About this ebook
Focusing on school-based stories of inattention and calculated defiance, expect the unexpected in this laugh-out-loud summary of school in the 1980’s. Along the way, lockers are violated, field trips go bad, languages are mangled, teachers are pranked and unspeakable stunts are pulled with apples and squirrels.
About the author
From rural miscreant to urban legend, Ben Tomes has had no shortage of unique twists and turns on his way to becoming one of the more influential high school coaches in the country and an unlikely path toward a career in education.
Tomes made a name for himself on a large scale while working at Milwaukee’s Custer High School from 1998 to 2004. There, he entrenched himself as a Special Education Teacher and an integral part of an attempt to turn the struggling urban school around. He started a high school wrestling program with a budget of $400 and less than 100 boys eligible to do sports out of a school population of 1,800. The results of that project were nothing short of miraculous.
From a school population that was graduating a mere thirty-three percent of its students, all but three of nearly 150 young men who completed one year in the program graduated on time. Despite having no experience prior to high school, his Custer team nearly won a state team title and watched as the program won their first individual state championship in over forty-two years. The team’s ascent on and off the mat was oft celebrated in print and on air, and the team became instantly recognizable amongst prep teams of all sports in Wisconsin.
His work there did not go unnoticed. In 2002, he was named the National High School Coach of the Year by Wrestling USA Magazine, the sport’s largest publication. He was the youngest to ever receive the honor, and the first and only coach from Wisconsin to win the award. In 2003, he was featured in a highly acclaimed PBS Documentary entitled, “Wrestling City Kids”, which won an award in Wisconsin for Best Feature Length Documentary by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association. In 2005, he departed for Florida where he started a program at a new high school and replicated the success on and off the mat, earning him recognition by Sports Illustrated, who named him their National Coach of Influence in the May 17th, 2005 edition of the magazine.
Tomes now resides in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with his children Abigail and Zander. He teaches writing and social media courses to digital marketing students at a local college.
