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    Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point
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    Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point
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    Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point
    Ebook306 pages4 hours

    Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point

    By Joe Drape

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In Soldiers First, bestselling author Joe Drape reveals the unique pressures and expectations that make a year of Army football so much more than just a tally of wins and losses.

    The football team at the U.S. Military Academy is not like other college football teams. At other schools, athletes are catered to and coddled at every turn. At West Point, they carry the same arduous load as their fellow cadets, shouldering an Ivy League–caliber education and year-round military training. After graduation they are not going to the NFL but to danger zones halfway around the world. These young men are not just football players, they are soldiers first.

    New York Times sportswriter Joe Drape takes us inside the world of Army football, as the Black Knights and their third-year coach, Rich Ellerson, seek to turn around a program that had recently fallen on hard times, with the goal to beat Navy and "sing last" at the Army-Navy game in December. The 2011 season would prove a true test of the players' mettle and perseverance.

    Drawing on his extensive and unfettered access to the players and the coaching staff, Drape introduces us to this special group of young men and their achievements on and off the field. Anchoring the narrative and the team are five key players: quarterback Trent Steelman, the most gifted athlete; linebacker Steve Erzinger, who once questioned his place at West Point but has become a true leader; Andrew Rodriguez, the son of a general and the top scholar-athlete; Max Jenkins, the backup quarterback and the second-in-command of the Corps of Cadets; and Larry Dixon, a talented first-year running back. Together with Coach Ellerson, his staff, and West Point's officers and instructors, they and their teammates embrace the demands made on them and learn crucial lessons that will resonate throughout their lives—and ours.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 4, 2012
    ISBN9781429955348
    Unavailable
    Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point
    Author

    Joe Drape

    Joe Drape is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, The Race for the Triple Crown, and Black Maestro. He is an award-winning reporter for The New York Times, having previously worked for The Dallas Morning News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A graduate of Southern Methodist University, he lives in New York City with his wife and son.

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    Reviews for Soldiers First

