MARIETTA - If there were any doubts as to whether Rocky Hidalgo has a true understanding of his new job as head football coach at Walton High School, he dispelled them Wednesday while talking to the members of the East Cobb Area Council at its annual football kickoff breakfast at Indian Hills Country Club.

He has seen the job from both ends of the spectrum.

Hidalgo talked about picture day for his team. As he told his players what to do and where to go, the photographer came up to him and asked if he could take his picture.

That's when reality slapped Hidalgo in the face.

"I stood there, chest out, chin up and, when it was over, the photographer leaned in and said, 'Now, who are you again?'

"Yeah," Hidalgo joked. "A big-time head football coach."

Then, as he talked about his team and the prospects for the 2009 season, Hidalgo got serious. His statements were echoed by the five other members of east Cobb's coaching fraternity - Kell's Derek Cook, Lassiter's Chip Lindsey, Pope's Matt Kemper, Sprayberry's Billy Shackelford and Wheeler's Tom Flugum.

"In today's world, we are all caught up in our rights and liberties instead of our responsibilities," Hidalgo said. "But that's what I love about football. It can teach you more about being a great American than any other sport."

That's because most of the game of football - at least for the coaches who are teaching it - has nothing to do with anything that happens between the white lines on a Friday night. It is more about the four or five days of practice each week and all the offseason preparation that helps turn a 130-pound freshman with no confidence or athletic ability into a strong young man on the right path to becoming a productive member of society when he leaves the program four years later.

These coaches are leading by example.

Hidalgo said Walton has set up what it calls the "True Blue" program to help sell his 140 players on the idea of being and remaining free of drugs and alcohol.

Last year, in his first season at Kell, Cook said he and his assistants put an academic program in place to help the players maintain their grades while juggling football practice.

"We taught the kids how to balance their time," Cook said. "We ended with 75 out of 100 players having a GPA of 3.0 or higher during the season."

Along those same lines, Shackelford talked about making school work another means of competition within the team.

"We want to create a culture of competition," he said. "So we challenge the kids to sit up front and compete in the classroom. We're trying to teach our kids it's not all about football."

Lindsey added that, in some cases, the game offers a young man a mentor and a sense of structure that may not always be present in their life.

"Sometimes, it's easier to go talk about things with somebody other than mom or dad," he said.

Much of this is lost in the eyes of people who believe all these guys do is coach football.

The best part is that these six coaches are not alone. From the current dean of Cobb County coaches, Marietta's James "Friday" Richards, to the other new coaches, Campbell's T.K. Dodd and North Cobb Christian's Harry Miles, to all the other coaches within the county lines, they all seem to have a sense of what is truly important - and it has nothing to do with the final score.

For Hidalgo and those other coaches, it sure seems this end of the spectrum is bigger, more important in the long run and much more rewarding.

sportseditor@mdjonline.com