WARSAW — A former Syracuse resident will be hosting a book signing for his recently published book “How Sweet It Is,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 16 at the Buffalo Street Emporium.

The topic of author Jarrett Van Meter’s book chronicles the season-long quest of three geographically, socio-economically and culturally diverse teams to reach the storied “Sweet Sixteen,” played in the Rupp Arena.

Over the course of a year, Van Meter followed three teams from very different parts of Kentucky. Van Meter’s book focuses on the lives of the teams on and off the court. He tells the backstories of many of the players. Van Meter warns some of the stories are difficult to read but it is a way of illustrating the fortifying effect a game can have on families, teams and communities.

“In the book you will see that besides carrying the weight of basketball expectations, and all three communities have very high expectations, these kids are going through the same experiences as everyone else their age,” said Van Meter

Van Meter began from a list of 12 schools in Kentucky that he thought would be a good fit for his book. He narrowed down his list to the chosen Clay County Tigers, Covington Catholic Colonels and the Taylor County Cardinals. He began researching those three teams in September of 2015 and moved to Kentucky to do so.

“This book is meant to show no matter where a kid is from or what circumstance they grow up in, every boy who plays high school basketball in Kentucky dreams of wining the same trophy,” said Van Meter.

The author is currently a freelance writer and has plans to publish another book in the future.