    4/5

    46 ratings22 reviews

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    • 4/5
      As a West Point graduate (1966), I was intrigued by Soldiers First authored by Joe Drape. I was aware of how the football season turned out so I was more interested in learning about the individual cadets whose names I recognized and their motivation for attending West Point. There were a few traditions mentioned that I was not aware of and others like the Honor Code that have been severely modified in order to come more in line with existing social mores. It is disappointing to see the depths that a once proud program has sunk. In a world where most citizens are only concerned about "how does it benefit me" it is uplifting to see that the "Long Grey Line" is in excellent hands with today's cadets. The book is a quick read and would provide those unfamiliar with the Academy an insight into the rigors of training and education that produces an Army officer. This book also provides enough insight into cadet life to serve as a primer for those that might be considering matriculating at West Point. At a recent Army/ Navy game a naval academy football player quoted" It is the only game where those playing are willing to sacrifice all for those watching the game."
    • 3/5
      Soldiers First, by Joe Drape, is great for football fans, with lots of details about specific games. I would have preferred more description about the training that these soldiers go through, on and off the field.
    • 3/5
      After prodding from his young son to "find the good guys," New York Times reporter Joe Drape set out to profile the United States Military Academy's Black Knights football team during the 2011 season. Soldiers First highlights the stark contrast between the Black Knights and their colleagues at scandal-ridden schools like Penn State, Ohio State, and USC. In contrast to the powerhouse schools that make news for violating the labyrinthian NCAA rulebook, the biggest violation to be found at West Point is falling asleep in class (which earns a cadet four hours of marching as punishment).For Drape West Point epitomizes everything college sports should be. All of the Black Knights are playing football and, more often than not, getting injured, simply because they love the game. No one on the team has pro prospects, not only because of the five year service requirement post-graduation, but also because most are borderline FBS (formerly I-A) quality players, let alone NFL talent. The Cadets not only have to go through the rigorous appointment progress (which creates acceptance rates lower than most Ivy League schools) but should they get accepted they have to maintain high academic and physical standards. All of this weeds out the bread and butter of current college football players. The offensive lineman cannot guzzle down 10,000 calories a day and weigh 300 pounds and none of them can skirt through academically with easy classes. (Drape mentions Stanford is probably the only non-service academy to force athletes to maintain a rigorous academic schedule. However he fails to mention athletes had access to an "easy class list" as reported early last year.) Regardless of one's politics the dedication and determination of the Black Knights and all the service academies is t0 be admired.While Coach Rich Ellerson preaches against the fatalism many have towards the future of Army football, it's nearly impossible to read Drape's book and not come away believing Army football may be running out of time. For one, like the other service academies, Army runs an offense based around the run-based triple option to best utilize the talent the team does have. Unfortunately the last decade of college football has moved towards the pass-happy spread offense. While Troy Calhoun at Air Force and Ken Niumatatolo have found success with the offense that can readily confuse defenses, Army has managed to win only 31 games over the last decade, while in the progress dropping a record eleven straight to Navy. In addition to all the other requirements to gain admission to the academy and keeping in good standing, Ellerson and his assistant coaches have to deal with recruiting in the face of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan (and previously Iraq), where cadets can not only get set but die after graduation. Many high school students and their parents simply are not willing to take that chance, even if it is their only shot at playing Division I football. There's a lot to like and admire in Drape's highly readable book, but it is nevertheless a sports book. Given that he chronicles the 2011 football season, the book intersperses chapters about players dealing with academy life with accounts of Army's thirteen games, which they finished with a 3-10 record. Drape draws the line between detailed mechanics of the triple option (which would appeal to relatively few) and fully bypassing accounts of the games (which would defeat the purpose of the book). Drape's obvious goal was to make the book appealing to both sports fans and non-fans. Yet, in attempting to do so he removes the details fans would enjoy while leaving non-fans to chew through relatively drab drive summaries or skip ahead. Interestingly, Drape devotes nearly as much (if not more) time to Army's loss to Northern Illinois as he does their loss to Air Force, which is the second most important game on the Black Knights' yearly schedule.While not a classic in the sports book catalog, Drape's book accomplishes his goal of chronicling life on the Army football team and provides a nice counterpoint to the ongoing scandal filled NCAA football landscape.
    • 5/5
