Customer Reviews

Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Our Boys is an amazing tale about the high school football team from tiny Smith Center, Kansas. As of the 2000 census, the town had just 1,931 people with most of them living in town or near it on family farms. Despite having such a small town to draw athletes from, the Smith Center High School Redmen football team prior to the 2008 season had won four consecutive Kansas 2A titles and boasted a record winning streak of over 50 games.

Joe Drape, a reporter for the New York Times, a Kansas native, originally discovered the Redmen and Smith Center after the team set a high school scoring record, scoring 72 points in one quarter. Drape moved his entire family to Smith Center at the beginning of the 2008 season in order to chronicle the Redmen's drive for their fifth straight 2A state football title and their pursuit of the all-time winning streak record of 66 wins in a row. This book is the result.

The book's over 250 pages, and I read it in a single day. That's how good this story is, and how much I as a reader cared about Head Coach Roger Barta, his assistants, the players, and everybody else in the town of Smith Center that Drape writes about.

This isn't "just a sports book," although the game action described by Drape is very well done. The point of the book, and according to Coach Barta, is it's not about the wins and losses, one just needs to focus on getting better each day. That's a good life lesson for all of us. Barta knows that his players aren't going to go on to play in the NFL, (although one of his former players already has) he wants to make them better people while they're playing football and having fun. He also teaches his players about the value of hard work, which is, I have no doubt, why, as Drape writes, so many of his players go on to have successful careers at whatever they choose to do in bigger cities.

After I finished the book, I found myself using the Internet to find out more information on all of the team's seniors. That's how good Drape is at writing about this team and the players on it. As a reader, I really cared about the players by the end of the book. I really hope every one of them is successful in what they chose to do after high school.

Drape also does a great job at writing about the community of Smith Center, and how the high school is such a big part of that community. He also portrays why small town life is so wonderful to so many people, because everybody cares about everybody else. Everybody in Smith Center cares about the players, and not just because they're football players and won games, but because they're the town's kids. There's a tendency, I think, from many people to think kids like the ones Drape writes about are "too perfect" but Drape does touch on their mistakes and misjudgments at times. They're definitely real kids, just ones with the mindset that they want to do the right thing off the field, and win in sports with class and dignity. That's a real good antidote to those of us who live in major metropolitan areas and see so much on the news about kids who don't do the right thing.

Drape also writes about his personal experiences in Smith Center, especially about how his young son Jack immediately took to the town, its people, and especially the football team. I'm originally from Nebraska, and some of Drape's writing about being surprised at how much e-mail, texting, social network web sites, and other technology has permeated the teenage culture in middle America I had to laugh at. Middle America isn't the Moon, the kids there in many ways are no different than the kids in New York City, Boston or any big city in America. I had to laugh when Drape writes about being shocked by this, it's a good description of how our society has preconceived notions about different areas of the country. I give Drape credit for being bold, and secure, enough to include that in his book. He's also quite complementary of the town in general, writing in at least two places about how good the food is, and how he couldn't get meals that good for those prices in New York City. He doesn't overlook the shortfalls and problems of the town though, noting that it's losing population and the vast majority of the people still living in Smith Center won't be alive 20-25 years, or even less, from now. Drape doesn't go as far as he could have though in writing at least a little bit about the decline of small towns in Middle America, which I find profoundly saddening.

As a historian, I wish he'd written about more of the town's history though. Drape doesn't even mention that silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was born in Smith Center. He quotes NFL linebacker Mark Simoneau who played for Barta, but he doesn't even mention, much less quote, former NFL special teams standout Steve Tasker, who's also from Smith Center.

This story from Coach Barta on down to his players and the community shows, as another reviewer wrote, what is right about America.

Unfortunately, I can't lavish the same praise for the book's editing and that's what keeps this book from being five star material. I counted no less than a dozen errors of spelling, grammar, punctuation and facts in the book. Most of the errors were simply due to bad, or lazy, editing by the publisher. I really hope they're all corrected before publication because they mar an otherwise outstanding book. Drape also gets his facts wrong on a couple of occasions. He writes about an assistant coach who joined the staff in 1990 as being the newest assistant on Coach Barta's staff, when on the same page just a few paragraphs before he wrote about another staff member who he says joined the Smith Center coaching staff in 1993 immediately after graduation from the school. Drape also makes a statement about a player being good at "Mario Kart on the XBox." Sorry Joe, Mario Kart isn't on the XBox and never has been. Your editor should have caught that.

