Never before in the history of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has a team entering as a number sixteen seed defeated a one seed. It is also difficult to keep a championship caliber team together these days as a result of our high school and college players leaving school early for the money and fame the NBA can bring for those who are successful enough to be drafted to the big time.
For Valparaiso University, these two facts are about to be challenged as five friends who played high school basketball together for the St. John’s Cadets decide to attend the same college in Valparaiso University to play for the Crusaders. Together, Chris Williams, Will Jeffries, and brothers Kenny, Keith, and Shawn Mitchell experience the triumphs and major setbacks of playing division one college basketball as they lead the Valpo Crusaders in an attempt to make sports history and become the first team to enter the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament as a sixteen seed and defeat a one seed to advance.
“For the Love of the Game;” an inspirational story that will appeal to the heart of every sports fan.
Jerome Weiland was born 8/18/1975 in Silver Spring, Maryland. He attended St. John’s College High School in Northwest Washington, D.C. There, he actively participated in the JROTC program and received an ROTC Award of Merit from the Military Order of the World Wars. Graduating at the rank of captain in 1993, he went on to attend the University of Maryland at College Park where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in the Life Sciences specializing in General Biology. With strong interests in inspirational writing and sports memorabilia, he combines the two hobbies to influence his first published literary work in “For the Love of the Game.”