by Joe Drape
First published 2009
New York Times sportswriter Joe Drape examines the remarkable football program in Smith Center, Kansas, where Coach Roger Barta has built a dynasty around a simple philosophy: respect each other, learn to love each other, and together become champions. The team has achieved sixty-seven consecutive victories, the longest high school winning streak in America. Drape moved his family to this town of 1,931 residents to understand how football sustains an entire community. He follows the 2008 season as the team pursues its fifth straight championship while facing major transitions. The greatest senior class in school history has graduated, and Barta considers retirement after thirty years of coaching. Hours from any major city, Smith Center revolves completely around "our boys." Drape reveals how coaches, players, and parents create something larger than football in a place where economic decline threatens traditional ways of life. His reporting captures a community that fights to preserve values and connections even as circumstances change around them.
Genres: sports, non-fiction, biography-memoir, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: community, found-family
Setting: Kansas, Smith Center
Period: 2008
288 pages · Hardcover · Times Books