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>
