This afternoon, we had the pleasure of hearing Joe Drape talk about his background as a reporter and the story behind the story of Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, the book selected for Kansas Reads, January 27-March 17, 2012. A Kansas City native and graduate from Rockhurst High school, he started his writing career at the Dallas Morning Star, following the police on the 6 pm to 2 am shift for eight months. Since becoming a reporter for the New York Times, Joe has traveled the world covering major events, including sports. (Photo by Lars Klove for The New York Times)
Sports offers “the first window into our culture,” according to Joe. So after he read a small brief about a team in Kansas scoring 72 points in the first quarter of a football game, Joe got in touch with Roger Barta, the coach, traveled to Smith Center and wandered into the Cafe at lunch where he met a cross-section of the town. After explaining why he was there, the “Greek Chorus of the town” – the old men who serve as the town’s historians – sat him down to tell him about “our boys” who played football, but also sang in the choir and acted in the school play. The title of the book came from that first visit. ”It wasn’t about winning or losing, but about raising kids,” said Joe. Meeting Roger Barta in November 2007 left an impression, piqued Joe’s curiosity and the story of raising kids resonated with him, as he was the parent of a 3 year old at the time.
The newspaper story appeared as the lead, above the fold, as a ‘bright story,’ on a day full of bad news and the feedback Joe received confirmed his feeling that this story was worth pursuing. He convinced his wife to move to Smith Center from New York City, where they experienced ‘deafening silence’ and slowly started becoming part of the town. Joe said that it took time, but kids eventually asked about New York. Joe and Mary, his wife, gave presentations at school assemblies about 9/11 and the research for the story “became a dialogue.” In the end, Joe said he got a “master class in leadership and parenting” from Coach Barta and was told that the character education in Our Boys has been taught along side works by Jack Welch.
Some of the lessons Joe shared include:
- Coach Barta’s gospel is: “When we learn to respect each other, we’re going to learn to like each other. When you like each other, you learn to love each other, and then together we are champions.”
- It’s important to “get a little better each day.”
- Educators make a huge impact on our lives, spending 17 hours a day with kids between clubs, class and sporting events.
- Kids are a unifying element in small towns – they are something we all have in common.
During this tour of Kansas to promote Our Boys, Joe has had the opportunity to re-connect with friends from Smith Center and said that the experience “changed the Drape family’s life.”
His next book is Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point available in stores September 2012. Joe said he enjoys being the “popular poor man’s anthropologist” and we look forward to reading more from him in the future!
My husband Clete just finished reading this book. I enjoyed his comments and there were times he just put the book aside and laughed until he had tears in his eyes. M.E.