John Leaney is the son of factory workers with deep ties to London's east end. He was reared in Dagenham, home of the Ford Motor Company, who employed his father as a lorry driver. His mother worked in a wood factory. At age eleven good fortune sent him to the Barking Abbey Grammar School, where he learned there was a better life if he attended college. He received a teaching diploma from Didsbury College, began his career in Salford, and was quickly promoted to senior teacher in charge of welfare and discipline.

In 1983, John came to the Mission Bay Soccer Club in San Diego to coach boys' soccer, and a year later was hired as the women's soccer coach at UC San Diego. John moved to Minnesota in 1986 to coach Northwest Soccer Club in Minneapolis. The following year he started coaching men's soccer at Macalester College in St. Paul. He coached men's and women's soccer there for almost thirty years. He also provided administrative guidance and for a time served as coach for men's track and field and women's golf.

John married Carrie Schulz in 2004. Carrie delivered their son, Jack, before she died tragically from breast cancer two years later.

The book is dedicated to Jack to honor her memory.