La Salle Alum Mike Sielski’s New Book Examines the Lives of Two Men From the Football Field to the Battlefield

In a new book, La Salle alumnus Mike Sielski tells the true story of two men, inspired after the events of 9/11, to join the military and serve their country. Only one returned. Fading Echoes: A True Story of Rivalry and Brotherhood from the Football Field to the Field of Honor, relates the experiences of Army Ranger Colby Umbrell and Marine Bryan Buckley, both from Doylestown, Pa.

“I thought this could be a big story,” said Sielski, who knew the two men from his time covering the hotly contested high school football rivalry between Central Bucks East (Umbrell) and Central Bucks West (Buckley), as a beat reporter for the Doylestown Intelligencer.

“It’s a great little town,” said Sielski, “but you wouldn’t think there would be a big time football rivalry.” He noted that Doylestown is culturally diverse with people from every walk of life. “You see kids in flip flops and tied dyed shirts intermingling with businessmen, but the football rivalry brings the town together,” he said.

A sports columnist at Calkins Media, which covers Philadelphia’s suburbs, Sielski interviewed nearly 50 people in researching Fading Echoes, including Umbrell’s family only three months after he was killed. “It was still raw, but they wanted people to know what he had done,” said Sielski. His background covering football helped with the interviewing process because, as Sielski noted, “They have to trust you.”

Fading Echoes grew out of a four-part series about Umbrell written by Sielski for the Intelligencer in December, 2007, seven months after Umbrell was killed in action. Even before attending John Hopkins University, Umbrell knew his future was in the Army. “His family often heard ‘why is he wasting a John Hopkins education (by joining the Army)?’” said Sielski

Buckley wanted to play football while attending the University of Massachusetts, but 9/11 served as a “wake up call” to him, said Sielski. Umbrell also viewed the tragedy as a reaffirmation to serve his country. “They could have been anything. They already had direction, and it was in the military,” said Sielski, who is teaching an English course at La Salle this semester.

Fading Echoes includes two chapters, culled from e-mails and letters of the two soldiers, about their rigorous training. “It lets the reader connect with Colby and Brian in their own words,” said Sielski. “I was lying in bed, awake and thinking about the book, when the idea hit me.”

Despite their sons’ casual knowledge of each other, the Umbrell and Buckley families became friends over the course of Sielski’s research. “That’s kind of the way the book ends,” added Sielski. “It’s never far from my mind when talking about the book, what Colby and Bryan did. The unbelieveble sacrifices and heartache that went into this work. It keeps my feet on the ground.”

While at La Salle, Sielski was a sports editor for the Collegian, the student newspaper. He recalled how covering a La Salle women’s basketball game inspired him to be a better writer. “The women’s team killed Notre Dame. They blew them out of the water. I really tried for the first time to write a good article. I poured my heart and soul into it. That’s when I really fell in love with sportswriting,” he said.

By Rob Fierro