When he was a high school senior, Lloy Ball disappointed most people in his small Northeast Indiana community by turning down a chance to play basketball for Bobby Knight at Indiana University. Intead, Ball chose to play volleyball for his father at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne. Though many people still tell him they thought he made a mistake by not going to IU, Ball won a gold medal in his fourth Olympics at age 36 in 2008.
In 2008 he became the first American male to compete in four Olympic games in one of the major team sports. He has played more than 400 matches for the United States national men’s team, a record, and no one has been the U.S. captain longer than his 10 years. He has become the first American to win championships in the three major European professional leagues, and was also named the most valuable player of the European Champions league, essentially the best league in the world.
To follow that up he was named MVP of the 2008 World League before leading the U.S. to the Olympic gold medal in Beijing. He is recognized almost everywhere – except in his home country. And even in his hometown, he still has people who are never shy about saying to this face they think he made a mistake by not playing basketball for Bobby Knight at Indiana University. He was still hearing it even as he prepared to play in his fourth Olympics, which is why this book is called, "The Biggest Mistake I Never Made."
Among the topics in the book are playing professionally in Europe, what it was like to be an American living overseas on 9/11, his various tattoos, playing for his father, his expressiveness on the court and the march to the 2008 Gold Medal.
The book costs $17.50 and is available from Author House and will soon be available in bookstores. For more information, contact co-author Blake Sebring at bsebring@news-sentinel.com.
