Many strive for it.

Few ever achieve it.

Missouri Valley College's football Vikings are perfect in the 2006 campaign. Thirteen wins, no losses.

That incredible season has brought these young men to this weekend's NAIA Champion Series semi-final game with Sioux Falls (S.D.). Ending the game with a win Saturday, Dec. 2 -- the 14th win in a row -- will put Valley in the NAIA Championship game in Tennessee in a couple of weeks.

Think about that for a moment.

Valley's football team has had to win 13 straight games just to get to this juncture, and the team now has to win two more in order to capture the 2006 NAIA championship.

However, I am getting ahead of myself.

Way ahead of myself.

I should have said that Valley is seeking to be 1-0 again after Saturday's game in South Dakota.

You see, that has been Missouri Valley's approach to the 2006 season -- take them one at a time.

The players and the coaches have all had that wonderful tunnel vision of taking each game as one accomplishment to be achieved. I love the simplicity of that philosophy.

Remember that old joke: How do you eat an elephant? -- One bite at a time.

In this case it has been one game at a time.

This run by Valley has been a beautiful thing for this ex-sports editor to behold. In the process, we've taken sports and put it on the front page of The Marshall Democrat-News.

Why?

Because this title run is so important, not only to the team and the college, but also to the community as well. Quite frankly, folks, this does not happen every day, year or even every quarter of a century.

The emotional roller-coaster for the fans has been a joy.

The Vikings won their last game within 1 minute of the end of regulation play.

They also won one game during the regular season by one point.

And now, Valley has a chance to be 1-0 again, keeping that perfect season perfect.

Regardless of the outcome Saturday, these men are to be congratulated for this wonderful accomplishment.

Some would argue that we're making a big deal out of what is essentially a kid's game. You're darn right we are.

When I was a sports editor, my colleagues and I used to joke that we got to play in the sandbox for a living. Of course, that's a ridiculous assumption. Covering sports is hard, hard work. Just ask our sports editor Chris Allen, who has juggled football special sections with the paper's annual high school basketball section -- not to mention covering the 12 regular season games of the football Vikings.

In my opinion, he's done a wonderful job. It's a body of work that can stack up with any newspaper our size. We hope you've enjoyed the extra coverage.

We thank the advertisers who made those special sections possible and we are grateful for the help we've received from MVC personnel.

Valley has truly rolled and rolled and rolled some more in 2006.

Good luck, men.

Let's go 1-0.

Mason is the editor of The Marshall Democrat-News. Spectrum appears Friday.