Chasing Perfect: The Will to Win in Basketball and Life

The inspiring story of the most famous high school basketball coach in America.

In 40 seasons as the head coach of St. Anthony High School, a private parochial school in Jersey City, New Jersey, Bob Hurley has established a standard of excellence and achievement without peer, and remarkably, he has done this at a high school with a total student body enrollment of about 230, with no gymnasium, and with an operating deficit that threatens to shut the place down each year. Hurley himself sweeps the floor before each home game. Despite the long odds against them, Hurley's teams have captured 26 state titles and four consensus national championships, all behind an astonishing career winning percentage of .905.
     In Chasing Perfect, Hurley opens up his tool box and shares some of the championship strategies he's developed to help lift his players up and out of Jersey City. The narrative centerpiece will be each of St. Anthony's seven undefeated seasons, with sketch profiles of some of the most memorable players, making some of the most memorable plays in St. Anthony history. Along the way, he'll offer empowering insights to help coaches and players to elevate their games, while empowering the rest of us to walk a more purposeful path. Part memoir, part coach's notebook and part reflection on the St. Anthony players it has been Hurley's privilege to coach, Chasing Perfect will stand as a compelling barometer of life in and around the hardscrabble streets of Jersey City, set against the backdrop of one of the most enduringly competitive high school basketball programs in the country.

BOB HURLEY has amassed 26 state championships and more than 1000 wins in 40 years as a coach at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

DANIEL PAISNER is the coauthor of over fifty books, including Serena Williams's On the Line, Denzel Washington's A Hand to Guide Me, and books with Whoopi Goldberg, Ron Darling, and Montel Williams -- all New York Times best-sellers.