Saline High School teacher/boys varsity soccer coach Brian Lampman first heard best-selling author Jeff Zaslow speak at a book fair in Ann Arbor two years ago.

Though the book Zaslow was promoting that day, “The Last Lecture” which he wrote with Randy Pausch, is not about sports, nor is the column Zaslow writes for the Wall Street Journal, the life lessons he spoke of were something Lampman thought his team needed to hear.

Zaslow talked last week at Saline High School at the fourth annual Saline Men’s Soccer Hornet Team Camp. Not once did Zaslow mention the game of soccer.

“I just think that it’s an opportunity for the kids to take away more about how we want them to lead their lives, how we want them to interact with one another and care for one another, and I thought he did a really god job of hitting on all those topics today that’s one of the things I hope the kids take away,” Lampman said. “And even in there he talked about outlook and when something happens beyond your control, when things don’t go quite right, how you handle it, which is very applicable to the soccer field and is obviously a life lesson.”

Zaslow’s book, and his speech to the team, focused on the message Pausch delivered in his last lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, given at Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 18, 2007, just nine months prior to losing his fight with pancreatic cancer.

The Last Lecture Series at CMU began not as a platform for terminally ill faculty members, but as an opportunity to honor academics for their outstanding accomplishments.

For Pausch, it ended up being both, or as he put it in his now famous speech, “I finally nailed the venue.”

Zaslow, a CMU alum, was at Pausch’s speech on assignment for the Journal. His ensuing column and video of the speech sparked a cultural phenomenon, garnering over 11 million hits on YouTube. Their collaborative book was an instant bestseller and has given Zaslow enough material for a lifetime of motivational speeches.

“I’m familiar with everything Pausch said, I spent 53 hours talking to him,” said Zaslow, in reference to the 53 one-hour phone sessions he had with Pausch.

Zaslow explained that Pausch was originally opposed to writing the book, wanting to spend every waking moment he had with wife and three young children. But he was moved by the response Zaslow’s column and the speech received, so he agreed to talk to Zaslow for an hour a day via headset while he rode his bike for exercise.

Pausch’s only request was that putting together the book “better be fun and it better be meaningful.” After they started on the book, Pausch asked one more thing of Zaslow, telling him one day to take a break and “stop Googling my name and go hug your kids.”

“I know all the material, it’s a shame he’s not here to deliver it. I mean my role as a presenter is: here it is, it’s out there, here’s what he had to say,” said Zaslow. “It’s sad that he’s not here to say it, but I’m happy to continue his message.”

After the speech, in which Zaslow also spoke of his experience writing a book with Chesley “Sully” Sullenberg, Brian emphatically thanked Zaslow and gave the players the homework assignment of watching Pausch’s speech with a family member and to read “The Last Lecture,” which they all received a copy of.

That’s right. Homework…at a sports camp…during the summer.

“They’ve know me well enough to know that with me it’s never just going to be about soccer,” said Lampman, who teaches history/social studies, at Saline. “The transformative power of sport is significant and I think significant in a lot of different ways…these are great opportunities for us to come together as a program and as a team.”

“Our team motto is excellence on the field, school and community and so we’re here to become a better soccer team, but also to build us as characters,” said senior captain Steven Junga.

Lampman’s goal of getting his players to learn more than just the game appears to be working.

“I’ve actually gotten into some of these books,” said senior captain Mike Kaminski, who admitted he reads maybe one of every five books required of him in English class, but every one his coach gives him. “Everyone’s actually reading it, and then you start to think, wow, I should be doing this, and then you start to get into it and start to think this is actually kind of a good book, I’m actually learning from this.”

Zaslow often does similar speeches and presentations, and is compensated for his efforts. He spoke to the soccer camp free of charge.

“Here, around Detroit, I’m happy to do things,” said Zaslow, who lives in West Bloomfield. “I’m taken by Brian’s enthusiasm, the coach’s enthusiasm for imparting this message to his kids. He’s going to give his players the book, and there’s a lot of sports analogies, Randy was a big athlete he doesn’t talk about soccer, but I’m happy to pass on Randy’s message.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.