If the errors weren't there, or are corrected before publication, this book has the potential to be another Friday Night Lights. I can say without reservation that I'm now a Smith Center Redmen fan and I think anyone else who reads this book will be too. It's a feel good story that you won't be able to put down.

Go Redmen!

This is one of the best books I have read on high school sports since reading "Friday Night Lights" 20 years ago. The author, Joe Drape, moves his wife and son Jack to Smith Center, Kansas to follow the exploits of the town's high school football team. The Smith Center Redmen are riding a 4 year winning streak that has culminated in 4 state titles. In 2008 they are seeking to continue the streak and break the state record.

This is an amazing story about love, family, commitment, small town America and football. I have been around high school sports and young people most of my adult life. We are often blinded by mega sports stars,free agent contracts, performance enhancing drugs and professional extravaganzas. The pure essence of sport is embodied in the high school athlete who sacrifices and works hard for the benefit of the lessons learned.

Mr. Drape gets it absolutely right. Coach Barta and his staff impart life wisdom to the group of remarkable young men you will come to love as you read this book. This book is an ABSOLUTE GEM!!!

The best service I can do for "Our Boys" is to say that, despite the photo on the cover, this is not a sports book so much as it is a book about the power of community, family and the inherent rewards of hard work.

Joe Drape's first hand account tells the true story of one high school football team's run for history in the small, rural Kansas town of Smith Center. At first blush it would be easy to dismiss this book as yet another "Hoosiers" tale with helmets and cleats. But readers will find that "Our Boys" isn't just a story about a group of kids striving to do what no one (including themselves) thought they could. This book is about something much bigger than "winning the big game".

The Smith Center Redmen were known throughout Kansas and the country for their incredible winning streak that had spanned 4 seasons and counting. Pressure was mounting to eclipse the win record held by another school. "Our Boys" allows us to be a fly on the wall to observe that journey, a journey taken by the entire town.

Joe Drape integrates himself and his family into the community and indeed becomes a part of it. And while a fair share of the book is about what takes place in the games, the vast majority of the book is instead devoted in great detail to the people of Smith Center. Those who built it up and continue to keep it alive and breathing. These are simple but smart farm folk with old fashioned values. They still teach "yes sir" and "yes ma'am". Yes, their kids go to school and play ball, but also tend their farms along side their parents.

At its' core, Our Boys, and in fact the entire town, illustrate that the unprecedented success of the Smith Center football program is more a by-product of the values they instill in their children rather than the end goal. Coach Barta, his assistants, the townspeople and local business all join together in one common goal. That is to teach their children that success is "to strive to get a little bit better every day".

There is no question that sports fans will love this book. But a love of sports is far from a prerequisite because this is not a story about wins and losses. It's a story about the things we don't hear enough about these days, a story about what is right in America.

Author Joe Drape penned a trifecta of critically-acclaimed books on Thoroughbred racing before tackling the turf of high-school football in rural Kansas in Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen (August 2009; Times Books: Henry Holt and Company, LLC).

When Drape first became acquainted with the Redmen in November 2007, they were on the cusp of capturing their fourth straight Division 2A state championship, with the current senior class about to finish their four years by winning an incredible 54 games in a row. But Drape hurdles past the statistics to get to the heart of a dynasty when he returns with his wife and young son the following summer to explore a true foundation that's built on community - the Smith Center population is less than 2,000 - and teamwork in a 165-member student body.

"I tell our boys it's about the journey," says long-time head coach Roger Barta, whose 2008 squad was shooting for state records in consecutive wins and most consecutive state titles. "What we do around here real well is raise kids. None of this is really about football."

Drape picks up the pre-season drills as June is about to give way to July and weaves an oftentimes tragic history of the region - dust storms of the 1930s, recent economic woes - with well-paced and placed sketches of coaches, players and residents. There is the battle between the core values found in the heartland with some perilous dangers in the fast-paced first decade of the new century; juvenile abuse cases on the rise and methamphetamine labs being found in abandoned farmhouses. Through it all, writes Drape, "...the Redmen were proof that hard work and accountability still meant something."

The Redmen have support through a booster organization, cheerleading squad and dance team, with student clubs working the concession stands and a student broadcast team covering the season with a professional flair. Each senior player and cheerleader has a trading card issued which carries a pledge to be alcohol- and tobacco-free. If there is a violation the individual is kicked off the team/squad, has the card revoked and must go to the elementary school to explain to students why the severe penalties were issued.

And there are the players who have been molded in a system that stresses "execution over innovation," but, as Drape writes, "....they (the seniors) were known mainly for following orders and riding the coattails of the class ahead of them."

