A Town Good at Football and Life

<div align="center"><div style="text-align: center"><img src="/files/u2/smithcenter.jpg" title="smith center" alt="smith center" height="69" hspace="3" vspace="3" width="125" /></div><div align="left">The Smith Center (Kansas) Redmen beat Oakley Friday night 56-0, which means there's no jinx that comes with being on the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/sports/football/09football.html?_r=1&oref=slogin" target="_blank">front page of the New York Times</a>. The Times wrote about the Redmen, Smith Center and a good small town Friday, before the team took on undefeated Oakley.<br /></div></div><div align="left"><br />The story is about a community that works. Smith County is <a href="/rural-americas-most-prosperous-counties" target="_blank">on the list of the most prosperous</a> rural communities, and we can see why. "What we do around here real well is raise kids," Smith Center Coach Roger Barta said. "None of this is really about football. We're going to get scored on eventually, and lose a game, and that doesn't mean anything. What I hope we're doing is sending kids into life who know that every day means something." <br /></div>