Kansas town basks in the glow of gridiron glory

The last time The New York Times dispatched a reporter to Smith Center, Kan., came in 1993 to document just how darned old people there were getting.

Seems the latest U.S. Census had found that Smith County was home to the largest proportion of people over 85 in the country — a symptom of the exodus of young people from the rural Midwest.

Yet across the top of the Times front page on Friday was a picture of youngsters running under a periwinkle Kansas sky.

The Smith Center football team has been dropping jaws in the sports world since a recent game in which it broke an 82-year-old national record by scoring 72 points in a quarter.

In hunt of yet another Class 2A-1A state title, the Redmen ran past Oakley’s Plainsmen 56-0 Friday night.

The Times wrote admiringly not just of the high school’s Redmen, but also of the community that embraces the team so dearly.

Were Norman Rockwell still alive, the Times article might have sent him dashing to central Kansas where, the paper wrote, “win or lose against Oakley on Friday night, the pickup trucks with the sons and the daughters of Smith Center will be back cruising Main Street. Their moms and dads, aunts and grandfathers will be nearby keeping a watchful eye.”

The flattery from New York was a salve to criticism traveling the Internet that Smith Center must have shown poor sportsmanship by running up so many points in a quarter. In truth, the quick run of touchdowns came from early fumbles, and by the second quarter coach Roger Barta had appealed to state officials to start a running clock to end the blowout more quickly.

“It’s very exciting for us,” Mayor Rebecca Atwood said of the Times story. “We’re a pretty close community, and we’re proud of our kids. We feel like we’ve got a lot to brag about.”

Much of the story focused on Barta, good coach and an even better guy. Testimonials from former players and the parents of his latest team described the town as a place that takes its football seriously without losing a sense of priority.

“I’ve been a longtime Roger Barta fan,” said Chuck Wilson, a vice president at Smith County State Bank. His son, the second to be coached by Barta, has gained over 1,200 yards this year in Smith Center’s wishbone attack. The coach “believes that the community and the parents and the kids are the focal point.”

Of course, it’s the football team’s otherworldly success that drives the attention.

Entering Friday night’s game it was riding a 51-game winning streak. This season it has outscored the other guys 760-0, winning by an average of almost 70 points. The Redmen tend to rush for seven times as many yards as their opponents. The team punted for the first time Friday night.

“Their kids are very, very dedicated to the weight room,” Oakley coach Randall Rath said before Friday’s game. “It’s just power football.”

In fact, the team averages fewer than two completed passes a game and almost 12 yards every time it runs the ball — mostly up the middle.

Stop into the Second Cup Cafe or Paul’s Cafe or Duffy’s steakhouse — all on either U.S. 36 or U.S. 281 less than 20 miles from the Nebraska border — and almost any grown man can likely list the starting lineup and diagram the X’s and O’s of the Redmen’s “12 Dive” play that sends the fullback charging off guard.

Friday night, most of those locals headed to Oakley to watch their boys. At Duffy’s on a November Friday night, an overflow of pheasant hunters could expect to hear the game’s play-by-play over KQMA/KKAN.

“Nobody misses the game,” said Shareece Hileman, who runs Duffy’s.

But they might miss The New York Times spread on the town. While e-mailed copies of the article were well-read throughout Smith County, nobody at the school, at the bank, at the courthouse or at the library had an actual copy of the newspaper, or even much of an idea of just how far they’d need to travel to buy a copy. Maybe Hays, Salina or Hastings, Neb. No one seemed to know.

“We’re hoping,” said principal Greg Koelsch, “that someone will mail us a few copies.”

To reach Scott Canon call (816) 234-4754 or send e-mail to scanon@kcstar.com.