Seal Beach Daily

It is with delight and pride that I welcome The Wonder years: Portraits of Athletes Who Never Slow Down to the Seal Beach Daily Local Talent bookstore page.

With delight, because I love to recommend a good book. And, this one is beautiful: filled with stunning photos and life-affirming stories of remarkable athletes — all over the age of 60. Masters of life in motion, they surprise me, inspire me, give me hope, make me want to strive.

And I’m proud to have The Wonder Years at Seal Beach Daily, because it is the work of my partner and SBD editor Donna Wares and my friend and former colleague, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Rick Rickman. It’s been great be on the sidelines and see such a powerful and beautifully executed project come together.

For more than 20 years, Rick traveled the country meeting and creating intriguing photographs of “aging adventurers and amateur athletes.” Seeing them, you are guaranteed a shift in your ideas about aging, power and beauty. Donna brings us their stories in crisp, colorful and personal profiles. Reading The Wonder Years is a pleasant education in determination, grace, talent and style.

We meet Eve Fletcher, 81, (above) who’s been riding the waves at San Onofre since 1957. “I don’t think you can be too old to be stoked,” she says. And there are the stories of Dr. Granville Coggs, a Tuskeegee Airman who will be 84 in July, who became a track star in his seventies, and Sister Madonna Buder, a 78-year-old triathlete who people call the Iron Nun. And, along with the stories of other athletes, we get a taste of the action and intensity of the National Senior Games through a gallery of unexpected, poignant, sometimes astonishing and even funny athlete photos.

Olympic gold medalist Peggy Fleming writes in the foreword to The Wonder Years:

When we get older, does that mean we have to give up on that euphoric feeling of empowerment we find through sports and exercise? Are we expected to lose the passion for what we’ve alsways loved? The answer is most obviously: No Way. Not on your life! We’ll never stop because it is part of our identity, our mind, and our spirit.

And, it’s the spirit that you’re left with when you close this big book with its 100 color photographs. And, it’s the athlete’s indomitable spirit that will bring you back again.

Read an excerpt from The Wonder Years at CaliforniaAuthors.com, the West Coast literary website produced by Donna and me. (Another reason to be proud! CaliforniaAuthors celebrates its seventh anniversary this week!)

Click here to buy The Wonder Years.