One of the things about the top-heavy nature of Philly sports is that when the four major pie is eaten, there’s not much left for everyone else. That’s a stupid way of saying that when we write all of our stories about the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers, the other teams don’t get a lot of attention. That goes for the Union, Wings, Big 5, high school sports, and whatever else is out there.

So it was good to see local sportswriter and hoops aficionado Aaron Bracy dive into the 2003-2004 St. Joe’s Hawks, who went on one of the most enjoyable runs in Philadelphia sports history. His new book is called A Soaring Season, The Incredible, Inspiring Story of the 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s Hawks, and spans more than 200 well-written pages.

What’s cool about the book is the way it’s structured. Normally you get the typical introductory chapters and then a sports story is told in some sort of predictable, straightforward fashion. This time, Bracy works back to front, setting up the Elite 8 matchup with Oklahoma State as a cliffhanger of sorts before opening the book officially with the tale of how the Hawks landed Jameer Nelson. There are supporting chapters on Delonte West, Phil Martelli, and the role players, then it breaks out into a series of 34 chapters that go game-by-game through the season.

But it’s not as simple as “the Hawks beat Richmond, West scored 15 points, on to the next one, blah blah.” Each game serves as a vessel of sorts in which a smaller part of the larger story is told.

For example, Chapter 7 talks about the Drexel win, but it starts with a bit of history about Martelli and Bruiser Flint, who was himself a St. Joe’s grad. It’s explained that Martelli would always give Flint a non-conference game when other teams would not, because it was a lose-lose proposition. If you played Drexel and won, you were supposed to win. If you played Drexel and lost, it was a bad loss. What was the upside? You get an interesting nugget before the chapter switches focus to sophomore role player Chet Stachitis, who hit four three-pointers in a row to spark a 19-2 St Joe’s run. From there, it’s a few bridge paragraphs, then quotes from Flint on how impressed he was with the Hawks that season.


This approach makes the book chronological, but not linear, if that makes sense. You go game-by-game through the season, but new characters are introduced along the way, and new angles are explored with assorted quotes from former players, coaches, fans, and media. These bits and pieces add up to a larger understanding of the team and its fabric.

The one thing that’s sad is that Delonte West did not participate in the book, obviously due to his well-documented personal struggles. In the epilogue, Bracy notes that “through family, West was informed about this book, and the author was told that West was amenable to an interview, but the interview never happened.” Delonte does get a full chapter, though, in which coaches and teammates talk about his competitive drive and motivation. It was nice to go back and read about those positive things since most of the news surrounding him over the past decade has been negative and rough. His story is told in a legitimate and comprehensive way even though he doesn’t participate in the book, and I have to imagine his family will be really happy with the way it turned out.

Another enjoyable focus was on the role players. Everyone knows Jameer Nelson and Delonte West. Most know that Dwayne Jones made it to the NBA and is now a 76ers assistant. But they might be less familiar with guys like Pat Carroll, John Bryant, Dave Mallon, Tyrone Barley, and Dwayne Lee. It was interesting getting to learn more about their stories, and how they viewed the team, summed up best I think by this Jones quote:

“There we no cliques, we were all friends, everybody was so cool. We hung out with each other off the court, we worked out with each other, we had class together. We were a very close-knit group, and we all had the same goal of wanting to compete. Nobody had an ego. And it was just all about us.”

It’s an enjoyable book. Would recommend, even if you’re not a Big 5 fan or a basketball fan. That St. Joe’s team is just a great example of a special squad that went on a special run, and they should absolutely be chronicled in this way. I remember being a college freshman at the time, surrounded by Pittsburgh doofuses, and they talked nonstop shit about the Hawks, who just kept winning. These Yinzers did not understand that the Hawk will never die.

The book comes out on March 1st but you can pre-order it if you want.