The Water Boy

In 1953, Bobby Ackles became the first water boy in the BC Lions Football Club. Today he is the team’s President and CEO. His star rose quickly from the very beginning, taking him from the sidelines to the top job and three Grey Cup championships. An integral member of the Lions’ organization for over 50 years, Bobby Ackles has seen and done it all in the extraordinary world of professional football. Not only did he go from lowly Water Boy to the executive suite in the CFL, Ackles also spent fifteen years in the NFL--six seasons with the mighty Dallas Cowboys, and then on to the Arizona Cardinals, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Miami Dolphins—and he even served a brief stint in the short-lived XFL as Vice President and General Manager of the Las Vegas Outlaws. As the only man to hold executive positions in all three professional leagues, Ackles offers up a unique perspective on pro football in North America. The Water Boy is Bob Ackles’ engaging memoir, a candid, personal account of his life and his amazing career in the game of football. From his humble beginnings, personally and professionally, Ackles has risen to become one of the most respected executives in football and in sports in general, both in Canada and the United States. With veteran journalist Ian Mulgrew, Ackles shares his rich, expansive life openly, with humour and amazing insights into the sport of football and its personalities, his long-running love affair with his wife Kay, his grasp on leadership and running a successful business. The Water Boy is a fascinating look inside the locker rooms and the owners’ boxes of the football world in North America, and an engaging telling of a life lived to its fullest.

Foreword The author, while telling his life story takes you on a trip to the outer limits of the human spirit back to the earthly realities of man in the flesh. He tells the story of how an extraordinary spiritual epiphany that occurred on the battlefields of Vietnam over 40 years ago, enabled him to connect first spiritually with God Almighty, but then also in a human way with the faith and hope, of his ancestors whose story is one with his and offer a solution that he believes will benefit the whole of our society today. From the highs of his spiritual revelation the author then takes you on some of the lows of present day reality with the political divide and social issues that has been eating away the moral fabric of the country for generations. The author translates the broken English of his ancestors into plain English so that the reader can better follow their story.

One mistake could seal his fate… Zale Teague grew up thinking he was an ordinary boy—until the day he called lightning from the skies and caused an explosion with horrific results. Now, at only eleven, he's fleeing his terrifying new merman powers and the mistake he'll never forget. When a Romani clan takes him in, he thinks he's found a way to protect his loved ones from disaster… until his past catches up to him. Will Zale ever find redemption, or must he keep running forever? The Waterboy novella is the standalone origin story of Zale, the first undine male (merman) born in over three thousand years, introduced in Book 1 of the young adult epic fantasy Rise of the Grigori series, The Undine's Tear. It takes place five years before the main series. In this rich, breathtaking series, join merfolk, sphinxes, dragons, and humans in a search for redemption that will determine the fate of the world . . . they just don't all know it yet. NOW AVAILABLE ON AUDIO! "A page-turner worth the read!" - Amazon reviewer "A gripping tale." - Molly Harrow, reader "Left me wanting more!" - Amazon reviewer Praise for The Undine's Tear (Rise of the Grigori Book 1): “You want to read this book. It’s fantastic!” - Editor-in-chief, Constellate Publishing “Stunning writing, vivid descriptions, and endearing characters. Puts the epic in fantasy.” - Liz Konkel, Readers’ Favorite “Well-drawn characters immersed in intricate worlds. A rip-roaring read.” - Lorehaven Magazine “Packed with action, consequences, and oh-so-much heart.” - Anne Sengstock, Immersed in Books EXCERPT: What happened to me? Beneath the shimmery surface of the shallow water, Zale's body looked strange. The torn legs of his breeches drifted in the current, anchored only by his waistband. Between them—where his legs should be—shimmered a large silvery-green tail from the most enormous fish he had ever seen. His neck felt odd, and when he touched it, he found frilly flaps of leathery skin opening over slits he had never found there before. Talwyn clambered onto the shore, gasping. Noticing the boys’ reactions, she turned around to see what they were looking at. Afraid that she would react the same way, Zale held up his hands to ward off her terror, blocking his view of her face. “Zale? Is that you?” “No—” he whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut tight. He cracked an eye open but refused to look at her. The skin on the backs of his raised hands glimmered wetly. He stared at the slick gel that covered his hands and arms beneath his shirt. Why do I feel so strange? Gryffyn pulled himself onto a flat boulder on the bank. “Fynn?” screamed Robbie, flailing near the shore. “Fynny? I can’t see. Help!” Gryffyn bent and hauled his brother out of the water. “Demon,” Jory whispered, backing away from Zale and crossing himself. Gryffyn's gaze locked on Zale. He took in Zale’s tail and the leathery gills, and then glanced at the charred tree that still hissed slightly in the rain. He turned back to Zale with narrowed eyes. “It was you. What are you?” Content rating for The Waterboy: Sensuality: 0/5 Violence: 2/5 (assault, including forced kissing) Language: 0/5 Intense themes: 2/5 (bullying, accidentally killing & injuring) Equivalent movie rating: PG-13

A Water Boyâs Story provides unique insight of a boy who grew up in poverty during the depression and war, whose dream one day was to be a football coach. Author Dick Lemke was an extremely motivational football coach with a fine knowledge of what it took to establish an offensive line and a football philosophy that produced so many great years of teaching many young men the game of football. Coach Lemke will always be remembered as a professor of education by day, but ultimately a coach by heart with a lifetime of inspiration! -- Chad Beckman, Assistant Strength Coach, University of Nebraska, and Former Peru State Football Player

**Winner of the William Hill 2018 Sports Book of the Year Award** A Sunday Times Book of the Year and Telegraph Best Book of 2018 'Extraordinary' Clare Balding The poignant, life-affirming story of a determined boy, a visionary coach, and how the dream of a record-breaking Channel swim became reality Eltham, South London. 1984: the hot fug of the swimming pool and the slow splashing of a boy learning to swim but not yet wanting to take his foot off the bottom. Fast-forward four years. Photographers and family wait on the shingle beach as a boy in a bright orange hat and grease-smeared goggles swims the last few metres from France to England. He has been in the water for twelve agonizing hours, encouraged at each stroke by his coach, John Bullet, who has become a second father. This is the story of a remarkable friendship between a coach and a boy, and a love letter to the intensity and freedom of childhood.

When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, 11-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan. By a Newbery Medal-winning author.

A young boy finds a way to help his sister go to school. Victor and his twin sister, Linesi, are close. Only, now that they are eight years old, she is no longer able to go to school with him. Linesi, like the other older girls in their community, must walk to the river to get water five times a day to help their mother farm. But Victor is learning about equality in school. He’s beginning to realize how boys and girls are not treated equally. And that’s not fair to his sister. So Victor comes up with a plan to help. Can one boy make a difference in an unequal world? It turns out, he can!

'The hole gapes still. It always will. And I fall in periodically.'Durban-based journalist Glynis Horning and her husband Chris woke one Sunday morning to the devastating discovery of their 25-year-old son Spencer dead in his bed. Surrounded by loving family and friends, Horning pieces together the puzzle of his death, writing with a visceral intensity of loss and grief, but also of the joys of celebrating her son's life. Waterboy will touch anyone who has directly or indirectly experienced this ultimate heartbreak. Her wisdom and insight are extraordinary.