High school football at its best

Our Boys

On Saturday, November 28, 2009, the Centralia Panthers defeated the Smith Center Redmen, 20-12, in the Class 2-1a championship game in Hays, Kansas. Thus ended the longest active winning streak in high school football (79) and, following the game, the Smith Center coaches, players, parents, and other supporters gave the victors an ovation of respect. Over the 32 seasons in Smith Center (a town of 1,931), Coach Roger Barta has won 301 games. As Joe Drape explains in an article published by The New York Times, “by creating a culture that values the whole man over a football player, that emphasizes getting ‘a little bit better each day,’ and insists that the Redmen cannot be champions until they love one another.”

Later in the locker room, Barta said this to his players and their family members: “Nobody hang their heads in here. We have lined up 80 times against teams, and finally one of them got us in a game that is going to go down there in the history books. They were a play better than us today.

“We’ve never judged ourselves on wins and losses. We’ve measured ourselves on whether we have been there for each other. You guys have been there all along. What you and those who came before have achieved over 79 games is something a lot of schools in America would like to say they have done.”

How many high schools in Texas can say they have? There are rimes when it seems to me that the success of a high school’s football team seems to be much more important than the quality of education that the school provides.

You may wish to check out Drape’s bestselling book, Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, and Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan for Success: 12 Lessons for Extraordinary Performance and Personal Excellence co-authored by John Wooden and Steve Jamison.