A Soaring Season: The Incredible Inspiring Story of the 2003-04 Saint Joseph Hawks
by Aaron Bracy
This is what it was supposed to be like.
That thought, or some variation thereof, is what came to mind as I read Aaron Bracy’s book, A Soaring Season: The Incredible Inspiring Story of the 2003-04 Saint Joseph Hawks.
This is what it was supposed to be like.
I don’t think that was Bracy’s intent, but it’s kind of unavoidable. As Phil Collins once said, “This is the world we live in.” (Kids, look into Genesis, Stranger Things times).
But let’s fast forward from 1986 to 2003. The St. Joseph’s Hawks basketball team embarked on a journey that very few division I basketball teams had ever experienced: the perfect regular season. When you look at the list of schools who have actually accomplished this, it’s even more impressive. Kentucky, San Francisco, North Carolina, UCLA, UNLV, St. Joseph’s, Wichita State, and Gonzaga.
That’s it.
Aaron Bracy guides you through the quest of the Saint Joseph’s Hawks to accomplish this feat. One of my favorite things about this book is how it is organized. Each game of the season gets its own chapter. That sets up a great pace for the reader. You feel like you are along for the ride, and it’s easy to comprehend the build up of the season. You experience all the moments that gradually pieced the season together with the people who lived it in real time. There is a true build up that takes place. So much of the success of Saint Joseph’s hinged on so many factors. This little school needed the right coach, the right recruits, the right administrators, and fans.
It was improbable until it was possible. Aaron Bracy succeeds in capturing the journey.
He conducted over 100 interviews and poured over mounds of archival material to provide a thoroughly researched and complete depiction of the Soaring Season. The closeness that he provides to the reader whiffs of John Feinstein a la Season on the Brink, or A Season Inside. But A Soaring Season is a tribute to the Saint Joseph’s team as much as it is a chronicle.
The David and Goliath epic resonates with something in the core of all of humanity. Sports provides us with so many parallel moments that summons that metaphor. So you can’t help but feel a little sadness along the way, reading this book. A quiet mourning of a bygone era, and why we loved it so much. The possible of the impossible. The struggle of the little guy. The Rocky Balboa. The Rudy. The Seabiscuit.
I’m not saying college athletes shouldn’t be compensated for what they do. They are certainly responsible for the very show that is generating billions of dollars a year in this economy.
But we are in a new era. NIL, transfer portal. You can’t help but see the emphasis shifting more and more away from the team, and more and more to the “Me.” And, of course, social media’s never ending hype machine amplifies it all for better and for worse.
So maybe that’s why I found A Soaring Season so refreshing. It’s a step back, just long enough ago, to remember what we had. And to celebrate a true David, when it seems like everyone today wants to be Goliath.
A Soaring Season is an exciting and fulfilling read. Check out Aaron Bracy’s website: www.Big5hoops.com
Buy his book here: https://a.co/d/jhguIz4
This is something that’s very special to me and my teammates. We should’ve all been on this cover. https://t.co/kZmuqyKfOG
— Jameer Nelson (@jameernelson) February 16, 2019
What a treat to spend time with Pat Carroll, Tyrone Barley, Dave Mallon, Rob Hartshorn, and Andrew Koefer at @Aaron_Bracy’s book launch for, A Soaring Season. #family #love pic.twitter.com/if8I4SCBRO
— Phil Martelli (@PhilMartelli) February 23, 2025
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