COTT: Tackling the Fields by Janet W. Ferguson

In the South, most of us love football. It’s something we talk about,
cheer for, and spend time watching with friends, whether in person or as
a group viewing it on TV. The adrenaline seems to flow as the leaves
begin to turn from deep greens to those fall yellows and oranges, a
chill touches the air, and those pads and helmets are put on.

My husband played high school football. He was a center. I’ve always
watched the sport at whatever school I attended, and of course, in
Mississippi, a lot of us follow the SEC games. I never thought a whole
lot about why we enjoy watching so much or about the injuries the
players battle with—until my son played the sport.

His junior year, he tore his ACL and his shoulder labrum participating
in this sport he loved. And he was not able to make a comeback. I saw
the game through different eyes as he struggled with the loss. He missed
the comradery, the goal, the discipline, the friendship. Everything
about being a part of a team.

While he was going through three of four surgeries that he ended up
having, I began writing Tackling the Fields. It combines this love for a
game with the loss of a dream for one character and the loss of
innocence for another. It was a challenging, almost painful, book to
write. But in the end, God heals our wounds and helps each of us recover
from our broken places.

He’s there to free each of us from the heartaches that try to take us
captive.

About the book:Cole Sanders is a changed man. The university
quarterback questions his direction in life after serving on a mission
trip in Honduras. Things that used to fill Cole’s ego seem empty after
witnessing the developing country’s extreme poverty and the death of a
precious child. The one glimmer of hope through his confusion is the
fresh perspective he now has about his tutor, Audrey. She possesses
something beautiful inside and out—something that might help him become
the person he wants to be.

University senior Audrey Vaughn
tutored Cole Sanders for an entire year and never imagined the popular
quarterback would see her as anything more than a friend. After
partnering with him on the mission trip, they are drawn together. And he
appears to have changed for the better. To let Cole into her life,
Audrey will have to overcome not only her brother’s distrust, but also
the paralyzing fear still lingering from a past she’s tried to leave
behind.

Cole can’t walk away from Audrey now that they’re back
in Oxford. He’ll have to figure out how to keep her giant of a brother, a
lineman on his football team, from killing him when the coach has his
back turned. But can Audrey trust her heart to a player so similar to
the one who stole so much from her in the past?