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Order The Witch's Season via Publisher Order The Witch's Season via Amazon.com The Oregonian's Ken Goe on The Witch's Season KEX Radio, Portland: Paul Linnman and Scott Lynn interview Terry Frei about The Witch's Season On one of the nation's cauldron campuses during the 1968 Nixon-Humphrey presidential
campaign, Cascade University President Neal Hassler is caught between militant students and an irate citizenry. Under statewide
criticism, he is defiant in public as he unravels behind the scenes. His primary student antagonists are SDS leader Annie
Laughlin and Jake Powell, chairman of the Campus Coalition Against the War. They're close to student journalist Kit Dunleavy,
who struggles to balance her relationships with the radicals and her theoretical objectivity. Complicating matters and infuriating
fans, Jake also is a starting linebacker for the Cascade Fishermen football team, expected to challenge O.J. Simpson and the
USC Trojans for the Pacific 8 Conference title. Coach Larry Benson, a World War II pilot criticized for allowing his players
to participate in campus politics, faces pressure to both tighten the reins, especially with Powell and star tailback Timmy
Hilton, and win at all costs. Amid campus and national unrest, the Fishermen – an eclectic group with several star players
and bright young coaches destined for bigger things – encounter triumph, controversy, and disappointment. Ultimately,
the ensemble cast’s fates are intertwined in a fall that becomes The Witch’s Season. Terry Frei was raised in Eugene, Oregon. His father, Jerry Frei, was the head coach of the Oregon Ducks from
1967-71 and prior to that was a longtime assistant coach under Len Casanova. Jerry Frei's coaching staff included John Robinson,
George Seifert, Bruce Snyder, John Marshall, Ron Stratten and Gunther Cunningham. His players included Dan Fouts, Ahmad
Rashad, Tom Graham, Bob Newland, and Norv Turner. Amazon Review: |  Days Of Future Past, February 19, 2010 From
Dr. K, the Rock 'n Roll dentist Presented as a sports book, this is more about the confusing changes
baby boomers were confronting as the 1960s dwindled - and no less what those changes meant to parents and those in authority.
There was the unrest about the Viet Nam war and more pressure than ever for equality of the races and sexes. In the face of
that there was an old guard that didn't understand or want change and felt threatened when a bunch of hormonally imbalanced
kids wanted to turn the world upside down idealistically, culturally and politically. One of the protagonists of the book
is a college football player who has to balance the supposed Cro-Magnon jock mentality with a strong sense of political purpose
intent on overthrowing everything that the jock mentality embodied. As someone who remembers the ambivelant feelings of being
awarded a sports letter in front of all his cool long-haired friends in that era, this certainly hits home.
The book
doesn't only focus on that one character which makes it far more interesting. What emerges is that in many ways the most compelling
and sympathetic characters are the President of the College and even more the head football coach. They come across as far
more astute and savvy than the kids around them probably would have acknowledged back in the '60s. I'm certain that anyone
like me now old enough to understand what those people went through have apologized for being idealistically shallow when
all those parents/authority figures wanted to do was earn a living to help their kids to a better life.
That is what
this book is about - exposing the confusion of 1968 in an entertaining fashion (Hollywood, are you listening?). "It's
hard for one person to change the world; but maybe no less important to change a life." That is from page 100 and sums
up this book beautifully. As we now know, not everything has a tidy ending and if you want to wonder how the characters may
turn out in life - stop without reading the last chapter. If, however, you like the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance sort of story
- read Chapt. 38. |
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