Mike Dieters poses for a photo before retiring as a basketball official in 1983.
Mike Dieters poses for a photo before retiring as a basketball official in 1983.
EagleHerald Sports Editor
MARINETTE—Hardship and struggle. Adversity and triumph. The joy of victory and the agony of defeat. No, these are not the words and phrases used to describe the latest feel-good blockbuster from Disney. It’s the subject of a new book, written by a man very familiar with the subject.
Mike Dieters and basketball are forever tied together in the annals of Marinette High School history. The 1960 graduate and 2019 MHS Athletic Hall of Fame inductee left as the Marines’ all-time leading scorer (currently tenth all-time) before becoming one of the most well respected officials in the state of Wisconsin for 20 years.
Now Dieters can add the title of “author” to his resume.
His first book, titled “Rim Shot”, comes out on September 1 and tells the fictional tale of a small-town basketball coach set against the backdrop of 1960’s America.
“The main subject is a guy by the name of Tom Logan, who is a basketball coach that loses his position due to a heart attack,” Dieters said. “He’s a very successful coach, but he loses his job because the board of education is concerned that, should he have another one and they knew about his condition, they could be sued.”
Logan finds himself getting a second chance with a down-and-out private school that has seen little success.
“He’s so driven to get back into coaching that he takes the job and from there on, it’s the story of how Tom puts this team together and the characters involved,” Dieters said.
As for where the book’s title, “Rim Shot” came from, Dieters explained: “Tom’s father, brother and Tom himself all have chances at game-winning shots in the state title game, and all three fall off the rim, so there’s this sort of curse on the family.”
While the story is a work of fiction, Dieters said that the events of the book are rooted in reality.
“The only true part of the story is that I’m aware of a few coaches that have suffered heart attacks while they were coaching, and for a variety of reasons, they never got back to coaching,” he said. “That’s always stuck in my mind and that was the initial thought that I had when putting this book together: ‘What would happen if you did lose your job because of a health issue?’”
Dieters began writing “Rim Shot” in 2019 and had to battle through a case of writer’s block before finishing the book this year.
He credits his wife, Dr. Deborah Blizing, for not only encouraging him to take the initial steps of writing the book, but for also pushing him to finishing it.
“I had two inspirations, but it was mostly my wife. I used to do a lot of speaking at high school banquets, and she said, ‘You have so many good stories, why not put them in writing?’, so that’s what motivated me,” he said. “I got writer’s cramp for about a year and just could not do anything with it, but that’s when my wife was telling people that I was writing it, so they’d ask me when they book was going to be done. That was inspiration in of itself.”
Dieters, who was also the commissioner of the Bay Conference from 1984-1994 as well as evaluator of officials for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball team, already has his second book planned out.
“The book that she (Deborah) really wants me to write is about officiating. I’m 81, so hopefully it doesn’t take me as long to write the second book as it did this first because I may not finish it,” he said with a chuckle. “The name of the book will be ‘Call Something’ and it will have humorous stories about referees and so and so far forth, but it will also be serious because there is a lack of referees today. However, that book is a long way from being finished.”
“Rim Shot” will be available for purchase on Amazon beginning September 1.
Mike Dieters poses for a photo before retiring as a basketball official in 1983.
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