With any team, there is drama leading to the first coin flip under the stadium lights. A 350-pound lineman - who is the state weight-lifting champion and has the potential to play at the major college level - is emotionally hurt by not being named as one of the team captains and has briefly abandoned the summer workouts. One of the four captains, who is hoping to receive at least a partial athletic scholarship to a small college, is trying to prepare for the season while juggling two jobs from 7:30 am to 6 pm - plumbers' assistant, trench-and-grave digger - and is called upon by the coaches to motivate teammates who are not taking the pre-season work seriously.

From the Second Cup Café, Buckshot Inn, Jiffy Burger, to the state-of-the-art library, community center, Smith County Hospital and an end run back up Roger Barta Way to the Hubbard football complex, Drape lives the dream of the players and the hopes of a town where sprayers and tractors keep rolling for fewer and fewer family farmers and pheasant season brings an invasion from the big cities. But fall brings new meaning to the regulation goal post in the front yard of a home - where the gridiron glory begins for many youngsters - and becomes a fitting symbol for players who are poised to rewrite the state record book, if the breaks of the game go their way.

"When I told Coach Barta that I intended to relocate to Smith Center and write a book about the town and the Redmen's 2008 season," Drape writes, "he chuckled as he had during our first conversation by phone."

After a discussion on the chances of the team to continue its winning and championship streaks, with Drape telling a pessimistic Barta that a loss may be better for the book's narrative, the coach finally replied, "We look forward to seeing you back here and I promise you'll have the run of the place."

Barta did not let Drape down and the chronicle of the season for the Smith Center Redmen is a winner, on and off the field.

I cannot recall the last time I was so taken by a story like the one told in Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, by New York Times reporter & noted author Joe Drape. Perhaps it was the films Hoosiers or Rudy or the wonderful book Six Good Innings: How One Small Town Became a Little League Giant, the true story of which took place basically in my own backyard, down near the Jersey Shore. None of those experiences, however, were as engaging as this story of the Smith Center High School Redman from Kansas. On the face of things , this delightful book is about a small Kansas high school foootball team & their coach, Roger Barta, pursuing yet another undefeated season & state championship trophy. It is, however, about so very much more. It's about friendship & caring about others & hardwork & determination. It is about challenges taken up & challenges met. It is about becoming a little better everyday & respecting opponents, but not fearing them ( both are pearls of simple smalltown wisdom from Coach Barta.) Any reader could not possibly fail to become totally engrossed in this wonderful narrative. Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen is a book I happened upon by chance, but is one that I will also treasure for many years to come. It is one of the finest stories about working to make your dreams come true that I have read in many years. I cannot recommend this excellent book highly enough.

This book almost reads like a too-good-to-be-true narrative. But it is true and it IS good. As Morse Boucher said about the town of Smith Center, "We raise kids to work hard and take care of each other. We teach it at home...classrooms...and football field". In other words it DOES take a Village, and the Smith Center Redmen, the local High School football team, are part of this winning philosophy, which is learned and practiced on AND off their football field or locker room. This is a town (isolated almost, from the mainstream -- the nearest McDonald's is 90 miles away) that lives, eats, breathes and lives High School Football.

The success, not only of the football team, but of all the students at Smith Center High, is a family affair in a small town, with deep roots and dedication to match. Coach Barta, the one around whom this book and this winning team revolves, is more than amply aided by his staff -- some of whom were on Redmen football teams he coached many years previous -- to build a football team with principles and discipline, on and off the field. Everyone, it seems, is helping one another. The local populace also counts as some of the most avid supporters of the team -- and Ivan Burgess' "Last Legs Publishing" and his weekly "Echo" is a wry commentary on on all that goes on in and beyond the town itself.

Drape's narrative brings out the best, and the doubts and the "warts and all" personalities of these dedicated individuals, coaches, team members -- noting the "innocence of high school football, of playing for your friends and the pride of your town..." He follows the team, through the locker rooms, the football practice field, the one-on-one talks, the musings of the players themselves, as they try to keep the winning streak alive and deal with their own insecurities or doubts as well -- on and off the field.

This is an inspiring book, as well as an interesting behind-the-scenes glimpse of the inner and outer struggles each person involved with the football teams deals with, in order to not only play well and give the team their personal best -- but also to make that coveted 67 in a row record.

As this book is an Advance Reader's Copy -- I hope the actual published book has photos and a pictorial history of some of the Smith Center Redmen football teams of the past graduating classes.