      The book, Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point, by Joe Drape, New York Times reporter, is a story about Army Black Knights football at the United States Military Academy. After watching Army play a superior Notre Dame without letup, Drape’s curiosity about where football fit in at the Academy – whether the players “were Soldiers or football players first” -- led him to write this book. Drape escorts the reader on a tour of the daily regimen of several members of the United States Corps of Cadets who also play football. The book’s four main parts cover each of a cadet’s four academic years at the Academy: freshman Plebe, sophomore Yearling, junior Cow, and senior Firstie, beginning with ‘R-Day’, Reception Day, when Cadet-candidates take their oaths of allegiance to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, to Graduation Day four years later when they will have been awarded their academic degrees and been commissioned as second lieutenants in the United States Army. Drape begins by recounting how his five-year-young son inspired him to visit West Point after they watched on TV ‘the good guys’, as his son called the Army team, play Notre Dame at the new Yankee Stadium in November 2010. Drape, an early 1980s graduate of Southern Methodist University (the same SMU whose Mustangs football program received the NCAA’s ‘death penalty’ of no football for two years for NCAA rules infractions), grew up an avowed Fighting Irish fan and had been many times to Notre Dame’s Indiana campus. Amidst a recent history of penalized collegiate athletics programs especially in football and basketball, Drape exhibits the tradition of Army football and West Point’s motto, ‘duty, honor, country’, the core values held by each member of the ‘long gray line’. Soldiers First interlaces stories about Coach Rich Ellerson, current and former players, teachers, tactical officers, famous graduates, recaps of games with Fordham, Northwestern, Miami (Ohio), and Vanderbilt among others, and other aspects of West Point’s deep tradition. Coach Ellerson, unlike his predecessors, is an Army Brat. His father graduated from the Academy, Class of 1935, and two brothers are West Pointers. Ellerson grew up with the Army values and knew from beginning that Army would win games “[not] in spite of West Point but because of West Point.” (p. 16) The challenge always is to keep players rested and healthy knowing they are “Soldiers first” and subject to the same rigorous academic and military standards as other Cadets. Coach Ellerson epitomizes the spirit of Army football with the apt, if mixed, metaphor of Cadet players that are “fearless gladiators, erudite gentlemen, Zen masters, and calloused, lunch-bucket toting steelworkers.” (p. 193) What every Army veteran, Academy graduate, and Black Knights player yearns for, of course, is the beat Navy. With Coach Ellerson now in his fourth year it looks very good that this December 8th following the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia that the Black Knights will “sing second”. West Point and Army football have been the subjects of many books. Joe Drape’s Soldiers First should be included among them because it is a story imbued with the paradoxes of mental and physical stress, individual and team challenges, and traditions that have grown out of the cultures of both Athens and Sparta that is the basis of duty, honor, country and the American Soldier.
    • 3/5
      The author tells the story of the young men who attend West Point Military Academy’s football program and describe how athletics and the Academy play a role in developing leaders for both military and civilian life. You really need to be a football fan to enjoy this book, because much of it is filled with play-by-play descriptions of some of West Point’s 2011 season games. Although I like watching football, I would have preferred more emphasis on the life of the players off the field and their rigorous training as cadets. I have a new-found respect for these young people. Their example and the Three Rules of Thumb should be a part of all college athletics.
    • 4/5
      This book by Joe Drape is a look at football as currently played at West Point, but also gives a view of some of the additional pressures the cadets must endure. They have a very heavy class load of difficult courses, must do military training and complete the process to become an officer in the military if they graduate.The book was interesting to me, but if it was going to be a book about sport, I wanted more detail and flavor of the games each week. But it also didn't seem to be focused on the military side. The author's intent was probably to give a dual picture of both sides of the life of the football players for Army. But at times, I just felt like the story was jumping back and forth.
    • 5/5
      I used to live in New York's Hudson Valley and am a huge fan of Army Football, so I was excited when I saw this book available for early review. At first I thought it would be just like John Feinstein's "A Civil War", but it's not--Joe Drape tells a much more compelling story that I found hard to put down.
    • 3/5
      This was enjoyable enough and a quick read. I would've liked hearing more detail about the day to day lives of these athletes, both on the field and in the other aspects of their lives at the Academy. But a fine glimpse into a year of football at the USMA.
    • 2/5
      Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West PointAuthor Joe Drape chose to tell the story of Army football by chronicling the 2011 season. That decision made his task considerable more difficult than it had to be. Army (a/k/a the United States Military Academy) has a rich football tradition, especially during the era coached by “Red” Blaik (1941-1958). The Black Knights were back-to-back Associated Press Poll national champions in 1944 and 1945. The team can also claim three Heisman Trophy winners. However, that is all ancient history to most modern readers. In the last generation, mediocre might be the most fitting adjective to describe Army football. The 2011season covered by Drape’s book was highlighted by a 21-14 win over Big 10 team Northwestern, but was otherwise unremarkable as the Black Knights struggled to a 3-9 record.In spite of the author’s good intentions, he faced a difficult challenge making that into an interesting story if he persisted in giving game-by-game coverage to the season. To lighten the burden, he inserted informational sections about Army’s coach and various players. The result may be interesting to readers with a strong interest in Army football, but it leaves general football fans somewhat underwhelmed. The effect seems disjointed as the vignettes are not connected together well enough to create a continuing narrative that captivates our attention.Perhaps Drape would have served his readers better by trying harder to weave together a story about the players who chose to play football at West Point. If we could have been made to feel that we knew these young men better, we might have been more interested in their story. Carrying the required heavy academic load and fulfilling all the physical training responsibilities required of an Army cadet along with playing major college football is a daunting task. Why were that willing to pay that price? Surely, the author could have done a better job telling us the answer to that question.If you are a college football fan who already has an interest in West Point, this book is worth your while. Otherwise, probably not.
    • 3/5
