Milburn "Catfish" Smith rose from the humblest of beginnings in rural East Texas to lead the Carey Cardinals and the Mount Vernon Tigers to numerous football and basketball championships, including Texas State Schoolboy titles. In doing so, he defied the sports gurus of his day, many of whom subsequently credited him with three of the greatest coaching feats of his century. How did he do it? Here for the first time, the secret behind this most unusual and colorful man's success is revealed, unknown until now even by many of his former players, "His Boys." No slow climb to the top was acceptable for this firebrand coach. In his first year he took his Carey Cardinals, a school with less than one hundred enrollment and no basketball court, to a fourth place finish in the Texas Schoolboy state basketball tournament, including a twenty-six-game winning streak. The twenty-three-year-old coach followed that with a 50-2 season and the state championship, back when the smallest schools competed against the largest for the coveted title. World War II soon interrupted his career, as it did that of many of his contemporaries, but the experience was to change Catfish deeply, and in ways even his closest friends did not understand. Called to Mount Vernon, Texas in September 1943 to temporarily fill a coaching vacancy, Catfish exceeded all expectations. Seven years later, with two hundred fourteen victories and over twenty titles, including district, bi-district, regional, and state crowns, he was one of the most recognized high school coaches in the state of Texas.

Dale Rory arrives in Paddock in the heart of West Texas cattle country, in pursuit of his dream of coaching basketball and owning a cattle ranch, something his recently deceased and highly principled parents had encouraged. Believing his faithfulness to their teachings has led to past accomplishments, he is equally convinced that they are his compass to future success. Hired by the school, he buys a four-hundred-acre spread, but aware of his need for help, he seeks out his neighbors, Sybil and Marilyn Stone. Sybil, a widowed rancher seasoned by hardship, brusquely doles out advice, but Dale quickly recognizes the value of her guidance, as well as the beauty of her eighteen-year-old daughter. When it becomes clear that Dale has jumped in over his financial head, he gets the break of a lifetime. Having bought five lottery tickets on a whim, he wins the jackpot and banks twenty-five million. With no more money woes, he considers what he will do with his fortune. Having been taught that "To whom much is given, much is required," he must now decide if all those parental tenets are just words or his guide for life? BUD CAMPBELL, a Texan and graduate of Mount Vernon High School, was an all-state member of their1948 state-championship basketball team, and subsequently played for Texas Christian University. After ten years of leading basketball programs at various Texas schools and inspiring youngsters to develop a winning attitude, Bud spent twenty-seven years as a school principal, the majority at North Mesquite High in the Dallas area. With humor, wit, and an upbeat personality, Bud has inspired thousands with his motivational speeches at banquets, civic organizations, and staff development programs where he stresses that life's richest blessings are realized through giving freely. GLEN ONLEY is the author of "Coach Catfish Smith And His Boys," "Beyond Contentment," "Discovery Tree," and "Sunset," all available from Sunstone Press.

Young Ben Logan, his family lost in the Civil War, sells his Texas ranch and heads west. At Fort Union in the New Mexico Territory, he meets a young widow and while traveling to Santa Fe, a strong mutual interest develops. But she returns to her Tennessee family, leaving Ben wondering if he will ever see her again. In search of copper, Ben scales Mount Baldy in Moreno Valley and finds a Ponderosa pine with the word DISCOVERY freshly carved in its bark and streambed sediment piled beside a nearby creek. Gold, he guesses, but a winter blast forces him off the mountain. Come spring, Ben and two partners return and strike gold, as did many others. E?Town springs up in the valley, thousands crowding its dusty streets and makeshift saloons. When vigilantes make a secret hit list, Ben cashes in and buys valley land from Lucien Maxwell, a wealthy rancher who owns everything in sight, yet tolerates the miners and ranchers. But when he sells out to European investors, they demand eviction of the squatters. Many refuse to leave and when their primary advocate is brutally murdered, the Colfax County War erupts. Ben's ranch is targeted, a fact he shares with Frank Springer and Clay Allison. They discover a group of territorial officials, called the Santa Fe Ring, is behind the scheme. Ben knows neither he nor his ranch is safe as long as the powerful Ring exists. Should he risk all in a fight to expose them or abandon the valley ranch he loves? The author, a Texan, enjoys the stunning beauty of New Mexico's Moreno Valley and admires the courageous men and women who persevered when success, even survival, seemed unlikely. Their story, the author believes, is worth telling. Glen Onley's first novel, BEYOND CONTENTMENT, was also published by Sunstone Press.

Thirteen-year-old Everett stares at the white-washed gallows emblazoned against an orange sunset as his father, found guilty of murder, plunges through the trap door. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves takes the now-orphaned boy to Fort Gibson where he becomes a stable hand until early manhood. Believing his father innocent and Wiley Stuart guilty, Everett hunts down the outlaw, but Deputy Marshal Ben Williams wrests away the prisoner and denies Everett all hope of clearing his father. Frustrated, Everett then drifts up the Chisholm Trail to Caldwell, Kansas, hires on at the Homestead Ranch, and meets Tabitha, the rancher's daughter. Soon, they make plans to marry. But in a poker-game dispute, Everett kills Brett and Jesse Harrison, sons of a powerful rancher. With Tabitha's promise to wait for him, Everett flees to Indian Territory. Harrison's men doggedly pursue him into New Mexico where he joins a band of horse thieves, led by Vicente Silva, guarding a stolen herd in Horsethief Meadow, hidden away in a mountain valley. But a gunfight with his outlaw boss, Bandanna, sends him on the run again. Finding refuge with a miner in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains west of Cimarron, Everett soon has gold money in his pocket and Tabitha on his mind. He heads back to Caldwell where a cowhand convinces him that she has gone East and married a banker. Bitterly disappointed, Everett turns westward, not sure where he will go or what he will do. The author, a Texan enamored with the Old West, follows his second novel, DISCOVERY TREE, with one set in Indian Territory, the cow town of Caldwell, Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, and northern New Mexico. While reacquainting the reader with familiar names and places, the author introduces new ones that he believes have been too-long neglected. His first novel, BEYOND CONTENTMENT, was also published by Sunstone Press.

Standing on a high wilderness ridge in northern New Mexico, Blaine Wells, a self-imposed hermit after the horrifying murders of his wife and daughter, is torn from an almost hypnotic absorption with the natural beauty around him by the sputtering engines of a small plane. The helpless aircraft, a fragment of society hurtling into his private paradise, both startles and angers him. With conflicting feelings, he seeks the crash site where he nurtures the survivors and fights those who would serve their selfish desires at the expense of those less capable. Blaine soon devises a means for their rescue and when a helicopter disappears into the distance with the survivors, he finds himself alone once again. During the trek back to his cabin and throughout the long harsh winter, he often thinks of the young girl who lost her father and the elderly woman whose husband was killed. Later, responding to the girl's need for help, he leaves the wilderness. While helping her, he contacts his sister-in-law and her husband whom he has not seen since his family's funeral. To his astonishment, he learns that he has inherited 700 acres of ranch land from his late wife. Meanwhile, the eventual healing of the young girl triggers feelings and emotions that challenge those stirred by the beauty and contentment of his mountain retreat. Will he reenter society or return to his beloved wilderness? Glen Onley, a former Information Technology executive, was born in Texas and often enjoys the tranquility of New Mexico's Pecos Wilderness. There the daily stresses and pressures of the business world and modern life fade under the spell of that vast land of natural beauty. Through the contrast of a fast-paced, competitive world and the serenity of the wilderness, the author has created this fictional story.