When The New York Times' Joe Drape, a Kansas native, wrote a feature story on the Smith Center Redmen, a team that had won four straight Kansas state championships and hadn't lost a game in all that time, he was astonished at the amount of feedback he received from readers.

Assigned the story after the Redmen scored 72 points in the first quarter of a game -- a national record in place since 1925 -- the charm of Smith Center affected Drape in a way that convinced him to write a book, "Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen" (Times Books) chronicling their 2008 season and fifth straight championship.

At the center of Smith Center's success was Coach Roger Barta, a coach for whom the game of football meant more than scoring points on the gridiron. His mantra: hard work, patience and love.

The boys on the team know that everyone in town is watching them. They can't drink, smoke tobacco or use drugs, and if they're caught doing any of those things, the penalty is severe. In Smith Center, every member of the team is given a football card, and those cards are distributed to the elementary-school classes, which are filled with kids who idolize the team. When a player breaks the code, his card is revoked in a school assembly, where he is made to apologize for letting the town down.

Throughout the book, Barta espouses his worldview on the team. They work extremely hard, both in the farm fields and on the football field. They run a wishbone. They average more than 9 yards per play. They never kick extra points or field goals unless they are trying not to run up the score. The outgoing seniors had outscored opponents 702-0.

Off field, as one of the locals put it, they are "the ambassadors of our town ... you ask anyone in Western Kansas, and they'll tell you they can recognize a Smith Center kid." In the summer, the boys can be found at the high school lifting weights. During the harvests, their schedules are sandwiched around work hours. If there's a school dance, Barta reminds everyone on the team to dress impressively for their dates, look the adults in the eye when they shake hands and to treat their dates like the ladies, daughters and future mothers they are.

"Do what a good man does," Barta says.

Because to Barta, it's about preparing the boys of Smith Center for a life's worth of experience: "None of this is really about football," Barta tells Drape. "What I hope we're doing is sending kids into life who know that every day means something."

Mark Vasto is a veteran sportswriter and publisher of The Kansas City Luminary.

(c) 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.