Editor's note: This is the final of four stories on the New Mexico High School Coaches Association All-State football teams as chosen by coaches.

In Fort Sumner, two-platoon football is thriving and the competition to be part of the water-boy brigade can be as intense as the battle to be the starting quarterback.

Everyone, it seems, gets involved in Foxes football, from the newspaper publisher to the youngsters who do their apprenticeship in the program as water boys or ball boys. The goal, of course, is to eventually move from the sidelines to the huddle on Friday nights.

That's how it was for junior quarterback Berry Stinnett and senior running back Cass Dimitroff, members of the latest lineup of home-grown athletes in the DeBaca County community.

"He was like everybody else, a water boy for the Foxes," Scot Stinnett says of his son Berry. "Most of our kids are on the sidelines and if there's too many, they switch off on being water boys. Probably every kid has been a water boy at one time or another."

Since coming of high school age, Stinnett and Dimitroff have enhanced their résumés.

Both were selected to the New Mexico High School Coaches Association All-State team in Class A.

They made the first team on both offense and defense. Stinnett was named the first-team quarterback and is part of the first-team defensive secondary, while Dimitroff was a first-team running back and linebacker.

Scot Stinnett, publisher of the DeBaca County News since 1992, isn't your typical newspaper executive. A cast member of Fort Sumner's version of Friday Night Lights, Stinnett keeps the team's stats, writes the game stories, shoots photos and generally makes sure the rest of the state knows what happening with the Foxes in every sport.

These days, Stinnett doesn't have to go far to score an interview with the team's quarterback. The dinner table will do.

Berry Stinnett was moved up to the varsity as an eighth grader and the bar's been getting higher every year. It's part of the learning curve in Fort Sumner, where the ninth graders practice with the upperclassmen.

"That's the deal at our level," Scot Stinnett says. "It grows them up pretty fast. They learn to be responsible very quickly."

This season Berry Stinnett rushed for 578 yards and scored 13 touchdowns. He passed for 822 yards and 12 TDs.

Stinnett started out in middle school as a wingback and wide receiver and was the Foxes' leading pass catcher as a sophomore.

This season he moved into the quarterback spot as the Fort Sumner went 12-1 and won its third straight A state championship.

The 6-foot-1, 175-pound junior had 183 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns in the Foxes' 39-14 win over Carrizozo in the state finals.

Dimitroff ran for 152 yards and two touchdowns in the championship.

For the season, Dimitroff had 1,288 yards rushing and 18 touchdowns despite missing four games with a broken right hand.

Both Dimitroff and Stinnett are on the Foxes basketball team, with Dimitroff the starting point guard. He is the second of three Dimitroff brothers who have contributed to Fort Sumner's run of eight state titles since 1995.

His older brother, Derek, was on the 2002 championship team and is among a handful of backs in state high school football history to have run for more than 300 yards in a game. He did it in 2003 with 308 yards against Springer.

The third Dimitroff brother, Braeden, is a sophomore running back who also made the first-team backfield, along with Hagerman halfback Javier Cabrera.

Berry Stinnett also runs track and competes in rodeos as a calf roper. In a rural area like DeBaca County, the athletes usually are also old hands at ranching and farming.

"When we go to Las Cruces every April to compete in FFA (Future Farmers of America), we have track practice while we're there," Scot Stinnett says.

The coaches association All-State teams were sponsored by James Polk Stone National Bank of eastern New Mexico.