Skyline coach Roger Dupaix earned more than 300 wins

SALT LAKE CITY — Most of the world was in bed, but Roger Dupaix eased himself into the chair behind his desk in the out-dated office, and smiled at me in spite of the exhaustion we both felt.

In less than eight hours his team would be back in Skyline's locker-room — just a few feet from that office — to watch film and try to figure out what went wrong on the football field.

It was October of 2005, and I was writing in the notebook that I'd carried with me for more than a month as I followed one of the state's most successful and storied coaches. I scribbled as fast as I could, desperate to capture the details of our time together.

"What are you writing in there," he asked, waving his hand and smiling slightly. "Don't you have enough yet? You must have enough to write a book?"

There wasn't even a hint of irritation in his voice, but I laughed at his directness.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "I've never been a football coach. I need to understand you, why you do this, how you do this. So, no, I don't think I do."

As I looked at him, I felt the weight of his team's troubles. Four straight losses was a place this program had never been under Dupaix — or even his predecessors. The Skyline Eagles had been the state's premier football program since the '60s. Some of the men who helped him carry the weight of that losing streak played in those early state championship games. They helped create the tradition that Dupaix had successfully continued.

But that tradition looked doomed that night. A humiliating 45-10 loss to Alta, including an on-side kick late in the game, looked like too much to overcome — even for Skyline.

"Don't you ever just say, 'Hey, we don't have the horses this season?'" I asked, completely ready to wave the white flag for him. "Don't you ever just look around and say, 'We don't have the talent that those other teams have?' You can't win a title every year, right?"

Dupaix stared at me for just a second, and then said, "No. No, I don't think that. It's my job as a coach to teach them. It's my job as a coach to help them be successful."

And then he leaned forward, and it occurred to me that we were no longer discussing scoreboards or state titles.

"Every team is different," he said. "And for some reason, this year, I haven't been able to get these kids to see in themselves what we as coaches see. They need to believe in themselves and that's my job."