Coaching Ira
What happens when the Jewish religion and the sport of basketball collide?
The Skinny:
Coaching Ira is the story of Ira Korbman, the reluctant coach of his local Jewish Youth League Basketball team. Loosely based on the author’s own experiences as a United Synagogue Youth (USY) basketball player, the novel combines both basketball and Jewish culture - making for a little controversy and a lot of comedy. Coaching Ira holds nothing back, touching on such sensitive subjects as anti-Semitism, Jewish secularism, interfaith dating and the ideological differences between Conservative and Orthodox Judaism. Shandler paints suburban Langston, a fictional upper-middle class “Anytown USA”, as the backdrop for this story. Kids drive around in expensive cars, try to juggle more extracurricular activities than they can handle and strive to get into the best colleges in the country.
The Synopsis:
When Ira Korbman was 17 years old, he had a chance to sink two foul shots to win his Jewish Youth League team the state championship. But Ira misses them both, and his life henceforth is a pathetic journey of “paths of least resistance” and missed opportunities. That is until twenty years later, when the coaching job for Langston’s USY basketball team opens up.
Ira, now a single dentist living in family-oriented suburbia, is reluctant at first. He’s comfortable hating the game that made his life so miserable, and his first recruit, an unathletic lump named David Dushoff, makes the job less than enticing. But with some crafty coercion by Ira’s father and old coach, Frank, Ira suddenly finds himself with a clipboard in his hand and a whistle in his mouth.
At his first practice, Ira meets his very unusual bunch of players: David Dushoff, chubby asthmatic who introduces himself to Ira on Rosh Hashanah. Evan Schwartz, all-state clarinetist; Kenny Kurtz, wannabe gangsta rapper; Jonathan Gould; a talented thespian; Shawn Lester, tall, scrawny track star; Josh Valenti, half-Italian bodybuilder, and Alex Witzner, overachieving female phenom who attends a prestigious private Methodist school. Not to mention assistant coach Arnie Aronowicz, a holocaust survivor with a staunch respect for the rules of the league.
For the first three weeks, both the team and the game push the limits of Ira’s patience. After a brawl, an unauthorized field trip to a certain gentleman’s club and a bout with one of the league rules, Ira considers quitting.
Enter Abraham Dadi, Ethiopian Jew from Israel and Goliath of a man. He’s six-foot-four, built like a locomotive and can slam-dunk at will. Abraham helps turn Langston USY’s season around, as well as Ira’s attitude, and soon Ira realizes that winning can happen both on and off the court.
Part sportswriting, part storytelling, Coaching Ira speaks to the sports fan and mainstream fiction fans. The book deals with facets of growing up (academic and parental pressure, peer pressure and high school crushes), living in upper middle-class America (nice cars, big houses, lofty professions), and contemporary Judaism (anti-Semitism, interfaith dating, Jewish emigration, the differences between the secular and the religious.)
Some language may be unsuitable for younger readers.
Coaching Ira is Adam D. Shandler’s first novel. It is loosely based on his own experiences as United Synagogue Youth (USY) basketball player and organization member.
Talking Ira: The author answers questions
What was the inspiration for Coaching Ira?
I played on the Livingston, NJ, USY team for four years. I was probably one of the better players, which isn’t saying much. I was always amused by the cross-section of different Jews that played in this league - Livingston USY included. One week we’d face a team of Yeshiva day-schoolers, all wearing yarmulkes, all very diligent students of the Torah. The next week, we were up against a squad of hooligans. Kids from all different levels of religiosity played USY basketball, and it made for some interesting stories. I thought those stories should be shared.
How much of this book is actually based on your own experiences as a USY basketball player?
Very little, I’m afraid. In fact, I wish we had a player like Abraham Dadi in our lineup. A lot of the vignettes in Ira are more based on my high school experience as a whole and were not necessarily the byproduct of anything that happened through USY basketball. But I chose to make USY basketball the focus of the book because I’ve always wanted to write a work of fiction that was “part sports writing, part story telling.”
So is this a basketball book or a Jewish book?
Depends on whom I’m talking to. When asked to describe this book by the Jewish audience, I call Ira “a Jewish basketball comedy”, but when non-Jewish readers question me, it’s “a basketball book with a Jewish bent.” I think there’s more to the book than the unlikely tango of Judaism with basketball. There’s the quirks of suburban life, the mentality of families and how that impacts the kids. The jobs the people have, the cars they drive; the pressure from parents to get into good schools, the pressure from friends to experiment with things that are dangerous - all of that is conveyed in this book, even if just hinted at in a few paragraphs. So, I think Coaching Ira’s got something for everyone, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the Jewish readership was my core audience.
What makes Coaching Ira different from other works of Jewish fiction?
For one thing, it’s a lot lighter. Anita Diamant, Noami Ragen, Philip Roth, Chaim Potok, Elie Weisel - their work is the standard by which the rest of Jewish literature should be held. But their work is very heavy in subject matter. It’s great stuff, but much of it deals with the tragedy and devastations of Jews. We Jews are a funny people! We need a good comedic work of fiction about ourselves. Sure there’s some tragedy and moments of duress in Ira, but, for the most part, it’s a lighthearted stroll of only 194 pages.