Must Win

“Must Win is the inspiring tale of how a coach with a grand vision and even bigger heart plucked his players out of jail and off the farm and made them believe they were champions as they returned Valdosta to its rightful place as one of the most storied programs in high school football. Jubera knows South Georgia and makes you feel the gnats buzzing around your head, the barbecue on your lips, and buy into a community where Friday night football is much more than a religion—it’s a passport to heaven." —Joe Drape, author of The New York Times bestseller Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen "Football is riddled with hype, hypocrisy, and greed on both the college and pro levels. But in Valdosta, Georgia, the game is about life, and that is what Drew Jubera so expertly and eloquently writes about. I love a story that digs into your soul. This is not necessarily a sports book. It is a character-driven tale of survival and the desire to be a champion again." —Jim Dent, author of Courage Beyond The Game and Twelve Mighty Orphans "Drew Jubera’s Must Win is a must-read, a book that not only makes good on the promise of its title, but makes its title come blazingly alive. You start reading it because you want to know how a team from a small town in South Georgia—the Valdosta Wildcats—became the greatest and most storied team in the history of American high school football. But Jubera is a writer who can go deep, and the story he’s telling is the story of how even winners can become underdogs in post-crash America, and how even underdogs can find a way to beat the odds and win again." —Tom Junod, Esquire magazine Writer at Large and two-time winner of the National Magazine Award