It wasn't as good as Ryan McMillen dreamed.

It was better.

McMillen, the Liberty football coach, gave his first varsity postgame victory speech Friday.

Liberty, in its second year of existence, beat Barat 19-0 to secure the first varsity win in the program's history. It was pure elation.

It was phenomenal. Friday night made all the hard work and all those hard games really worth it, McMillen said. That win will get us through the next couple of weeks. There's no words to explain how happy everybody was. We went into the locker room and we had a party.

Liberty (1-5) is made up of freshmen and sophomores. The football team was all ninth-graders last year and played a freshman schedule. This year it made the leap to varsity with nothing but underclassmen.

A lot of games, it has truly been boys against young men.

So we're playing a varsity schedule with a mixture of sophomores and freshmen on the varsity team. It's extremely difficult for these kids to go out there every day and step on the field with juniors and seniors. I tip my hat to them, McMillen said. In football that two years makes a bigger difference than any other sport just because of the physicality that comes with it. Those extra two years are unbelievable.

McMillen said the toughest part of building the program one brick at a time has been the lack of upperclassmen to show the younger players the way. McMillen is in his seventh year coaching overall and has been Liberty's only skipper.

It has been up to McMillenand his staff to set the expectations and show the younger guys the best path to success. He said that message is delivered best when it comes from players who have been there and done that.

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Liberty celebrates program's first varsity victory