A Saint in the City: Stories of Champions from the Barrio

Real Teens, Real Struggles, Real Triumphs, Real Inspiration

Are you curious how a clinically depressed teacher, who coached wrestling, transformed a group of forgotten teenagers into champions?

After being discharged from a psychiatric care unit, on anti-depressants and no job prospects, a lost man from the Pacific Northwest, reluctantly moved to Southern California. There, Scott Glabb (Award-winning teacher and coach) found a generation of equally lost kids and how they found inner strength to fight day after day on and off the wrestling mat while everyone else said it was impossible to succeed.

Each of Glabb's wrestlers could yet stumble and fall, naturally fulfilling society's unnatural expectations of gang life, prepping juvenile hall, and matriculating into prison. Or at best becoming high school dropouts groomed for minimum wage jobs and barely supported illegitimate children. Maybe they could graduate from high school then if everything aligned perfectly, attending the local community college was, at best, a distant dream

Young immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador crammed into one or two-bedroom apartments in a densely populated city had little hope for the future. Their families and culture had other plans for them. They were to be shepherded into foregoing their dreams once they grew strong enough to do a man or woman's work that would help to support a stream of siblings. What difference did their dreams make when they knew they would never be anywhere else, but where they already were?

A Saint in the City chronicles the true stories of teenagers who grew up in gang-infested neighborhoods, from poverty-stricken immigrant families. Nearly all never saw a reason to hope for anything until a young teacher and coach believed in them.

You will read their stories and walk away

- ◆ understanding life in the inner city.

- ◆ learning a principle or truth about each athlete's adversity and their struggles.

- ◆ being inspired to be a more transformational coach, teacher, parent or mentor.

With grit and determination, Coach Glabb and his wrestlers stared adversity in the face, took on insurmountable challenges, and did what everyone else believed was impossible to do...Win.

As a result, his story stands out from so many others who tend to give in at the first sign of trouble, as his efforts remind us that the greatest victories are always the hardest fought.

Reviews

"It's a relentless love for humanity that empowers Scott to give kids what he lacked as a child over and over and over again, sometimes to the detriment of his own health and safety. Scott Glabb's teachings need to be shared with the same vigilance he's dedicated his life to living them."

-Jay Mohr, Actor, Comedian, Wrestling Coach

"Glabb gave me confidence. He got my head straight. In the memoir, A Saint in the City, one reads about kids most coaches would give up on, that I would give up on, but Glabb never gave up on them."

-Gilbert "El Ni o" Melendez, Mixed Martial Arts Professional Fighter with UFC (Ultimate Fighting Champion) and ESPN Analyst (Santa Ana High School Wrestling Alumni)

This book has curriculum available upon request and meets all the ELA Common Core State Standards, and has been approved by the California Dept of Ed. for social content.

See the Author page for contact information.