The Boys of Winter

Starred review from December 20, 2004
In this well-written and thoroughly researched story of the 1980 Olympic gold-medal winning hockey team, New York Daily News
sportswriter Coffey does much more than simply evoke memories. Expertly using coach Herb Brooks (who died last year in an auto accident) as his focal point, Coffey shows how Brooks, a devoted student of the game, used both psychological tactics and a groundbreaking system predicated on speed and constant motion to defeat the Soviets, a team of highly trained, older and bigger professionals who had dominated the international competition for decades. Over the years, this story of the Americans' victory has become larger than life, replete with drama and drenched in patriotic themes. Coffey's greatest achievement is that his narrative never sinks into melodrama. He captures the rigorous training and the thrill of the games, yet digs deeper, soberly rendering the tenor of the American spirit amid the Iranian hostage crisis and the Cold War, and humanizing and illuminating (rather than caricaturing) the Russian side. For example, although the Russians were a world superpower, they scrounged for Band-Aids and didn't use slap shots because a shortage of quality sticks meant they couldn't risk breaking them—details suggesting the underlying faults of the Soviet regime. Coffey portrays the American side, a diverse collection of amateurs, warts and all, and gives special attention to Brooks, an enigmatic figure who turned a bunch of regional rivals into a tight-knit family whose bond still exists today. Filled with primary interviews and exceptional insight, Coffey's effort should delight more than just hockey fans. Photos. Agent, Andrew Stuart. (Jan.)

Forecast
: Although the current NHL lockout may mean a lack of exposure to this book's natural audience (it won't get plugs between periods of games, since there are none), February marks the 25th anniversary of the 1980 Olympic team, which could help sales.

May 1, 2005
Adult/High School -A masterfully told narrative of the team's gold medal victory at Lake Placid, NY. The author's skilled depiction of personalities, breathtaking rendering of action on the ice, talent for capturing colorful regional hotbeds of hockey, and seamless segues between past and present are handled without loss of forward momentum in the story line. The saga of how coach Herb Brooks motivated a roster of 20 amateur, mostly college-age young men to orchestrate victory over an established Soviet team of seasoned, professionally trained skaters offers suspense, heroism, and a dizzying sense of the "full competitive combustion" that is a hallmark of this sport. A portrait of Brooks emerges as an irascible, obstinate, aloof, but savvy coaching genius who elicited singular creativity, grit, and a passionate teamwork ethic from his players. The 1980 setting for the XIII Winter Olympics, well before the age of blockbuster budgets and corporate sponsorship, is described in retrospect as having an "endearing, small-scale quality," where the potential for miraculous athletic performance resided in "a team full of dreamers" rather than a Dream Team. Vignettes of the Americans' hometown roots, as well as selective quotes and insights from members of the Soviet team's skating dynasty, nicely round out the coverage. Bottom line: the sports action is superb, the players' character enhancement and values are deftly related to coaching lessons learned, and the decade perspective is sketched with a fine hand." -Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2004
The story of the victory by the U.S. men's hockey team over the vaunted Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics is still as luminous and improbable as it was nearly 25 years ago: a group of plucky but not overwhelmingly gifted young amateurs, whose style of play is overhauled by their mercurial but visionary coach Herb Brooks, taking on the virtually unbeatable Soviet pros on their way to a gold medal. In his unintended but effective companion to Disney's 2004 movie " Miracle," sportswriter Coffey details, period by period, the events of that historic game. In doing so, he also tells the individual stories, past and present, of the team and offers a sympathetic view of the Soviet side as well. All 20 U.S. players could be forgiven if, over the past 25 years, they found it impossible to top their Olympic victory. But as player Eric Strobel, embracing the essence of that remarkable team, told Coffey recently, "It was a great moment, but where is it going to get you? You just get on with your life."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)