It’s tough to get to the top, or so I’ve been told. Staying on top once you get there, though, is a lot harder.

Just ask Tom Cruise, Britney Spears or that skinny lady who played Ally McBeal. One you’re on the top rung, it doesn’t take a lot to knock you off. You act like a fool on Oprah, marry some gold-digging trailer trash or Han Solo, and suddenly the paparazzi is pushing you aside so they can get a shot of Hannah Montana eating an ice cream cone and you’re doing a guest spot on Jimmy Fallon’s show.

It isn’t that much different in high school football, except for the Hannah Montana and Jimmy Fallon part, at least. Getting to the top is tough, but staying there is Herculean.

Just ask Skowhegan, Winthrop or Edward Little.

Those three teams might have disputed the relative difficulties of scaling the mountain versus remaining on the summit this time last year. Skowhegan hadn’t been to a state title game since 1989 before winning the Pine Tree Conference last November. Edward Little, which lost the PTC championship game to the Indians, went through a lot of growing pains to get to its first conference championship game in six years. Winthrop had also experienced frustration for much of the decade before winning the Campbell Conference Class C in 2008.

But 2009 has thrown a bucket of cold water into the faces of fans of three very good football towns. Skowhegan and Edward Little are 0-3. Winthrop is 2-1 and still in the Campbell Conference playoff hunt, but the Ramblers have already given up more points than last year’s dominant defense, and Dirigo has supplanted them as league favorites.

The Indians, Eddies and Ramblers were all bound to take a step back this year just due to attrition. Graduation subtracted a Fitzpatrick Trophy finalist from Skowhegan’s backfield and gutted EL and Winthrop on both sides of the ball. Injuries have further depleted all three teams. And of course, there is the revenge factor. Teams that took it on the chin in Skowhegan, Auburn and Winthrop last year have been looking forward to returning the favor ever since.

But all high school sports programs face these factors every year, and yet a handful manage to withstand the realities of high school football. The latest illustration came last Friday night in Wells, where Mountain Valley somehow managed a comeback win over Wells, 27-20, despite having players sidelined with a wide range of maladies.

Trailing 20-12 at halftime and down to their third-string quarterback, third-string halfback and a hanging-on-by-a-string secondary, the Falcons shut out Wells in the second half and scored two unanswered touchdowns. Victory wasn’t assured until Tim Ross, a third-string safety, intercepted Well’s QB Paul McDonough in the end zone with 14 second left.

So how does this happen? How does one team find a way through such adversity to another win while others crumble? How does a team withstand the loss of a Fitzy finalist, numerous other all-state caliber players and injuries to three-quarters of their offensive and defensive backfields and still win? How does a program maintain the level of excellence from one year to the next, let alone over the course of an entire decade.

Some might suggest it’s simply success breeding more success. No doubt,
players at Mountain Valley, Lisbon and Bonny Eagle can watch their
predecessors and get unique insight into what it takes to win. But
eventually, you have to learn by doing, too. As colleague Kalle Oakes
pointed out in his game story, Mountain Valley trails so late in a
September game “about twice every presidential election cycle.” Ross
and his fellow reserves stepped onto the field with less varsity
experience than their foes from Wells, but also with less experience in down-to-the wire, nail-biting varsity games. Yet they got the job done.

So it has to come down to coaching, right?  Certainly having someone such as Jim Aylward serve as the cornerstone of a program for its entire existence or a Dick Mynahan to guide it through more than two decades is a great place to start. But Mike Marston at Skowhegan, Darren Hartley at EL and Joel Stoneton at Winthrop have the respect of their peers, as well. They spend as much time preparing their players for situational football as anyone else. They wouldn’t have had the success they had last year if they didn’t.

Surely, those are factors. Luck is a factor, too. But the biggest difference in Rumford, Lisbon, Standish and a few other places isn’t what’s in the water. It’s what is in the players.

The players don’t just know what to do when they get on the field. They understand that knowing what to do when the lights aren’t on is just as important. Worried about how much talent your team has lost? Get your teammates together and make a commitment to the weight room, 7-on-7 football and whatever else it takes to get better over the summer. 

See a teammate make a mistake on the field? Don’t point fingers. Help him understand what he did wrong, how he can improve, then ask yourself how you can improve, too. 

Not happy with your playing time? Bite your tongue and prove the coaches wrong in practice and during the  game time you do receive.  Listen to what your coaches tell you to do and do it and you’ll be amazed how easy it is to earn their trust.

Teammates dropping like flies around you because of injuries? Step in and keep your head up, even if you mess up. Remember what your coaches taught you, but don’t think too much, and don’t try to do too much. You are one of 11. It starts with you, but it doesn’t end with you. And if you make a play, act like you’ve done it before.

Want to know why the trophy cases in towns like Rumford, Lisbon and Standish have the most gold footballs? Because they have the most Tim Ross’s.