Author Mike Due draws upon his experiences as a youth soccer coach and referee in this down-to-earth and personal novel about kids and sports. As many a coach may know, coaching is about more than just teaching kids how to play the game; it's about knowing their limits, teaching them sportsmanship, taking care of their physical and emotional needs when their parents are not around, protecting them from harm, standing up for them, challenging them, encouraging them, and helping them learn from the sport, not just participate in it. Tough As Nails follows a reluctant coach, Mark Bohansen, as he gets pulled into his first season of girl's U10 youth soccer. Raised on baseball, the sport feels foreign to him, but he digs in and embraces the sport which ends up teaching him more than he bargained for. In the end he gains a better perspective on what it takes to be Tough As Nails.