"Third and Long" by Bob Katz

The river town of Longview, Ohio, is much like many towns in the American Midwest in the early 1990s. The economic mainstay is Made Right Uniforms, an old family-owned firm that has started layoffs as it struggles to compete with cheaper factory labor in Asia. The company’s owners are infatuated with Notre Dame football. The town’s sports mainstay, however, is the high school football team, the Bobcats, which seems to be struggling much like the town. The life the town has known for a long, long time is coming slowly unglued. 

And then, one afternoon, the train arrives on its regular run, brining Nick Remke. Nick is there to interview for the plant manager’s job at Made Right. His resume will tell you that he’s bounced around a lot of jobs. He intends to make this one work, but the owner tells him that they’re sorry they couldn’t reach him, but they’ve just offered the job to another applicant. Nick mentions that Remke is his father’s name, but the name the family used after being abandoned by his father is Nocera, his mother’s maiden name. Nick Nocera was a standout football player at Notre Dame. Nick gets the job.

 

And he gets more than the job. He’s asked to find a celebrity for the annual Christmas tree lighting in the town square. He gets a girlfriend. And when the current coach gets sick, Nick is sucked into being the coach for the Bobcats. The team does something remarkable – it begins to win. And the uniform plant begins to hum.

 

Bob Katz

But is Nick really who he says he is? Can the town really hope for a turnaround?

 

Third and Long by Bob Katz is the story of a town that sees no future but its own demise, a town where hope is ebbing, people who are anxiously watching the life of their town melt away, and a man who in short order injects rejuvenation. People are almost too afraid to hope, but then look at what’s happening with the football team. Is it real, or is it a mirage?

 

Katz has published several novels and non-fiction books, including Elaine’s Circle, The Whistleblower: Rooting for the Ref, Hot Air, and EZ and the Intangibles. Third and Long won the Independent Book Publishers Association fiction award when it was published in 2011. Katz’s articles and stories have been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Mother Jones, Newsweek, Slate, Huffington Post, and other publications.

 

Third and Long is a familiar story that’s full of surprises, not the least of which is the perfect ending. It’s as much about the small American town as it is its characters. In fact, the narrative viewpoint is expressed by a worker at the plant, a denizen of the local bar, the member of the Chamber of Commerce, the veteran at the American Legion, and even a player on the football team. And you slowly realize that the narrator is the town.