Blind Your Ponies

I had read this several years ago and enjoyed reading it then. My Book Club chose it for our May book - it was a pleasure to read again! I highly recommend it! It’s a story about a rag-tag basketball team from Willow Creek Montana, their life struggles, their hardships and victories on and off the courts!

I fell in love with this book all over again! It had been years since I’d read it and enough years had passed that it was all new to me. This is a charming, WONDERFUL, story!

I'm a sucker for a good sports underdog story like Hoosiers and Rudy. Blind Your Ponies is that and so much more. Set in Willow Creek, Montana, a town whose basketball team hasn't won a game in the last five years. The story centers around the coach Sam Pickett but there is huge cast of unique supporting characters that reside in the small town. As Sam tries for one last season to build a winning basketball team, he is also struggling with a past that haunts him. As the story progresses, Sam becomes aware that most everyone in the town has personal challenges too and he looks to them for inspiration. I became totally absorbed in the story - the characters were all really well-developed and relatable. However, I listened to this book on audio and at times it was hard to keep track of some of the minor characters. Having a paper copy and being able to page back through what I had already read would have been helpful. The other criticism I have is that some of the dialogue was a little over the top and at times a tad cheesy. Even though this is at heart an underdog sports story, the author kept it from being too predictable - I was still on the edge of my seat at times.

Overall, I loved this book and would recommend it. It's a poignant story of overcoming the pain of the past, lifting oneself out of the doldrums to find hope and then pursuing a dream relentlessly. At first it seems like there are a lot of details about minor characters, but I came to realize this is also the story of a small town and that each of them are essential. It really makes you yearn to be a part of a community that bonds and rallies for the underdog. The scenes of the individual basketball games are riveting and expertly written, although I do think there could have been fewer of them so that each one would have more impact. I found myself skimming them after awhile to see what happened at the end. All in all, beautifully written and with a likeable cast of characters. Stories like this make you believe in something bigger than the day to day grind.

I just read a 2004 review where a reader said he and his wife had to skim this book to get past the author's poor writing. While I struggled through the first 100 pages in doubt--as the author tossed in and developed character after character and I kept forgetting names-- it finally came to me that the author was taking great pains to paint a deep, powerful story. It was time for me to shut up and listen. When I finally stopped fighting and accepted the author's lead, I found the book excellent. And, yes, I skimmed nothing, reading every word, because I realized the author wanted me to read it all. I really respect West for pulling no punches. Everything goes wrong for everyone throughout the book. I kept waiting for the team of struggling boys to finally win, yet they kept losing. Everything and everyone seems hopeless. What gets each "loser" through are little things--a pancake, a swearing parrot, a loving grandmother, a high-five to a handicapped girl. In that sense, this is a really old-fashioned book, a story of unhappy people still rising up to help each other. And when the author finally dares to toss in some hope, when a few good things start happening, the book becomes magical. This is a great summer read--a book that becomes impossible to put down. The highest compliment a novel can get is that your life is changed and never the same after you read it. Blind Your Ponies is such a book. Even at the book's end, the title leaves me struggling to accept what I think the author means by it. I felt several meanings in "blind your ponies," all of them powerful.

Like many I was drawn to this book by the title- “Blind Your Ponies.” It sounded so bizarre I just had to read it. I have just finished the book for the second time and am more in love with it now than when I read it the first time. As a professional public address announcer for a successful Northern Illinois high school basketball team that lost in the state championship by 2 points I was immediately captured by the underdog status of this group of kids. I’m not sure you can fully appreciate this story unless you’ve been one of those underdogs- the kid that always got picked on in school…the ugly girl or guy who couldn’t get a date for the school dance…the skinny weakling who didn’t succeed in any sport. Unless you’ve experienced the heartbreak of being a loser you may be tempted to write this story off as a cheap imitation of “Hoosiers”- but it’s so much more than that. Few books truly inspire…they may conjure up a tear or even a chill or two but rarely move you to get off your duff and get on with life. This one does just that. If you have any sensitivity at all you’ll want to relate to these kids and this coach and do what they did. A great book- one that I will read again and again- and so should you.

I’m a woman who normally wouldn’t think about a book that was about sports. Mr. West does such a great job of developing the quirky characters of the town, the relationships, the heartaches and the joys of the people of Willow Creek. He explores their lives through one year with the basketball team. What fascinated me was how each game was unique from the others, which is what kept me engaged and excited about the wins, the losses and what it took to get there. In many of the games I was on the edge of my seat, so to speak, and felt almost like I was in the gymnasium with the fans. What a great story, well written, interesting, funny and touching. I live in Montana so recognized the places right down to the Calf-A diner in Dell, which sadly isn’t there anymore. The book was quite a ride. I’m sad that it’s over!

Sam Pickett is the coach of the Willow Creek High School basketball team. He's also an English teacher at the school who is prone to place events within the context of Cervantes' Don Quixote. Willow Creek is a very small town in a thinly populated region in Montana. There are only nineteen students in the high school. Yet, the "Broncs" still manage to compete in basketball, although they had lost ninety-three consecutive games at the point this novel begins. They only have six players in toto. Injuries, players fouling out, and, in one case, a player's low grades mean that they often must play with four (or even three) players on the court. They play against teams from much larger schools who can simply wear the exhausted (but spirited) Broncs down. Other teams have the luxury of a full bench with ample replacements. The Broncs sometimes have a hard time simply finding five to start a game in order to avoid a forfeit; on one occasion they must start a student coach who is woefully out of shape. The book largely consists of the stories of some of the players. One is plagued by a drunken father who brutally mocks the team. Another player is an exchange student from Norway who stands six eleven. Yet, he had never played basketball in Norway and was not very athletic when he came to Willow Creek. Another player moved to Willow Creek from Minnesota when his parents divorced. He lives with his grandmother, herself a fascinating person. Author Stanley Gordon West skillfully describes several games. His detailed play-by-play accounts were exciting. I have certainly heard local radio broadcasts of high school basketball games that were, in comparison, very dry indeed. In addition to the players and the games, there's a big fan who is on the lam from the IRS, another fan who is trying to mend a heart that was broken decades earlier, and the sister of one of the players who suffers from cerebral palsy. She becomes an inspiration for the team. Some of the writing lacks all subtlety. Some would say it's all very predictable. But I did get swept up in "Bronc Fever" and found myself cheering the gritty team.

What a wild ride! From the first few pages I hoped this book would match it’s promise. Did it ever! What an extraordinary, beautiful, absorbing, exciting story. Highly recommended.

great story