      This was an Early Reviewers book. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Military Schools, College Football and the teaching of discipline to today's college students. Obviously, anyone who attended the military academy would really enjoy this book. Very details oriented, and lots of discussions about particular games and their outcomes.
    • 4/5
      REVIEW: SOLDIERS FIRSTBy Joe DrapeAcclaimed New York Times columnist Joe Drape has written an in-depth, but fast-paced chronicle of the West Point football team during the 2011 season that will tug at readers’ heartstrings as well as make them immensely proud of the young men and women who serve our country all over the world after their graduations. Football fans and patriots will be amazed at the hardiness, resolve, and resilience of the young players who have to balance the grueling regimen of being a cadet at an Ivy-League-quality school with the requirements of playing on a Division I NCAA football team.Andrew Kava, a tackle and guard, when asked what it meant to be an Army football player, replied, “It means being among the toughest group of players our opponents will face on their schedule…It doesn’t matter if we’re up by fifty points or down by fifty points, the first play of the game or the last play of the game, being an Army football player means we’re going to get after you every single snap. An Army football player never quits because the men and women who are fighting for our freedom to play this game never quit either.” What formidable opponents they prove to be, as Drape unveils detailed analyses of their games and of their characters.Drape was given unfettered access to coaches, alumni, players, and cadets in order to write this well-documented book. He obviously earned the trust of all with whom he spoke, since they answered candidly about the program, the challenges as well as the triumphs. By following the season chronologically and by focusing in on a number of players and their personal histories, Drape effectively brings the reader into the locker room, the dorms, the playing fields, and players' and coaches' personal lives, writing vivid, unforgettable scenes.This book will resonate with patriots, football fans, and anyone who thoroughly enjoys the human interest aspect of sports. Joe Drape’s excellent reporting of a year of Army football, its players, and its place as a symbol of striving for excellence, will become a classic in sports writing.
    • 5/5
      Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I feel that the writing, attention to detail and the writers desire to showcase a side of not only the US Army, but of College Football and West Point were presented in a way that made it accessible to the reader. The selection of what was presented was done in a way that all readers, regardless of their chosen genres of literature could come away enjoying the book. I have only recently become pulled in by USA Military History, Military Academies, and presenting it in a way that folds into College Football was a clever approach that will no doubt payoff well for those involved with this book.I especially enjoyed that in this book, it follows an entire Four Year college period, not just a few months to write a book; although, there is no doubt in my mind that with the vast amount seen, learned and experienced this could have easily been a 4 part book series. Fully enjoyed and highly reccomend to everyone.
    • 3/5
      While this book started out well, I was disappointed with the last third of the book. The beginning did a superb job of getting you interested in the player's backgrounds and what they have to do to be able to play at the Division I level. The end though, seems to rush through events and spends little time at all giving descriptions of the games being played.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as part of the Library Thing Early ReviewersThis is the story of the 2011 Army Black Knights Football team. They face many challenges that most of their opponents do not face. West Point is an unique place to play football where the term student athlete is really followed. Drape does a nice job explaining the many challenges that coaches, athletes, administration and fans deal with because of the strict requirement found at West Point. I do have a lot of respect for these players and what they face. It seems that with all the restrictions placed on this team they should drop down to FCS or Division II. They would be more competitive and might have something to show besides a bowl game once every few years. My problem with this book is that it is material covered in John Feinstein's book A Civil War: Army vs. Navy about the 1995 season. To me not much has changed. This book would be great for the West Point grad or Army fan. I find that the blow by blow descriptions of the game weak. I was more interested in the stories of the men involved and what they face in preparing to play football. I am also a college football fan I watch a lot of games every week and I knew that Army did not have a good year and they did not beat Navy.I wish that Drape would have interviewed some more coaches that play the academies. There was the story of Jim Tressel, former coach at The Ohio State University got on the jumbo tron before playing I think the Air Force Academy, and stated to the crowd not to boo the players when they came out of the tunnel. Granted it was not an Army game but I think that it would be an interesting point of view to show the respect that big time coaches have for these school's.
    • 4/5
      “Soldiers First” is a chronicle of the 2011 Army football season written by Joe Drape. Mr. Drape was granted unfettered access to the United States Military Academy at West Point football program and reported what he saw and on what the cadets on the football team experienced. I will not spoil any of the book by telling the uninformed reader how the Army football season turned out.The author is a reporter for The New York Times, and his writing, while often times very polished, often times reads like a very polished newspaper story. I enjoyed the experience that he gave me of learning the ins and outs of being an Army cadet on the football team, but I think I was looking for more. I admit that I am a college football fanatic (Go Blue!). Interestingly, I think it may be because of my fervor for the sport that this read left me wanting more. I expected to learn (as I did) about the 2011 Army football season. But I WANTED to learn more about the life of the cadets on the football team. The title of the book is ‘Soldiers’ First, after all.It is understandable that access to the football program may be broad, but access to the rest of the cadet’s life in the Army is necessarily limited. Nonetheless, I feel that the main characters followed for the season could have been portrayed in a manner to make them more endearing to the reader. Don’t get me wrong: I finished the book with more respect for the students at West Point than I had before. And I had a LOT of respect before. Perhaps it is because these students regularly put in such long days that access to them was too limited. A book I wish could be written, though perhaps one that cannot be due to security concerns, would be to focus on the summer lives of a handful of the US Army football team, while they fulfill their leadership training obligations in the field. It may give more definition to their lives on the football field. And it will certainly give more weight to the mantra, “Beat Navy!” 3.5-stars out of 5-stars.
