ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Sportswriter Jarrett Van Meter, a former Syracuse resident and Ink Free News employee, will be returning to the area for the week of May 13-21 to speak to civic groups around Kosciusko and neighboring counties about his book, How Sweet It Is.
Van Meter is currently a writer and a high school basketball coach in Asheville, North Carolina.
In the book, Van Meter follows three high school teams from the state of Kentucky, all-access, for an entire season. The book documents the daily lives and seasons of the players, coaches, and communities from three vastly different areas: culturally, geographically, and socio-economically. In the book, Van Meter compares Kentucky’s single-state champion format to class systems of other states, including Indiana.
He interviewed former Peru, Indiana high school star Kyle Macy about the Hoosier State’s switch to a four-class format in 1998. Joe Fredrick, who scored 1,000 points at Notre Dame and was one responsible for the infamous “Catholics vs. Convicts” t-shirts, is an assistant coach for one of the teams Van Meter followed and is a vital character in the story.
Besides the behind-the-scenes account of the season, the book also includes interviews with such legends as Dave Cowens, Cliff Hagan, Brian Brohm, Anthony Epps and more. The book has been lauded by Chicago Sun-Times Sports Columnist and Heaven is a Playground author Rick Telander as “a beautiful book.”
Jarrett Van Meter
“I am excited to tell high school basketball stories in the hoops-mad state of Indiana,” Van Meter said of his upcoming trip. “My family lives in Indiana, and my mother attended Marion High School, so I know how much the game means to Hoosiers. This trip is something I have wanted to do ever since the book was published.”
During his trip to northeast Indiana, Van Meter will be speaking to the Rochester Optimists Club, the Plymouth Rotary Club, the Syracuse Lions Club, the Syracuse/Wawasee Rotary Club, the Kendallville Rotary Club, the Concord (Elkhart) Rotary Club, the Warsaw Kiwanis Club, and the Goshen Rotary Club.
He will also be holding a book signing at Hyde Brothers Books in Fort Wayne on Friday, May 18 from 5-7 pm. Van Meter can be contacted for more information on any of his upcoming events, to ask questions about his book, or simply to talk basketball by emailing him at jarrettvanmeter@gmail.com or on Twitter @jvanmeter31.
