Football player turned author visits Diagonal

DIAGONAL — From the playbook to the story book, former Iowa State Cyclone football player Ryan Sloth has traveled around the country to promote both reading and children’s book that he has authored.

Sloth, who walked on to the Iowa State football team in 1996, made his first appearance in a game in 1997, won letters from 1998 to 2000, won the Jim Doran Award in 1999 for his plays on special teams and capped his career with a victory in the 2000 Insight.com Bowl has not only played at the collegiate and arena football level, he has also done some coaching.

Coach Sloth, as he’s known on the field, also goes by Coach Sloth on the books in which he has authored.

Sloth and his four-year-old son, Elliott, were met with both a scavenger hunt around the school and a Cyclone themed spirit walk-adjacent into the elementary school.

“This is awesome, I wasn’t expecting this from such a small school,” Sloth said. “They have a big heart. They have a welcome sign and this isn’t typical. I walk in and got banners going everywhere, Iowa State fight song singing and everybody wearing their Iowa State gear. I can’t wait to talk to kids here in a little bit.”

“I brought my son, Elliott, with me,” Sloth added. “This is the first time he’s ever been with me to a school visit.”

Sloth’s writing experience started with an assignment when he was in high school.

“The first book that I had written was back in high school,” Sloth said. “I kept it and then years later, I was reading a book to my older son Tucker and I said ‘Hey, I should try to turn my story into a book.’”

Sloth, who has authored 10 books that can be found on coachsloth.com, finds his favorite book that he has authored to be his very first one published.

“It’s like picking who your favorite kid is,” Sloth said. “I like my Iowa State one, State Fair one was pretty cool, Hank the Bully is a good message... Probably my first one, Sport Superstar because that’s the first one I wrote and got me into being an author.”

Of the things that make Diagonal exciting, the fire slide was among the highlights of Sloth’s day.

“That slide was pretty fast,” Sloth said. “We didn’t expect that landing there. Meeting all these kids and how excited they are, just looking forward to the rest of the day.”

Sloth, who played high school football at Belmond-Klemme, hopes to inspire kids to read with these visits.

“Being an author, you can be from wherever and do whatever,” Sloth said. “Being from Belmond, a small school, I try to inspire these kids to write their own stories. Who knows, they may be a best-selling author some day. I tell them, autograph your book and send it to me some day, so I try to encourage those kids that hopefully they’ll be world famous some day.”