[LSY]≡ Download Free Our Boys A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen Joe Drape 9780805088908 Books

Our Boys A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen Joe Drape 9780805088908 Books

Download As PDF : Our Boys A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen Joe Drape 9780805088908 Books

Our Boys A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen Joe Drape 9780805088908 Books

I think I love this book because Smith Center is our new home town, and it makes my husband and I love our small town even more! Great writing by an author who chose to live the story.


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Our Boys A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen Joe Drape 9780805088908 Books Reviews

I am not a football buff. I am the wife of a football buff who busies herself in the garden during the onslaught of games each fall. However, this book may have changed all that. Joe Drape weaves a story of the passion, dedication, persistence, grit, family, and pure love surrounding the sport of high school football in Smith Center, Kansas. He took me back to my high school days, Friday night football games, the joy of winning and all of the experiences in between. His play by play descriptions helped me better understand the game. However, this is not just a story about football. It reminds the reader about the incredibly talented leaders who have committed themselves to high school teams, not just in Smith Center, Kansas, but across the country. I will read this book again. I will recommend this book to others and truly expect that it will make its way into the Best Seller's Top Ten list. It is that good!
The genesis of this tale can find its origin in a typical football season with an atypical football game. It was then the Smith Center Redmen scored 72 points in the first quarter of a game. This was a feat never before accomplished, and it grabbed national attention - including the attention of New York Times sportswriter Joe Drape, who traveled to the small Midwestern town for the story.

What he discovers is a story beyond that mere single quarter of football. Those seventy-two points was more than just a fluke that dropped onto a hapless Kansas team one football Friday night. There was a football program in place established on character-building as opposed to grossing a litany of wins.
And interestingly enough, while the community of Smith Center was building character within their boys, their boys were winning games - a lot of games. Every game played for the prior four seasons. Four consecutive state championships. Four consecutive perfect seasons. The longest winning streak in the nation. How? What was going on in Smith Center Kansas? Drape decided to move his family there for a season to find out. The result is this wonderful book.

From my own perspective as a true cynic towards the worlds of sports since the era of strikes and lockouts and free agency galore, I appreciated the integrity of the game being returned to its true roots. Drape's writing infuses substance into the game by telling the story of the people along with the town in which they reside. He even is able to develop a bit of suspense into the outcome of the games (though `perfect season' rests squarely on the book's cover) granting accessibility to even the most lethargic of football fans. This is a story for all who see value in the Midwestern way of life. Read it today, and then share it with your big-city friends.
I really enjoyed this book. Great reporting job that allows you to see the America that most of big city people are not even aware exists.
Smith Center, Kansas sits very close to 200 miles from; Omaha, Kansas City and Wichita, literally in the middle of no-where would be a common phrase used to describe its locale. My father moved here in 1965 right after I graduated from High School in Wichita. My three brothers and a sister all graduated from HS there but not me. Mr. Drape's book provides a very good portrayal of how a small town's football team came into national notriety. Roger Barta's motivational ability to reach the players is the obvious reason secondly would be the players themselves and their general attitude and ethics. This book provides some insight into a rural community and the players and the town folks' attitudes. Smith Center is not a community without its problems though. During the mid and late sixties and into the seventies many of the school kids had no real focus or direction, because there was little to do. The Drive-In Theatre closed around 1966 the downtown theatre nearly closed shortly after but local businessmen pooled together to keep it open so kids would have somewhere to go and stay out of potential troubles. Since Mr. Barta came he taught the boys of the town how to acquire recognition, work ethic and provided some additional morale guidance this focus spread to the town and created a change and Mr. Drape picked up on this in great detail. At times perhaps a little too detailed. Smith Center was a town destined to whither and fade away until the fortunes of the football team started to rapidly change. I read the book because I know who is being discussed even though I have not actually lived in Smith Center but have visited on numerous occasions. People there often come up to me and will call me by name and I honestly do not know who they are which can be embarassing. They know me because my father virtually knew almost everyone in town since he was the local milk man for years. I would recommend this book to people because it is a very good insight into rural America and shows what can happen with proper guidance and attitudes. People in large cities often lose focus on their neighbors and how they can support and help one another. That is what has really happened here. For further info the Redmen won their first game this season 59-0 and did win the state championship again last year. At some point in time the winning streak will end, it will be intersting to see how the people and team deal with that but it will happen, perhaps not this year maybe not next even. What will happen when Roger Barta steps down? His shoes will be hard to fill, perhaps Brooks Barta would replace his father as coach and have the ability to carry the legacy forward. One minor trivial correction; The closest McDonalds is not 90 miles away though it is 60 miles east in Concordia, KS.
I think I love this book because Smith Center is our new home town, and it makes my husband and I love our small town even more! Great writing by an author who chose to live the story.