Sitting Bull Run - Jack Hogan Series, #1

2024 Revised and Expanded Edition

Born a few years too late to be drafted into the Vietnam War, the seven varsity runners on the 1974 St. Theresa High School cross-country team were a group of scrubbed prep boys who barely noticed the ebbing tide of the ghastly Vietnam conflict in Southeast Asia. In fact, from their small bayside enclave of Bellport, New York, the war was unimaginable to them. It was not because they couldn't see it, besieged as they were by the newsreels and photographs. Rather, their world was the rugged cross-country terrain, which for them represented their ultimate goal of winning the state championship in November. For three team members, however, their world was turned upside down on a late summer night, when a confluence of sinister forces, with ties to the Catholic Church as well as the war, left their lives shattered and in ruin. Sitting Bull Run tells the dark but hopeful tale of these three boys as they fought all odds to continue their quest for a state title. Set against the backdrop of actual workouts and races, the story represents a microcosm of what countless high school athletes have experienced over the years, and that is, confronting deeply personal trauma even as they persevere in a sport they love.