Literary Corner: Game Set Life: A Conversation on Character, Grit, and the Power of Sports
Long Island Tennis Magazine’s Literary Corner
Game Set Life: A Conversation on Character, Grit, and the Power of Sports
By Jay Harris & Michael Kathrein
We want the best for those that come after us, and the importance for the next generation to succeed shouldn’t be taken lightly. And as we have found throughout the years, sports can be one of the greatest teachers we have to help guide young people.
The newly published book Game Set Life: A Conversation on Character, Grit, and the Power of Sports gets at the heart of how we can use sports, and tennis specifically, to do just that. Written by two long-time coaches and fathers, Jay Harris and Michael Kathrein, this book is a powerful conversation about the education embedded within athletics. Through real stories, honest reflections, and meaningful insights, you’ll discover how to use sports as a vehicle for developing character, leadership, and a strong athlete mindset.
Whether you’re a parent, coach, or mentor, you’ll walk away with the tools and perspective to help kids thrive—on and off the court.
“The most important sentiment in the book is the thought that sport DOES build character,” says Harris. “We all get very wrapped up in wins and losses, and when that happens, we forget about what is actually important: the process of it all. Think of a weekend tennis tournament, where only one player finishes the weekend without losing. That means all of the other players lost at least one match. With that set up, we better all stay focused on the process, otherwise there are going to be a ton of very unhappy parents, coaches and players.”
Within the book you’ll learn how to:
→Develop character and emotional resilience in young athletes
→Help kids build a personal growth mindset and mental toughness
→Support athlete development for teens without burnout or pressure
→Shift the focus from performance to purpose—and connection
→Recognize the life lessons sports are always teaching
The concept of the book began nearly two decades ago, when childhood friends Harris and Kathrein were discussing their coaching professions, and how they can share all that they have learned in a concise way that would help parents and other coaches alike. 
“I actually began creating the outline over 15 years ago. At the time, I was doing a lot of motivational speaking, and those talks were seemingly well-received,” Harris recalls. “Then about five years ago, after having extensive and interesting conversations with Michael about the issues we experienced through our coaching, the efforts sort of melded together, and we collaboratively wrote the book over a three-year span. The goal quickly became to produce a series of shared experiences to help parents, coaches and players navigate through the process of allowing sport to build character and grit.”
While the two shared a common goal in putting the book together, actually doing so proved to be a challenging task. Harris and Kathrein don’t live near each other anymore, so instead of getting together in person to hash out ideas, they did so digitally.
“We actually wrote the entire book on a live Google doc where each of us took turns writing in whatever chapter we felt inspired to add to, and we kept track of whose turn it was by adding either tennis ball emojis (which I did), or basketball emojis (which Mike did) to signify which chapters were ready to be added to for each of us. We then spoke on the phone at least once a week to discuss where each of the chapters were headed. This was a unique method, but I think it worked brilliantly.”
The method to their madness did prove to be a successful one, and earlier this summer, Game Set Life was published. One week after its publication, it was the No. 1 rated new release sports psychology book on Amazon.
It was the result of a lot of work, and years spent analyzing how sports can be a benefit to us all, especially away from the playing surfaces. If you’re looking for a sports book for kids, a playbook for coaching leadership, or a guide to character development through athletics—Game Set Life is for you. The book is now available on Amazon, and many other book stores.