    • 4/5
      If American Football-ese is your mother tongue, you will love Joe Drapes' enthusiastic blow by blow accounts of the games played by Army vs Northwestern, or Army vs Northern, or all the others. Joe Drape knows the language of football. I was hoping for more personal insight into the daily grind of the West Point Student Athlete, but Drape only throws out the pass that gets intercepted. Perhaps he did not get permission to reveal more personal stories? Drapes' respectful tone throughout the book is refreshing and inspiring. He quotes Ellerson enough to emphasize, without preaching, that The West Point football program is the honorable example for how to guide and train honorable citizens. If you don't want to quite follow all of the game plays, you can easily skim over that and read the interesting history of West Point. I am so happy i now know more about this institution.
    • 4/5
      I think most college football fans have an appreciation for the teams of the United States military academies and the way they play the game. The teams’ players are often undersized and have to maintain the same academic course load, and go through the identical rigorous military training as their classmates. Coaches are expected to field top-rate Football Bowl Subdivision (former I-A) teams despite the fact that the academies do not budge on their strict admission requirements solely because a potential recruit can play a game. At a time when some of the biggest programs in college football are generating appalling headlines, SOLDIERS FIRST: DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY, AND FOOTBALL AT WEST POINT is a thing of beauty. With his book, New York Times reporter Joe Drape gives his readers a look inside the 2011 Army football team, and shows how truly special the young men who choose this path are. SOLDIERS FIRST came about thanks to a demand by a five-year-old football fan. Drape and his son Jack were watching the 2010 Army vs. Notre Dame football pre-game, and despite his dad’s allegiance to the Fighting Irish, Jack Drape was enthralled by everything he heard about Army football’s history and tradition. As the author writes, “Sometimes it takes the eyes of a child to open our own, and the joy the Black Knights were bringing to my son stirred something in my soul.” Thus, when Jack said “Let’s go see the good guys, Dad,” Joe Drape decided to take his son to do just that.Starting with spring football practice in 2011, Drape was offered access to all aspects of Army football and life at West Point. His book focuses on coach Rich Ellerson and five of the players in particular: Steve Erzinger, Larry Dixon, Max Jenkins, Trent Steelman, and Andrew Rodriguez. Although the season has been played, and those of us who follow college football already know how it all ended for the Black Knights, that doesn’t detract from this book one bit. The insight into West Point life is fascinating, the recaps of the football games make you feel as if you’re watching them live, and the character of the young men and their mentors shines through on every page.With SOLDIERS FIRST, Joe Drape has done a good thing for a game that has taken a beating over the past several years. I thank him for giving “the good guys” to fans of college football, and I thank the young men and women in the pages of his book for their service.**I was provided an Advance Reader Copy of this book through LibraryThing, and I was not paid to do this review.**
    • 4/5
      O.k. so i won this on goodreads from firstreads. I thought the book was extremely well written, almost too good. I had to re-read through parts of it to fully understand what was going on. I loved the idea that this group of soldiers gave an insightful view on how much they sacrifice to be able to hold up perfect grades on top of playing some very competitive games of football, and being soldiers for our country. These men show an extraordinary skill of tolerance, and also patience if you ask me. I did love that this book lets us as readers see a real view of what our solders go through to protect this country. I also loved the characters in the book, and absolutely loved that they had quotes from the characters of inspiration at the top of the beginning of each chapter. I thought the characters were well thought out and loved the excitement of the final game against the navy. I would recommend this book to anyone and would especially recommend it for school age kids, maybe middle school or early high school. This book has the ability to send a great message to our younger population and I hope that teachers incorporate this into their syllabis' So that's my thoughts on the book. I rated it 4 out of 5 stars It deserves it!
    • 5/5
      Joe Drape chronicles the 2011 season of Army football - the good the bad and the ugly. Along with it he takes the reader from the plebes getting their first taste of military life to the Firsties and Branch Night when they find out where they will begin their military careers.Coach Rich Ellerson knew what he was stepping into when he took the position - his father and two brothers went to West Point. But his plan is to work with all that West Point asks of his players.This was a very enjoyable book - alot of West Point and military history as well as a real feel for the football games as the season unfolded. I had a hard time starting the chapter of the Army-Navy game because I was afraid to read whether they won or lost!I will be following Army football this season - Go Army! Beat Navy!
    • 5/5
