Fading Echoes: A True Story of Rivalry and Brotherhood from the Football Field to the Fields of Honor

With the biggest high school football rivalry in Pennsylvania as his backdrop, Sielski tells the tale of two opposing Doylestown, Penn. players who each abandoned gridiron dreams to fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Central Bucks West senior captain Bryan Buckley and Central Bucks East senior Colby Umbrell, two standout players, graduated in 1999 to pursue collegiate (and possibly professional) ball careers. After Sept. 11, 2001, they were both inspired to abandon sports and serve their country, Buckley with the Marines and Umbrell with the Army Rangers. Both deployed to the Middle East in 2006, but only one survived, a tragedy that shook the idyllic Philadelphia suburb to its core. Local sportswriter Sielski (How to Be Like Jackie Robinson) recreates prep football games, military training and war-time battles in rich detail, based on dozens of interviews, letters and e-mail correspondence. Leagues deeper than most sports stories, this Friday-night-lights tale unfolds into a moving study of war's transforming effect on individuals, families and communities.