Four Days To Glory

Four Day to Glory is the story of to high school wrestlers, Jay Borschel and Dan LeClere. Each of the wrestlers are three time state champions, and this book follows them on there route to the fourth one. Jay Borschel started his freshman season at one hundred and three pounds and when his senior year comes around he is now at the one hundred and seventy one pound weight class. Every year he has moved up more than two weight classes and every year he defied everyone’s predictions. They said he was to small and had gained to much weight to win another title.
Dan LeClere has faced the role of out doing his older brother and making an example for his younger ones. His oldest brother, Mark, quit wrestling and this hit him hard because Dan looked up to his older brother and tore the family apart. Dan has stayed around the same weight class his high school career. He entered his senior year at one hundred and forty pounds. Each wrestler faces adversity with the media. The hype leading up to the state tournament has put a burden on their shoulders, and everyone wanting to see them fail. Jay becomes sick the week of states and has to fight that as well.
Dan and Jay learn through their career in high school that there is only one person you can depend on and that is yourself. Other people can be there for you before and after the match but while you’re out there no one can help you. And when you’re fighting your way to the top, often you’re alone because others find it to tough to stay with you. “The thing they don't tell you is that it's lonely being great. That you have friends, teammates, and family but in the end most of them will wind up doing the watching, not the acting.” This quote seems to some up the whole book. Dan and Jay have pushed through tough times when everyone else stopped, that’s why they are where their at right now, at the top.
I picked up Four Days to Glory because after reading Never Stop Pushing, I was ready to read another inspiring sports story and I found it. It helped me realize that if you want to get better you have to work for it instead of just waiting around and thinking you’ll going to become good naturally. Jay and Dan have been wrestling since they were five and have improved every year, making them some of the best wrestlers to come out of Iowa.
Every wrestler that comes out of Iowa is expected to go to the University of Iowa and wrestler for the legendary Dan Gable. But at the end of their senior year Jay, Dan, and Joey Slaton a three time state champion, decide to go to the Virginia Tech. The reason is the coach, Tom Brands who is a multiple time NCAA wrestling champion and Olympian. Ironically, just a year later Dan, Jay, and Joey find themselves at the University of Iowa after following Tom Brands when he decided to move from to Virginia Tech to coach the hawkeyes.