Review of "The Bandana Express"

 High school football teams are usually the subject of some of the best football books and this one is no exception.  Here is my review of the story of the 1980 Giles Spartans, "The Bandana Express."

Title/Author:

“The Bandana Express: The True Story of the 1980 Gilles Spartans” by Jeremy Heymore

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

One of the great characteristics of sports is that any athlete or team can be a “rags to riches” story when they achieve greatness after a period of struggling.  The Giles Spartans, a high school football team covering a swath of southwestern Virginia, can qualify as one of those stories when they unexpectedly won the 1980 Virgina state championship. Their journey is chronicled in this book by Jeremy Heymore.

Inspired by seeing Ragsdale Field in nearby Narrows, Heymore gathered information and conducted interviews with key people on that 1980 team and penned a story that many compare to Friday Night Lights. I found it similar – but very different in that a forbidden piece of headgear – a bandana – ended up being a symbol of a team and fan base that came together to bring joy to the Giles school district.

The portrayal of coach Steve Ragsdale and his father Harry are the best personal stories in the book – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of good information on players on the team as well. This includes players like Leon King, who was certainly the star of the team and was a big reason why the Spartans were able to have the success they had.

Readers who like the X’s and O’s in their football books will love Heymore’s write up of the Giles games.  Most of the games have an excellent play by play description. Much like the play of the Spartans, I thought the writing about each playoff game got better and better up to the championship game.  That was very entertaining – not just for the action on the field, but also for the description of Coach Ragsdale’s halftime speech that truly worked. 

Any football fan, regardless of level of interest or which level of the game they follow (high school, college or professional) will enjoy this book on a great story of an underdog team coming together to win a championship.

I wish to thank Koehler Books for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link: The Bandana Express: The True Story of the 1980 Giles Spartans: Haymore, Jeremy: 9798888247693: Amazon.com: Books