This is an absolute gem of a book. Yes, it's about football, but there is so much more to it. It makes me want to kick myself for wasting time in Rexburg & Katona en route to McCook, Nebraska, when I could have gone to Smith Center. By the way, a bit of advice: If you do have to drive across Kansas or Nebraska, get the heck of of I-70 & I-80!! Between those two boring roads are some great places.
Of course, it's tough not to hate dynasties(except for George Steinbrenner, who I've found I do not hate enough), but this is a very likable coach & program. I'm reminded of the program at Snohomish(Wn.) High in the late 60's to the 80's, where the elementary school kids got very basic plays from coach Dick Armstrong's playbook, and as they progressed through the grades, they added more plays, so that by the time they joined the Panther varsity, they had those plays DOWN! BTW, yes, they were a bit of a dynasty, so no, we didn't like them. I've mellowed in my feelings somewhat. I mean, it could have been worse, they could have been in Everett!
I got this from the Amazon Vine program on Monday, finished it Thursday, and on Friday I lent it out, and three hours later I had a phone message thanking me. My friend was 60 pages in already, & looking forward to spending a summer weekend reading, and waiting for the glow of Friday night stadium lights, and Saturday afternoons with the leaves turning and the air getting crisp.

In the small town of Smith Center, Kansas, high school football is a big deal. And justifiably so. The Smith Center Redmen have a chance during its 2008 season to break the all time win record of any high school football team. Forget the Jayhawks! Here, the weekends are all about watching the Smith Center High School Redmen.

Our Boys is one sports journalists quest to find out what the fuss is about. Joe Drape moves his family from New York City to Smith Center to live amongst the team, finding out what makes it tick. The book is as much a profile of the small town of which Redmen football is a product as it is about the Redmen themselves.

My biggest problem with this decent but lackluster book is that, at 260-some pages, I never really feel like the book is able to really focus on much. We learn about the people, the students, the coaches, the team, etc, and while all of this is interesting in and of itself, it feels like a moving target with little focus.

My next big problem with the book is, as some other reviewers have noted, there isn't much forward motion in this book, especially considering it is about the slow build of a high-school football season. The book is quite predictable in its flow, and there really is never much tension. Long and short: while I enjoyed the book, I never really felt like I couldn't put it down. And whenever I did put it down, I felt no real rush to pick it up again.

Drape does a good job with his writing, taking a "fly on the wall" approach that only inserts himself as a character when it is warranted. And Drape does a good job profiling the cast of characters and the feel of small town Kansas. But in the end, the book lacks quite a bit of "ooomph" of the type one would expect when writing about football. Instead, the product is somewhat unfocused and lackluster. Good, but by no means great.

What a wonderful story Joe Drape has written. The fact that it is true is even better. The fact that I've been to Smith Center makes it even more enjoyable.

Bottom line, if you take a Coach who has been in a small town for 30 years, has a love for the game of football, but has a bigger love for molding the lives of teenagers into men you will get an inspiring story.

Most people will never experience living in a rural farm town in the middle of the nation. But Joe does a great job of detailing out for us the people of the community, the crisis of economics, the aging and shrinking population of small towns. But also he tells the compelling story of how a small community committed to the raising of their children will instill values and morals that seem to have been forgotten in big city America.

While the Redmen of Smith Center have a winning streak of 56 games it is not because they focus on winning at all costs. What they actually focus on is building unity amongst their teammates and in their community. The winning, well it's just a bonus to be added on. Everyone knows that at some point they will loose a game, but they are not focused on that. Instead they are focused on what they need to do to mature and grow up to be productive young men in our society.

Drape does a great job of introducing us to the players, the coaches, the community and the joy of winning. But he also helps us to learn what it means to have commitment and loyalty to one another and that the love of a group of men for teenagers is making a change that will effect society for good.

I love good football stories, but I got much more than I bargained for in buying this book. Thank you Dr. Steinle (the town surgeon in Smith Center) for pointing this book out to me.

You will love this story and grow to love the community of Smith Center as you read.

Enjoy!

I would give this book 4.5 stars if I could. It is an excellent book. The author, a NY Times writer, spends a football season living in Smith Center, KS to learn the how and why of a team that has currently won 69 games in a row (through 2 days ago). He follows them to their fifth straight state championship, giving us an up close and personal look at the coaches, players and community. It is terrific - it made me want to grow up in Smith Center, KS or another small, tightly-knit community. Sadly, most people don't grow up in places like that.

The book is mainly about football. At times the author gets side tracked and sometimes these diversions are interesting, sometimes repetitive (hence, not five stars). But overall, it's a great story. Loved the coach, staff and school. What a great community effort raising these kids is. I love it. Should be a model for something. Anyway, highly recommended - more so if you are a football fan. Go Redmen!