The Best General in the Civil War by Conrad Bibens

 

THE END GAME

By Michael Scott Clifton

Contemporary Sports Romance

Publisher: Independently Published

Publication Date: August 8, 2025

SYNOPSIS

Eager to put his past behind him, Chris Cooper takes the head basketball job at Mayfield High School in Northeast Texas. Haunted by a history of rocky relationships, he’s surprised by the sparks his landlady, single mom, Jennie Sloan, ignites in him.  

Despite trust issues from her own tumultuous past, something about the tall coach with emerald-green eyes makes Jennie believe in second chances. When her young son bonds with Cooper, the barriers Jennie built around her heart begin to crumble.

Excited about the raw potential of his team, Cooper is blindsided by Rocco Rawlings, the arrogant Head Football Coach and Athletic Director. The AD demands Cooper’s entire team play football. When Cooper refuses, Rawlings works to undermine the basketball program, and Cooper is forced to find inventive ways to succeed.

As the stakes rise on and off the court, Cooper and Jennie must contend with the demons of their past to protect the fragile flame they’ve lit, while Cooper’s scrappy team—fueled by grit, heart and a shared dream—might just defy the odds and reach the ultimate end game.

A state championship.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Journey into realms of magic and mystery

Michael Scott Clifton is a rapacious reader, gardener, and movie junkie. A resident of East Texas, he lives in Mount Pleasant with his wife, Melanie. A multi-award winning author, his books include The Treasure Hunt Club, The Janus Witch, and the Conquest of the Veil Series—The Open Portal, Escape From Wheel, A Witch’s Brew, and Cavern of the Veil Queen, and the award-wining Teen/YA novel, Edison Jones and the Anti-Grav Elevator. Pringle Prawn, an urban fantasy novel, is a 2024 Reader’s Favorite Book Award winner. Google him @authormsclifton, or visit his website at www.michaealscottclifton.com

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REVIEW

I loved The End Game for several reasons, but the two main ones are personal. First, I come from a basketball family, and second, I went to a high school that didn’t even have a football team. In our little gym, the squeak of sneakers and the echo of a bouncing ball were the soundtrack of every season. I even played on my high school team (not well — my layups were more like hopeful prayers),and I was a cheerleader for the boys’ team, so this book felt like familiar ground before I even turned the first page.

Michael Scott Clifton’s The End Game carries the flavor of Hoosiers — small-town underdogs pushing uphill against impossible odds — but it also has that bittersweet, redemptive heart of Mr. Holland’s Opus. This isn’t just about a team learning to play ball. It’s about people piecing their lives back together, finding new beginnings, and discovering that character matters more than the scoreboard.

Coach Chris Cooper arrives in Mayfield, Texas, hoping for a fresh start, but he walks straight into the brick wall of a football-first culture. From the very beginning, he knows what he’s up against: “Because this is Texas, not Arkansas. We play football here. It’s what everybody comes to see on Friday night... Mayfield is where basketball goes to die.” It’s a gut punch, and it sets the stage for everything that follows.

But what makes this book shine isn’t the clash between basketball and football. It’s the way resilience quietly threads its way through every character’s arc. Cooper himself wrestles with his past and finds healing not just in the game, but in the relationships that grow out of it — with his players, with his unlikely allies, and with Jennie, a woman determined never to let her own troubled past define her.

Her story reminded me that resilience isn’t just about pushing through practice sprints or late-night film sessions. Sometimes it’s about clawing your way out of something that nearly destroyed you — and still daring to hope for better.

The team itself is as scrappy as they come. Misfits, late bloomers, and a pair of brawling twins who can’t decide whether to fight each other or the opposing teams. It would be funny if it weren’t so real — because every team I’ve ever known has had its “Bruise” (the clumsy one who still shows up and gives his all) or its Jerome (the kid battling more off the court than on it). That’s where Clifton nails it. He captures the messy, imperfect humanity of a team and makes you root for every single one of them.

By the time the season builds to its climax, I wasn’t keeping score so much as holding my breath. Would they win? Would they lose? Honestly, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that they had already proven themselves — not to the town, not even to Rawlings (the football tyrant of an athletic director), but to themselves.

And that’s why I think this story stayed with me. Because resilience and redemption aren’t trophies you hoist in the air. They’re quiet, everyday victories: showing up, choosing differently than you did yesterday, believing that broken doesn’t mean finished.

If you love a good sports story with heart, or if you’ve ever found yourself sitting in a gym that smells of sweat and popcorn, this one will feel like home. And if, like me, you’ve ever tried to dribble your way through high school without much grace, you’ll appreciate the truth that The End Game lays out so beautifully: sometimes, the real win is just having the courage to play.

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLTheEndGame on your preferred social media platform.

 

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