Keith O'Brien

The powerful true story of a team, a town, and a fight for redemption

“A reporting tour de force and an utterly gripping account… “Outside Shot” unmistakably triumphs, with the reader rooting hard for the Cardinals—and delighted that O’Brien has brought his considerable skills to telling their story.”

Wayne Coffey, New York Times Book Review
February 3, 2013
“Keith O’Brien’s absorbing narrative about a high school basketball team in rural Kentucky is so much more than a sports book: It’s a portrait of a small town in the throes of change, and a story of redemption for a group of young men struggling to prove themselves.”

Parade
January 2013
If you have ever wanted a look into the broken but still beating heart of high school sports, into a world where a young man’s future, and a town’s slipping pride, can hang on an in-bounds pass or one more foul — then Keith O’Brien has a book for you.

Rick Bragg
Pulitzer Prize winner and author of All Over But the Shoutin’

Cheldon White went to a Mother’s Day second-line parade. He almost didn’t come home.

May 14, 2013

Esquire

No female jockey has ever won the Kentucky Derby. Rosie Napravnik would like a shot at it.

April 21, 2013

The New York Times Magazine

Preparing for a world stripped bare of modern conveniences has always appealed to cranks and extremists. But can it be sold as plain common sense?

November 16, 2012

The New York Times Magazine

The call in the huddle, just moments before the injury, was Stanford Left Heavy Q7 Power, with Jacob Rainey in the shotgun.

September 2, 2012

The New York Times Magazine

Outside Shot