BOX SPRINGS — James Rutland, one-time hurdler at Georgia and later a successful high-school coach, handed me an air rifle — a Red Ryder Daisy model with no sights — and said that before the afternoon was over, he would have me hitting a penny with the BB gun. At the outset, I had difficulty hitting golf-ball — and baseball-sized plastic balls that lay motionless on the ground. And he is going to have me shooting a penny out of the air! Even I didn’t believe that was possible. However, he had more confidence in me than I had in...