Real warriors take field at West Point

Real warriors take field at West Point
The Providence Journal
JIM DONALDSON
September 9, 2007

LTC Gadson gave the pre-game speech for the West Point game last week.
Army went on to beat Rhode Island.
coincidence? we think not.
(Army takes on Wake Forest this weekend here in Winston.)

Knute Rockne had The Gipper. Stan Brock has Lt. Col. Greg Gadson.

“He’s an Army football player who lost both his legs in Iraq,” said Brock, who is in his first season as coach of the Cadets. “He came up from Walter Reed (hospital) to speak to the team. It was very moving. He told them: ‘Your mission here is to win football games. After you graduate, your mission is to serve and protect your country.’ ”

At West Point, the reality is that a football player has a better chance of going into combat than he does of going to the NFL.

“They know what they’re in for,” said Brock. “These are young men who came to West Point in time of war.”

These are very special young men that the University of Rhode Island Rams will be playing against tomorrow afternoon at Michie Stadium, high above the Hudson River —young men who not only are dedicated to football, but also to defending the nation.

“We don’t get everybody we want,” Brock said this week. “Not everybody wants to come here. But the kids who do are kids you want to coach. They’re not always the most talented athletes. They’re not always blue-chippers. But they don’t ever lay down for anybody.

“These kids are the kind you want to be around. They’re great kids. I feel very privileged to be here, coaching them. West Point is a special place.”

It was during World War II that Gen. George Marshall, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, said: “I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player.”

Such a man is Lt. Col. Gadson.

A defensive end at Army, Gadson became an artillery officer after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1989. He served in Bosnia, in Operation Desert Storm, and was a battalion commander with the 32nd Field Artillery in Iraq when he was severely wounded in May.

Four years ago, when a winless Army football team came to Honolulu to play the University of Hawaii, Gadson attended a practice at Schofield Barracks, where he was stationed with the 25th Infantry Division.

“I truly believe we can be successful,” he said then in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. “We never have a lot of size, but size isn’t everything. Attitude, discipline — you can make those a premium to be successful.”

Brock would be successful if he could recruit players as big, and as talented, as he was.

At 6-6, 290, he was even bigger than his “big” brother, Pete (6-5, 270), who was an offensive lineman for the New England Patriots for 12 years, from 1976 through ’87. Both were first-round draft picks out of Colorado, where Pete was an all-Big 8 center and Stan, an all-conference tackle. Their brother Willie also played at Colorado and spent a season with the Detroit Lions, and another brother, Ray, played at LSU.

Taken 12th overall by the Saints in 1980, Stan played 13 seasons in New Orleans, where he is a member of the franchise’s Hall of Fame, then three more in San Diego, where he was a member of the Chargers’ AFC championship team in 1994, coached by Bobby Ross.

It was Ross who brought Brock to Army in 2004, as his offensive line coach. Prior to coming to West Point, Brock had been coaching in the Arena Football League.

When Ross retired after last season, Brock was named his successor.

“Stan commands a great deal of respect from our players,” said Kevin Anderson, Army’s director of athletics. Among the reasons for that are that, when he first came to West Point as an assistant, he went through “Beast Barracks” — the demanding, summer indoctrination program for incoming plebes.

“He wanted to make sure the kids knew he appreciated the kinds of things they have to go through,” Pete Brock said of his younger brother. “He loves it there — the culture, the environment.”

Stan Brock wants his players to be leaders and role models for the Corps of Cadets.

“They carry a heavy academic load,” he said. “They’re taking 18 credit hours, in difficult courses.”

That is in addition to the demands of playing big-time college football and the regimen of military life.

“As Army football players,” Brock said, “they need to do more. They need to be leaders.”

They need to be like fullback Mike Viti, who, in addition to being a team captain, also is one of four cadet regimental commanders.

“Mike Viti,” said Brig. Gen. Robert Caslan Jr., the commandant of cadets at West Point, “is the type of inspirational leader America needs leading her sons and daughters, both at West Point and in today’s Army.

“He is a totally selfless team player. He’s a tremendous leader and role model for every member of the Army football team, and for every member of the Corps of Cadets.”

He is the type of player that makes Brock proud to be coaching at West Point.

“These kids are very goal-oriented,” he said. “They know where they’re going, and how to get there.”