For any successful team, leadership is critical.

Cultivating and nurturing the kind of people whom other players will respect, admire and trust, well, that's not an easy thing to do, especially when you're talking about teenagers.

For South Sevier football coach Travis McAllister, having those leaders emerge, helped the Rams go from middle of the pack to top of the heap this season.

It is no accident that South Sevier (8-0) is enjoying the longest winning streak in the state. Yes, the Rams. Usually a forgettable football program, they are proving to be serious 2A title contenders this year.

The difference is harder to get at because it didn't begin with the start of the 2009 season. It started seven years ago when McAllister took over the program.

"When I got here it was kind of a challenge to build the program," said McAllister, who grew up playing for perennial-power Kanab. "I was part of some good teams in high school."

His high school experience helped coach McAllister understand just what it takes to go from wishing and hoping for wins and actually earning them on the field on Friday nights.

First order of business, begin to change expectations.

"Just trying to change the attitude, the mentality," he said of what a coach tackles first when trying to turn a program from a doormat into a contender. "You have to change the mental makeup of the program."

"There would be some games where we played good teams tough, and even though we didn't win everyone thought, 'Well, we played hard.' That was good enough," said McAllister.

One way to change expectations is to convince players they need to be more committed to doing the extra work that might make a difference on game day. McAllister began working hard with the players in the off-season on weights and conditioning and convincing the school's best athletes that football didn't have to play second fiddle to basketball or baseball.

"We had about 45 kids out this year," he said. "It's one of the things we've been working on because in the past we just haven't been very deep. This year we've had some injuries, but other kids have stepped in and we have been able to stay where we want to be."

In addition to off-season effort and increased expectations, McAllister said he cultivated leadership among the players.

"We have a really good group of leaders this year," he said of his seniors.

A year ago he wouldn't have guessed that one of those leaders would be senior wide receiver and defensive back Dillon Bishoff.