This Month's Premier

A Higher Level

by Dana Yost
240 pages, $15 paperback

They survived raw Minnesota winters, and facilities that got them mocked, almost boycotted.  Yet despite having almost no funds to operate their program, the Southwest State University women’s tennis team overcame those obstacles and more to not merely survive but thrive from the years 1979-1992.  This new book by longtime award-winning Minnesota newspaper journalist Dana Yost captures the experiences of the SSU team in that era—a team of winners with diverse personalities, which has much to teach us today about sports, team-building and life itself. 

“Dana Yost has written a classic story about college sports. Even though many people have never heard very much about the Southwest State University women's tennis team, this is a book that your readers will find as readable, entertaining, compelling, and even riveting. In my mind, this is one of the best sports books that I have read in a long time.”
—Jon Wefald, retired president of Southwest State and Kansas State Universities

            “Dana Yost captures the unique and complete spirit not only of women’s athletics in general, but also brings life to a small close-knit rural community, a blossoming institution building a foundation based on tradition and a program filled with overachievers driven to buck the norm and succeed where success seemed impossible.  A Higher Level is indeed a book about a small-college tennis program, but its roots capture a period of great strides for women in athletics.  It also provides a look at a unique success story through the eyes of the people who were closest to it all.”
—Erin Lind, NSIC Associate Commissioner and former SSU women’s basketball player

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