Thursday, August 12, 2010
Jim Bresnahan's "Friday Night Reunion" book about high school football in Rockbridge County should score with local readers
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At age 7, my nephew was an excited fan of the movie "Titanic" when it premiered in 1997.
So excited that he couldn't wait to tell my wife all about it.
"The boat sinks. Jack dies. She throws the gem in the ocean," the little fella reported.
So much for plot and protagonists.
I promise not to give away the ending of Jim Bresnahan's new book, "Friday Night Reunion."
Bresnahan has compiled an exhaustive account -- 461 pages worth -- of high school football in Rockbridge County, beginning with the 1986 season when he arrived in Lexington and began broadcasting local prep games on the radio.
The news and sports director for WREL-AM and WWWZ-FM, Bresnahan has seen heroics and heartbreak at Rockbridge County and Parry McCluer high schools as well as in the varsity programs at the three now-defunct county schools -- Lexington, Rockbridge and Natural Bridge.
Bresnahan admits his book is incomplete. By beginning with the 1986 season, he missed out on chronicling Group A championships won by Parry McCluer in 1977, '79 and '83.
"There's no way I could do a complete history so I decided to stick with the years I had first-hand experience with," said Bresnahan, a native of Dayton, Ohio. "I molded together my experiences with their experiences."
Bresnahan makes up for it with countless anecdotes and first-person accounts from the players, coaches and administrators who served as Friday night foot soldiers.
"Memories, what these guys were like back then and what they remember, and how important it was, what made football special to them," Bresnahan said in describing the meat of the book.
Bresnahan interviewed the likes of Dennis Vaught, the head coach of Lexington's 1988 Group AA Division 2 championship team; James River High principal Jamie Talbott, the first Rockbridge County head coach when the school opened in 1992; and Jennifer Williams, the daughter of the late Parry McCluer coaching legend Bob Williams.
The book is organized in chronological fashion, which allows a reader to find a nugget or two at just about any random starting point.
One entertaining anecdote from Lexington's 1988 season details a scene in Vaught's coaching office where 75-year-old former Lexington High coaching legend Pete Brewbaker is demonstrating a forearm shiver to a Scarlet Hurricane assistant coach.
The blow left the assistant short of breath and long on surprise. He recovered well enough, though. That young coach, Bryan Stinespring is now the offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech.
The book, which contains a foreward by Lexington resident and former NFL and college coach Bobby Ross, begins with an alphabetical list of the "players" and where many of them are today.
You learn that Jonathan Wilson, Rockbridge County class of 2003, is now a supervisor with ITT Night Vision in Roanoke; Mark Austin, Parry McCluer class of 1988 is a special agent with the Virginia State Police; and Robert Loughhead, Natural Bridge class of 1987, earned a degree in broadcast journalism and pulled Army tours in Somalia and Haiti.
The chapters are lengthy. Bresnahan breaks up any tedium with numerous "best-of" lists, based on personal opinion or voting by those he interviewed.
"It's a fun book, even though it's going to start a lot arguments," Bresnahan said.
The biggest one might be over Bresnahan's 16-team fantasy playoff, matching the top squads from the local high schools over the years.
Bresnahan pits powerhouses such as Parry McCluer's 1987 Group A Division 1 champs, Lexington's 1988 team and Rockbridge County's 2006 team that lost to Richlands by one point in the Group AA Division 3 final.
Who wins? You'll have to find out starting this weekend when Bresnahan expects to receive the initial copies for sale.
Unlike my nephew, I'm not telling.
