Wayne Coffey Summary

Either way, I thought Wayne Coffey did an incredible job writing about the greatest upset in sports history. I really liked how he went through each player and coach and dissected their life and what brought them to that moment they faced against the Soviets. Each player had a different story and they were all so unique and powerful in their own way. I also especially liked how Coffey writes about Herb Brooks. The way that Wayne Coffey talks about how Herb Brooks made himself the “enemy” of this United States hockey team was really interesting. This gives the reader a sense of what it takes to be the best, and Herb knew he had to do something not a lot of people have done. I enjoyed reading about this the most out of the entire book because without Brooks doing this
USA probably would never of won. Its tough to give a coach all the credit, but Brooks deserved a ton after some of the stuff he did.
I liked that I can relate to a lot of the coaching style Brooks demonstrated because of my athletic background, and I have had coaches do similar types of stunts to try and promote team unity. I can relate to this because I have had coaches that have made me very mad and that I could even maybe say that I hated at times. However, like team USA, my teams also won because of these harsh, but useful coaching strategies. Wayne Coffey did an excellent job at showing the real side of Herb Brooks and the crazy relationships he had with his players.
Like some of the book reviews, I got confused going back and forth between game and story throughout the book. It was also very frustrating when Coffey would be doing a play by play and you know something incredible is about to happen, and he tells a 5 page story before you actually find out what happened in the play. These are obviously very small and not important details, but they became frustrating at times throughout the book.
Some stuff I wish Coffey talked about more about was the nationalism and the games prior to the Soviet one.
I wish Coffey could of elaborated on more personal accounts about how Americans and the fans felt about the game before and after, and some wild stories of what happened when the people found out the United States won. I also would of liked to know what went on in Olympic Village during this game and how people reacted after, was it crazy? What did other teams think of the upset? Also, knowing the story pretty well I wish that Coffey would of given a brief overview of the games prior to the Soviet game. He talked about the exhibition where USA lost 3-10, but other than that it would be tough for an unknowing reader to understand the drama even before the Soviet game.
Overall, I think Wayne Coffey did an excellent job reviewing the game, and elaborating on everything that surrounded it. He wanted people to know what happened in the game, the players and their families outside the game, the coaches and their strategies, and the politics that engulfed the whole thing. I think Coffey accomplished his mission of telling the story of the Boys of Winter and the greatest upset in athletics
history.