      Joe Drape chronicles the 2011 season of Army football - the good the bad and the ugly. Along with it he takes the reader from the plebes getting their first taste of military life to the Firsties and Branch Night when they find out where they will begin their military careers.Coach Rich Ellerson knew what he was stepping into when he took the position - his father and two brothers went to West Point. But his plan is to work with all that West Point asks of his players.This was a very enjoyable book - alot of West Point and military history as well as a real feel for the football games as the season unfolded. I had a hard time starting the chapter of the Army-Navy game because I was afraid to read whether they won or lost!I will be following Army football this season - Go Army! Beat Navy!
    • 3/5
      Anyone who loves college football has been mourning for the past few years as power after vaunted power has been humbled by scandal. Division I sports is reeling under the weight of investigations at schools such as Penn State, USC, Auburn, Miami and the University of North Carolina, with no end in sight.Enter New York Times sportswriter Joe Drape and his latest offering, “Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country and Football at West Point.” If Drape gets his way, we’ll all view the Black Knights of Army as white knights — scrubbed, honorable and dedicated but undersized competitors charging into the teeth of very large, talented opponents, daring to think they can win.Off the gridiron, these athletes are the same men who’ll loom large one day on the real battlefield — and there’s not a snap or a block, a punt or an interception that approaches the gravity of their lives after the cheering stops.If ever there was a stirring story to be told, this would be it.Using the 2011 football season as the backbone of his book, Drape introduces us to a group of players who’ve had their own ups and downs at West Point. Weaving their stories in through a game-by-game recollection of the season, Drape gives us glimpses of their harried, difficult lives as cadets and athletes at the world’s most prestigious military academy.He reminds us that the glory days of Army football — its Heisman Trophy winners and its national championships — are distant memories, but he encourages us to join in believing that Head Coach Rich Ellerson can restore Army to its rightful place in college football lore.It is an uphill battle. This head coach, Drape rightly reminds, sits across from recruits’ parents with the reminder that, after graduation, their sons will not be headed for the NFL, but likely for the front lines of war.The book strums all the heartstrings as the reader is pulled from heartbreak to hope, game by game, and stirred to deep admiration for undersized players who personify selflessness on and off the field. But it fails on many technical points.While we do learn of numbers related to attrition rates, honor code violations and even coaches' salaries, we miss much in the way of specifics on the lessons Drape is trying to share.Though he spends much time sharing generalities about the exhausting demands of life at West Point, he misses his opportunity to follow one player through one excruciating day, showing the push and the pressure. Though he spends plenty of time acquainting us with Head Coach Ellerson and the unbelievably high standards to which he must adhere, Drape spends no time offering perspective, whether from former Army coaches or others in the Division I game.We do meet former Army players who went to war. Some returned with horrible injuries, some not at all. We get a brief glimpse into what an athlete brings as a wartime leader, but one-on-one conversation with former players and their reflections on how West Point football shaped their futures is missing.In short, Drape seems to have forgotten the old reporting adage, “Show, don’t tell.”“Soldiers First” will be a staple on the bookshelf of Army fans, Army alumni and former players. They won’t miss what’s not there; they’ve lived it. One wishes the reader could, too.I won a free Advanced Reader’s Edition of this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.
    • 4/5
      This book about Army Football at the United States Military Academy at West Point offers up a different perspective on college game in a number of ways. A timely book as we again come into a new season. With the scandals of Penn State, Ohio State, and others usually dominating the sports news Joe Drape reveals a side of the college game we don’t hear much about. One based on dedication, discipline, and personal sacrifice, what Army football is about.He takes us through the 2011 season for the Black Knights. A season that was filled with promise and expectation for the Cadets and their coach. It did not turn out as they had hoped with a number of losses that were brought about with sloppy play and many turnovers or close fought battles that just came up short. Culminating in the bitter loss to Navy that again just fell short and for the tenth time in ten years caused them to sing first in the closing tradition of the game.Aside from the description of the games Drape goes into the lives of a some of the key players for Army. Why they were there, how they got there, and what they had to face at the institution. He also covers the personal struggles of such things as character building and honor. Things not much considered in the general game of college football today. Among many of these things I learned about life at Army with the high attrition rate of Plebes who just to get there had to meet such high standards. The Army football player takes this on and more. Something not seen in the recruiting process that is so vital to the big money, high profile schools and the game that college football has become.The most important thing I felt he brought to focus in this book was the level of commitment it takes to not only to survive then succeed but ultimately what it means for the future of these Cadets beyond the football field. A five year commitment that for many will take them to the real battleground of war where that commitment is their very lives. No college football program aside from Navy and Air Force attaches that type of commitment. And Army graduates are really on the front line as they are truly the boots on the ground.I had not generally paid much attention to the football program at West Point beyond the traditional Army-Navy game that most college football fans would take note. A well written account of one aspect of this historic institution, Joe Drape got me to think about more than just the game. I will follow closely now to see how this season unfolds. Some of these players will again return to dedicate themselves to the task at hand on the field and what is to follow beyond. I am now a fan.