Right in the heart of America -- in Smith Center, Kansas, to be exact -- high school football coach Roger Barta glanced at his notes as he stood among the sea of players gathered before him. It was 6:30 a.m. on August 18, 2008, the first day of practice for this edition of the Redmen and the 31st opening day of the season for Barta, longtime coach and former math teacher at Smith Center High School. Barta wore a red T-shirt covering a ball-shaped belly . Barta began with basic instructions: Drink lots of water. Fine advice. But what Coach Barta laid out next was the essential game plan -- life lessons that many people consider his greatest strength. "Someone here is the best, and someone is the worst," he said. "It's time to forget about that. Let's respect each other. Thus, we'll like each other and then love each other. That's when, together, we'll become champions." He paused for a moment. When he continued, he spoke with even more fervor   to the 56 young men sitting before him. "One more thing, guys. We don't talk about winning and losing. We talk about getting a little better every day, about being the best we can be, about being a team. And when we do that, winning and losing take care of themselves." Over the next four months, the Redman went on to beat each competitor, winning another perfect season. As their coach, Barta has created a 289-58 record, eight Kansas state championships, and 67 victories. In high school football, it's the longest win in the nation. Through it all, Coach Barta kept his word: Not once did he ever say that a game was do-or-die. "None of this is really about football," he had explained to me back in 2007, convincingly  enough to force me to move to Smith Center from New York City with my wife, Mary, and three-year-old son, Jack, so I could write about him for a year. "What I hope we're doing is sending kids into life who know that every day means something." In Barta's opinion, which is important for a player?
Winning the game. Learning from failure. Trying his or her best. Caring about the result.