Prolific children's book author Coach Sloth, whose real name is Ryan Sloth, came to North Harrison to talk to elementary students Thursday morning. He has written ten books, visited 25 different states, 1,000 schools, and has talked to 1 million kids over the years.
Coach Sloth was a football player for the Belmond Broncos in high school, getting 201 carries for 1,101 yards on the ground and getting 109 tackles on defense. For Iowa State, he played for four years, getting 69 tackles in his junior year in 1999. He then played for the Iowa Barnstormers, the Bakersfield Blitz, and the Columbus Destroyers. His best year was in 2003 with the Blitz, when he had 92 catches for 1,098 yards and 16 touchdowns. He played both sides of the ball, getting 90 tackles and six picks in 2002.
After his playing days were over, Coach Sloth became an assistant defensive backs coach for the Destroyers and began an acting career as well. He was in "We Are Marshall," playing as a football player, T.J. Creel, #51. He was a volunteer assistant to the DB coach for Iowa State in 2005 and 2006. From there, he coached for the Iowa Barnstormers, the Albany Conquest, and the Trenton Freedom and appeared in "Leatherheads," "Dark Knight Rises," "Touchback," and "Spider-man." Coach Sloth showed some of the helmets that he wore, including his Iowa State helmet and his Iowa Barnstormer helmet. Leatherheads was about football players who played before facemasks were placed on helmets, and he showed a helmet from that film.
Coach Sloth had written one of his books for a class project when he was a kid. When reading a book to his newborn son Tucker, he decided to publish it and wanted to put his son and other family members in the book. That kicked off his writing career. He even let his children, Tucker and Taylor, co-author two of his books, helping him pick the characters. He got his break when he put Tucker in one of his stories, and Tucker showed off the book to all of his friends.
He read some of his books to the North Harrison students. One such book was about Sammy Sloth, who wanted to try sports, but found out that he was just too slow at everything. He finally tried out for golf, which does not require as much speed. Another story about Sammy Sloth was about the time he was finally allowed to go out on a family fishing trip. He talks to experienced fishermen for advice but gets discouraged when all he catches is a shoe and other junk. Will he have the patience to finally catch his big fish?
Coach Sloth also had skill as a magician. Presenting Coach Sloth's Magic Coloring Book, he turned the book into all blank pages, to black and white drawings, to illustrations that were fully colored. He was still a big Iowa State fan, showing two books about his beloved Cyclones. Perhaps he needed to come to North Harrison to give his team good luck; two days after his visit, Iowa State went on the road and erased an 11-point fourth quarter deficit against Texas Tech, using a punt return for a touchdown to put them over the top at 20-17. That win snapped a four-game losing streak.
The North Harrison students got to role-play for one of Coach Sloth's books, Hank the Bully. Hank and five of his friends formed a clique, and they decided that bullying other kids would be cool. So, they started mocking and making fun of kids who were not like them. But each time, one of the friends decides that bullying people is not cool, and one of them left because Hank had bullied someone with glasses and he had parents who were struggling with their eyesight. Finally, a teacher discovers what is going on and sends Hank to the principal.
Most of the students at North Harrison knew what a sloth is. It is an animal who sleeps 20 hours a day. Coach Sloth picked the sloth as his main character because it is his real last name. He needed to come up with ideas to write more books, and he wound up drawing on his own personal experiences. It took him a year to finally get his first book published, and he talked about his work as an author. A lot of it involved exchanging drafts back and forth. Then, he worked with an illustrator to draw the pictures that would go in his book; then, he worked with the layout people to design a cover and put the pictures and the text in properly.
Coach Sloth has no plans of slowing down any time soon. He is working on his next book, "Sammy at the Town Fair." He has already written one about the Iowa State Fair, which many of the North Harrison students had gone to.
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