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

Frequently Asked Questions about Keeping the Faith

How did the book come about?
In 2003, I worked as a sports reporter and copy editor at The Forum in Fargo, North Dakota. Early in the 2003 season, a football score came over the wire that drew the attention of everyone in the newsroom: Rockford 105, Trinity Bible College 0. Some thought it must be a typo. Few in the newsroom even knew that Trinity was located in North Dakota. A week later I traveled to Ellendale to talk to the players and coaches, trying to figure out, basically, what in...God's name was going on with the school's football team. What I found amazed me. The team had players who had never stepped onto a football field until that season. The quarterback claimed he was illiterate until a crack dealer helped him learn how to read. A guy in his mid-30s with a bad back and a couple of kids joined the team to help fill out the depleted roster. I wrote a pair of lengthy features on the team but figured that was the end of it.

A year later, while living in New York City, I started thinking about the Trinity program more in depth. Their tale could be a decent book, I thought. I've read dozens of books about teams that win titles, or teams that come close to winning championships, or an underdog that pulls an upset or nearly pulls an upset and, look, aren't they so lovable! What I hadn't read was a story about a team that never wins. I started thinking of a book-length examination of what the players and coaches in such a situation go through. Why do they keep playing when they know - before the season starts, before each game - that the chances of victory are basically zero? I pitched the story to a couple of publishers. A few weeks later I had signed a contract with Lyons Press and I was on my way to Ellendale, North Dakota for the 2004 football season.

Is Keeping the Faith a religious book?
It's about a football team at a school founded for religious reasons, but the book is not about religion. It's not written to save anyone or to bring anyone to Jesus or to send anyone away from God. The book describes the religious beliefs of many of the key characters. It delves into the overall philosophy of the school and how that relates to the football program. But it's a sports book that just happens to be set at a religious school. It's about football. It's about winning, and losing. Mostly losing. And, yes, it's about the religious beliefs of the characters. I've heard from pastors who enjoyed the book, and I've also received letters from people who haven't been to church a day in their lives and don't trust organized religion but still enjoyed the story. A religious book? I'd like to think that would be too narrow a definition of it, not to mention inaccurate. 

Has there been any movie interest in the book?
A few years ago we had some talks with Lawrence Gordon Productions, the people behind Die Hard, Watchmen, and Field of Dreams. Unfortunately, nothing came out of that at the time, but there is still periodic interest in the book from "movie people." So maybe one day the story will be told on the big screen, or at least direct to DVD. There is a Keeping the Faith movie, of course, but that's a 2000 flick starring Edward Norton and Ben Stiller about a priest and a rabbi fighting for the same girl. Very little football in it.

Did Trinity ever win a game?
Yes. In 2005 Trinity defeated Principia, a school that has since dropped football, though the two events are - as far as I know -unrelated. Over the next three years Trinity defeated Principia a couple of more times. However, that was the only school the Lions defeated over a six-year period.

What was the school's reaction to its portrayal?
Mostly positive. Some people find that surprising considering most schools aren't anxious to have their names associated with anything involving the word "worst," as it doesn't look good in national rankings beloved by so many institutions. "Rated by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation's worst party schools!" But the school graciously allowed me full access to whatever I wanted on campus. I attended any class I wanted, any practice, talked to all the top administrators and they denied me nothing, even though - as one administrator put it in an interview with me - "the school is not getting anything out of this book." One person expressed surprise that a conversation on the sidelines of a game was included in the book, but he wasn't upset. I've heard from many former students - and from many people from Ellendale - who thought it was an accurate portrayal of the school, the town, and the people in the book. The school didn't exactly use the book as a promotional advice, and one character in particular was upset with how the book turned out. But overall there were few complaints.

Are you still in contact with the main characters?
I still correspond frequently with many of the people profiled in Keeping the Faith. The person I'm probably asked about most - former assistant coach Eric Slivoskey, who was head coach from 2006-2008 - now has his own spot on the Internet. Slivoskey, who will coach in Finland in 2009, is blogging about his experience here. I've also returned to Ellendale since the book's release and people greeted me warmly and without a cold shoulder in sight.

Where can I buy the book?
Some bookstores still carry it - you might find it on the shelves right after John Feinstein's 78 books - but the best place to buy is online, either at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. The book's available in hardcover and paperback.

Frequently Asked Questions about the writer

Where did you grow up?
I'm from Janesville, Minnesota, a town of 2,000 that's about 75 minutes south of Minneapolis. We lived briefly in a trailer park, where my most vivid memory is of the lumbering neighborhood bully biting off half of my Nerf football. As far as I remember, he didn't swallow it. We eventually moved to a house that was on the same block as the famous doll in the window house, which is Janesville's most famous - and only - tourist attraction. I now live in Manhattan. Whenever I return to Janesville the silence in the town is jolting. Jolting, but still comforting.

How long have you been writing? What else have you done in your life?
I started working at newspapers when I was a freshman in college. For 10 years I wrote and edited at various papers, before becoming a freelance writer in 2004. I've also been a wheelchair pusher at the Minneapolis airport, a factory worker at Birdseye Foods - don't buy their frozen veggies, if you can help it, a telemarketer for a day and a half (I made one sale, and even that one was shady), a copy editor, and, for a few years, a paper boy.

Will this website be updated more than once every few months?
Yes. In the past I mostly used the site as a place to post my stories and any reviews of the book. From now on I hope to post more frequently, whether it's magazine or online stories. I also have a blog now that I encourage you to visit. www.shawnfury.blogspot.com.

Are you on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter?
No, no, and no. Not yet anyway. Eventually the government will mandate that every citizen must belong to a social networking site and I'll join. That or my wife will finally break my defenses down. Until then the best way to reach me is the new old-fashioned way: email. Write to me at shawnfury05@yahoo.com.

Will you be writing another book?
Yes.

Will you be writing another book within the next 30 years?
Yes.

But when?
Hopefully soon. Writing a book was by far the most enjoyable experience of my career. The book received praise from several publications, and I've had many conversations with my editor about future books. Now it's just a matter of finding the right project. I'd love to do a sports book again, but I also have several non-sports ideas that I think would make great reads. When the day does finally come, I will provide updates on my website.

Are there any other writing projects coming up?
A few. I've been working on a travel piece on Cape Town, have kicked around the idea of writing about the 2010 World Cup, which will be held in my wife's native South Africa, and I continue to develop magazine stories.

What are your favorite subjects to write about?
I usually prefer writing about people or events that aren't always in the spotlight. To me, the people who lose are as interesting as the people who win so when I write about sports those subjects often intrigue me. That said, I've always wanted to write a book about the Los Angeles Lakers so I certainly have no problem writing about winners. Lately I've been focused on writing about what might be broadly labeled nostalgia, and I'd love to further explore the past and the hold it has on so many people, including myself.

Who are your favorite writers?
Jeff MacGregor and Charlie Pierce write in such a way that I'm always left wondering how anyone can take words and mold them into sentences, stories, and books the way they do. Mark Bowden - author of Black Hawk Down - is a guy I admire for his ability to move seamlessly between newspapers, magazines and books. I'll also read pretty much anything written by S.L. Price, Gary Smith, Stephen King, Nelson DeMille, David Sedaris, Jonathan Ames, the Onion, and George Saunders.

What are you reading now?
"It wasn't pretty, folks, but didn't we have fun? Esquire in the Sixties" by Carol Polsgrove. "Lenin's Tomb" by David Remnick. "The Woman at the Washington Zoo," by Marjorie Williams. "Confederates in the Attic," by Tony Horwitz. "I love you, Beth Cooper," by Larry Doyle.