faith a "must read" sports book. Read more Booklist gives positive review to Keeping the Faith. Read more Publishers Weekly calls Keeping the Faith a "heartfelt tale." Read review Keeping the Faith is now available on Kindle. Read more. Shawn's story on Mike and Matt Fasnacht appears in the February issue of Minnesota Monthly, which can be read here. Shawn's essay on home-state memories appears in the current Sports Scoop. Read More Shawn's story on high school basketball is in the current issue of Minnesota Basketball News. Read More The Daily News of Iron Mountain, Michigan, reviews book. Read review New Ulm Journal story features Trinity football team, discusses impact of book on school, team. Read more

Fury gathering information for book about TBC

Shawn Fury, former sportswriter for The Forum, now living in New York, is in Ellendale gathering information for his first book. What type of a story would bring him to our town? Well, last year when the Trinity Bible College football team was defeated 105-0, Fury, who was then working for The Forum, came to the school to write the story.

In March of this year, he moved to New York, where he has been doing freelance writing. One day while browsing through a bookstore, he couldn’t help but notice a large number of books about great sport teams and great sports moments. His thoughts began to evolve, and he arrived at the decision to write a book about the other side of the scoreboard. TBC’s football team seemed to fit the scenario.

After contacting a dozen publishing companies, Lyons Press of Connecticut was sold on the idea. So to Ellendale he came for about a five-week stay, to gather information, not only about the team’s struggles, but about the school, its faith, and the town, Ellendale.

“How does the team deal with its struggles, how do they find small victories among big defeats,” were some of his comments. And “how do people in general deal with defeat?”

As he goes about his research, the students themselves and their stories intrigue him. Those, along with the college, the campus, the town and the community will all be part of the finished production. The book, scheduled to be published in Sept. 2005, will consist of 240 pages, 70,000 words. It is due at the editors in early March.

Fury grew up in Janesville, Minnesota, and graduated with a major in communications from St. John’s University in Minnesota. He was a sports reporter for the Worthington Daily Globe for three years, and a sportswriter for The Forum for two-and-a-half years. Having grown up in a small town, being here in Ellendale is very familiar. He is staying with Pastor John Brady and family, who he says are, “great, great people.”

With this book and national exposure, will TBC turn loss into triumph? We can only wait and see.