The high school football season kicked off in Colorado late last month, an annual tradition that elicits all kinds of happy memories for so many of us. Over a million young people play football in America, and well over 18,000 of them right here in the Centennial State.

Whether you’re a current or former player, parent or fan, the sport casts something of a hypnotic hold across the country as summer slowly turns to fall. I’ve always loved what John Facenda, the iconic voice of NFL Films, once said: “This sport is more than a spectacle; it is a game for all seasons.”

The legendary John Madden, who passed away in 2021, was a player and coach before spending 30 seasons in the broadcast booth. A true student of the gridiron, the colorful commentator suggested years ago that “High school football is the purest form of the game.” He seemed to qualify that sentiment a bit, though, as the game began to change.

During an interview on KCBS radio in 2010, Madden lamented, “I see youth football and I see high school football coaches yelling at players and I cringe. I think people get the picture that’s what coaching is and believe me, that’s not what coaching is.”

So, what does good coaching look like?

Dwight Lundeen, age 79, is beginning his 57th year as head coach of Becker High School in Becker, Minnesota. He’s led his teams to over 400 victories and four state championships, but that’s not how he measures success.

“The scoreboard does not define who I am or what we are,” he recently said. “We just deal with what we can deal with, fix what we can fix on Monday and stay very, very positive. I never beat the kids up. I say, ‘Hey, I just didn’t prepare you well.’”

Coach Lundeen says you would never know from watching practice on Monday whether his team won or lost on Friday night.

Many of us are fans of Dave Logan, the longtime voice of the Denver Broncos on KOA Radio. He’s been in the broadcast booth for 36 years. It’s reassuring to turn on the radio Sunday afternoons or Monday nights and hear his voice. I don’t want to imagine Broncos football without him.

But Dave is more than a broadcaster. A former NFL player (Browns and Broncos), he’s also been coaching high school football since 1993. First at Arvada West, then at Chatfield and Mullen and at Cherry Creek High School since 2012, Logan has led each of the four schools to state championships.

Yet, like Coach Lundeen, that’s not why he does it. “I care about kids, and that’s the reason you coach,” he says. “I think the life lessons you can learn as an athlete and a high school kid, many of those you carry with you and they shape in a lot of ways who you are and who you became.”

David Bervig, who coached for five seasons at The Classical Academy here in Colorado Springs, wholeheartedly agrees. He helped turn around a struggling program and led the team to the state playoffs four times in five years. The goal was to win, but he was even more concerned with cultivating and developing the character, sportsmanship and competitiveness of his players.

Coach Bervig said that whenever someone asked him how his team was looking, he would reply, “I don’t know. Ask me in 20 years.”

Coaches Bervig, Logan, Lundeen and Madden weren’t and aren’t just shepherding teams to short-term success but also to long-term victory in life itself.

I had the privilege of interviewing Coach Lou Holtz shortly before he died. Best known for leading the University of Notre Dame to a national championship in 1988, Holtz said, “I never felt I coached football, I felt I coached life.” He promised his players, “You do what I ask you to do for four years, I’ll be there for you for the next 40.”

Coach Holtz kept his pledge. As his former players filed in to see him as he lay dying, he asked each one, “What can I do for you?”

As you drive by football fields these next few months, or read the scores in the Gazette, remember this: The scoreboard tells us who won Friday night, but won’t tell us who will win at life.

For that, Coach Bervig had the right answer:

“Ask me in 20 years.”

Paul J. Batura is a local writer and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email at Paul@PaulBatura.com or on X @PaulBatura.