high schools

STEPHEN, MINN. — The Stephen-Argyle football team was running sprints, 100 yards at a crack, during practice last week. The players had completed one down-and-back circuit when coach Mark Kroulik hollered in a joyful voice, "It's a beautiful day!"

The hard-breathing players, some with hands on knees, responded in unison, "Beautiful day!"

"Yes, it is," said the coach before blowing his whistle and sending the boys on another length-of-the-field conditioning journey.

Actually, it was going to be a beautiful day ... once the sun came up.

The sprints took place at 6:15 a.m., under the lights as the world waited for sunrise. The team was on the field at 5:45 and worked out until 7:45. The players then showered, had breakfast and were ready for school to begin at 8:30.

It was just another day for the most extraordinary football team in America.

The Stephen-Argyle Storm:

• Plays Nine-man football.

• Has won the past four Nine-man championships, a state-record title run.

• Owns a 58-game winning streak and is closing in on the state record of 60 games without a loss.

• Follows a playbook that contains no plays.

• Has a three-year starting lineman with a prosthetic leg.

• Has been practicing under the early-morning lights since the 1960s.

Back then, many football players had farm chores after school. So practice was moved to the morning and has stayed that way ever since, even though farming is no longer the reason. At Stephen-Argyle, that's just the way it is.

"We like having practice in the morning," said 6-1, 235-pound senior guard Kolby Gruhot, who lost his left leg below the knee in a farm accident when he was 3 years old. "Then we have lots of time after school for homework or whatever's going on."

That also means early bedtimes, with players and coaches hitting the sack as soon as 9 p.m. Student manager Johnny Cleem is usually the first one awake, rising as early as 3:15 a.m. He watches ESPN's "SportsCenter" ("The guys always ask me what happened in sports last night") before arriving at school and turning on the field lights between 4:45 and 5 a.m.

• • •

Stephen (population 708) and Argyle (656) are nine miles apart on Hwy. 75 in far northwestern Minnesota. From here -- where wheat, sugar beets and football are king, the nearest Big Mac is 45 miles away and the earth is flatter than a cheap clarinet -- it's one-third of the distance to drive to Winnipeg, Manitoba (120 miles) than Minneapolis (360).