{"id":3855,"date":"2014-12-09T14:44:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T19:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/teens4ts\/?p=3855"},"modified":"2014-12-09T14:44:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T19:44:43","slug":"tim-howards-book-the-keeper-is-now-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/teens4ts\/tim-howards-book-the-keeper-is-now-available\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Howard’s book “The Keeper” is now available!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here\u2019s are two excerpts from Tim Howard’s new book, “The Keeper,” which came out yesterday, December 9. The first is from the chapter called \u201cLike Coming Home\u201d and talks about arriving at\u00a0Everton Football Club<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

“At the start of the \u201906-\u201907 season, I step out onto the field at Goodison\u00a0Park, where Everton plays. It\u2019s the derby with Liverpool, the hometown rivals. I love the feel of the place \u2014 the rickety old stadium, as historic and un-corporate as they come. I love the fans, their pure, passionate, and deafeningly loud dedication to the team. I love the fact that the team has taken a chance on me, that they\u2019ve pulled me out of a dark place. Standing there on the field, about to play Liverpool, all I want to do is play my heart out. I\u2019ve come home.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This one is from an early chapter called \u201cGoals That Matter\u201d, when Howard first learned that he had Tourette Syndrome & OCD:<\/p>\n

“I struggle in school \u2014 I\u2019m hyperactive, and I have trouble sitting in my seat. My mother, aware of my desperate need to move, to run, signs me up for soccer by age 6. I fall in love with the game. I love the fluid back-and-forth, the challenge of playing a game using only one\u2019s feet. By age 11, I begin to show strange behaviors; I touch things compulsively. I become obsessed with picking up random items for no logical reason. Then I develop tics \u2014 twitches and jerks that I can\u2019t control no matter how hard I try. Mom and I learn that I have Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The doctor tells my mom that often, these conditions have a \u201cflip side,\u201d and he\u2019s seen cases where kids have special gifts. It is only on the sports fields that I feel relief, so I focus on my athletic skills exclusively….obsessively.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read much more about Tim Howard, who is a Board Member of the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome & Associated Disorders (NJCTS<\/strong><\/a>) here:<\/p>\n