Can someone shed light on whether racial tension shown in the movie "McFarland USA" was accurate?

Hey grow a pair knucklehead! In the real world, the one that you're not living in, that's the way it is. Same thing where I went to high school, wanting to best those who have it better than you...aka rich spoil unappreciative kids! You didn't break down anything but make yourself look like an a$$. I'll leave it at that.

breaker downer wrote:

So you feel self-righteous for having animosity towards people you admittedly wanted to be like? I'll leave it at that.

lsjfdk;lj;fkj wrote:

Let me spin this the other way....

I went to a lower income high school and absolutely LOVED crushing the rich kids at cross and track every chance I got. They had all the luxuries I would've killed for (cars, clothes, nice girls).

Mind you they really didn't do anything or say anything different to me than anyone else....but SHIT I loved making them hurt !!!

otter wrote:

Thank you everyone.

Whenever I see a movie like this I like to know the real story.

Here's the December 1997 article in the Los Angeles Times about the McFarland team. You'll get a better picture of the real story by reading it.

I had a chance to talk to Jim White at the state meet this year. I only had one guy make it in D4 and McFarland only had one guy make it in D1, despite the fact that our schools are nearly the same size.

Their section has promoted them to D1 because of their history of being too good for the other small schools. Our section does this as well, but the only programs getting moved up are private school basketball teams that bring kids in from all over the region and world (Local private school hoops program has had kids from Brittan, Ireland, and Taiwan attend for a year or two then go on to play college ball here in the states).

As we were talking, some of my team started coming back from cooling down with our one guy who made it. They didn't know we were talking to Jim White, we were just sort of shooting the breeze. My one runner who made state (and happens to be Mexican) had been watching the trailer over and over, at least 20 times the day before the meet. When I introduced Mr. White to my team, my guy just looked enraptured. My guys got to hear Blanco kind of bitch a little bit more about how his team had been shoved up into D1, but then he stopped for a second, kind of thought a bit, then said, "Our guys could have made it this year also. They just didn't run enough". By this time, my team was giving him their full attention. I asked, "Coach, how much should your kids be running during the summer?" He paused a moment and said, ".....oh, about 80".

My team proceded to have one of the best off seasons between cross and track I've ever been in charge of. We capped our pre season off on opening night watching the movie after a team pizza party. Tonight, almost all of my returning runners opened their seasons with significant PRs.

15 minutes talking to Blanco gave my kids enough mojo to get through a relatively easy training period (nice cool temps here in the winter, plus my kids don't have to do manual labor). I guess that daily interactions with Blanco provide the mojo to get through 80 mile weeks after working a full day in the fields in 100 degree weather (that part of the story has been well documented and is probably the most accurate part of the movie, along with the scene where Valles was contemplating jumping off the bridge).

As far as the overt racism....I ran in Nor Cal in the 80s. I was a junior in 87 and our team was hoping to make the inagural state meet also. We had Whites, Asians and Mexicans on our team. I grew up not too far from Palo Alto and I don't remember any racial tensions at all. I do know that McFarland was on the receiving end of some resentment, but that could just be due to the fact that they were so darn good. I mean, we alsways disliked the kids from Los Gatos and Bellarmine high simply because we couldn't beat them. It had noting to do with their skin color, which happened to be lilly white.

There were a lot of inaccuracies in the film and I was kind of disappointed that the makers chose to play up the racial aspect by casting the rich white kids as such asses. The story of McFarland is inspirational enough in its own right. I've been telling my teams about those guys ever since I moved to the valley and started coaching. After all, Hughson is a small farming town as well. All of those training scenes could just as easily been filmed across the street from our campus on the irrigation canal we run on and in the orchards that we run through.

None the less, I loved the movie and am hoping that every Mexican kid at my school goes and sees it (some teachers are giving extra credit for doing so). My reasons are a bit more selfish. Despite the fact that our school is majority Hispanic, our teams have been predominantly white. I'm hoping the movie provides us with a bridge to get more of these kids hooked into running on our teams at HHS.

article reader wrote:

otter wrote:

Thank you everyone.

Whenever I see a movie like this I like to know the real story.

Here's the December 1997 article in the Los Angeles Times about the McFarland team. You'll get a better picture of the real story by reading it.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-mcfarland-jim-white-19971201-story.html#page=1

This article from Sports Illustrated in 2004 is also very good.

Raced in northern California in the early 90s and witnessed McFarland pick up a number of their early state titles. Those early teams had decent runners but were far removed from being competitive with the larger schools. I don't recall any widespread racism directed toward any school of any ethnicity. Competition is intense out there especially when everyone knows that they will soon face each other in track with no Divisions to hide behind.

Clovis HS was/is a school similar to McFarland and was talked about on a regular basis but not in a negative way. They had numerous migrant farm kids and always started the year off very strong but then faded as kids moved back south or went to work in the fields. Most teams felt bad for them since they never seemed to catch a break. If anything I would guess that the private schools were the targets of most of the adolescent animosity.

Finally, I have not seen the movie yet, but as far as contact during races goes, I remember plenty of it. Once runners were out of eyes of the officials and spectators, "accidental"elbows and pushing occurred as one turned a corner.

My point is that the filmmakers wanted to add a "nemesis" team and probably chose Palo Alto because they weren't a real competitor (since those that really competed against McFarland probably didn't behave that way and would be upset at being portrayed that way). What surprised me is that they actually chose a real school instead of making up one, especially since they made up a few teams anyways.

This movie is one of my favorites of all time. I love the message, but I was (our Clovis High team) fictionally depicted on screen. This was my freshman year, I attended 1987-1990. The dual meet between CHS and McFarland depicted in the film NEVER happened.

1. We had multiple Hispanic runners on the team.

2. We never had animosity towards any other team other than our rivals, Clovis West High School.

3. Chris Lineau was our best runner and he subsequently attended Fresno State.

4. We MAY have ran against McFarland at Woodward Park

5. Our team did go to State that year...I believe in Balboa.

6. We NEVER had migrant farm workers on the team...that I recall, and I lettered 4 years in a row.

Good film, love it...but not ENTIRELY true.

Happy Trails!

There is more racial tension in Central California than anywhere else in the state, and I suppose that the hostility the team felt with some teams from their region was projected by the director to the bay area teams.

I did not see the movie and don't plan to. I did enjoy the Hoosiers. Great movie.