They said we won! We still run the same roads, along the same fields, just with different kids. Sophomore Johnny Samaniego was 12th overall (sixth in scoring). Thomas didn't say anything but she knew that he was listening, and that was enough. This moment stands out in my mind the most because Sylvia sometimes seemed shy, so for her to come out with this crazy dance move in front of the boys was absolutely insane. The movie pushes up his arrival and coaching position at McFarland to 1987, the first year his cross country team attended and won the state championship (1987 was also the very first year that California had a state championship). And, man, I just started crying, started crying tears of joy. challenged town in California's farm-rich We spoke with the team's top runner that year, Thomas Valles, as well as the program's legendary coach, to help us better understand McFarland, Fact vs. Fiction. Its a town that draws in running teams from across the country for motivational talks, and its a town that knows champions can be made there. Its a subject he was shy to address when he rather reluctantly got into the speaker circuit in 2017. At the Kern Invitational on Nov. 1, 1986, five days after the accident that took the lives of Herlinda Gonzalez and Sylvia Diaz, the boys team lines up for the start of their race. Coach Jim White (Kevin Costner) is the new The team with coach Jim White on the day of the impromptu trip to the beach. Was enlisted in the armed services. When I say Mr. White became my father figure and Mrs. White became my mother figure. Herlinda said that was cool. White said there are hills around orange groves about six miles outside of town where the team goes for true hill training. 'Danny made a big difference in my life.' No, the real Coach Jim White actually started coaching cross country at McFarland High School in 1980. Photos: Apocalyptic skies hung over Texas panhandle Monday. The anchor of the cross country team and the reason they won state. Kevin Costner plays a high-school football coach who ends up leading a cross-country track team made up unlikely students to a state championship. Valles, his coach Jim White, and six teammates were the CIF California State Cross Country Champions in 1987. Married to his high school sweetheart Martha, the couple has three children. 1. We grew up not having a whole lot, every single person on our team. He later joined the U.S. Coast Guard. Although he retired, Jim is still a pillar of the . Change). These photos, by the way, are from the California Southern Area meet held at Hart Park in Bakersfield, probably November 1987, and if I remember correctly, it is the meet before the California Interscholastic Federation section championship and the California state championship, which the team went on to win, and is a focus of the film. Yes, McFarland is an inspirational story. Thank you for reading! From left is Herlinda, Delfina Herrera, Sylvia Diaz and her brother, Raul Diaz. ", "It was a great accomplishment," White said. Sophomores Victor Puentes was 16th overall (10th) and Damacio Diaz was 22nd overall (13th). That day at Woodward Park, McFarland's top four were dominant. In fact, when the studio gave Valles and his teammates a special sneak preview of the film, he left the theater unimpressed. He and his wife Cheryl met at Magic Valley Christian College in Idaho. Dream big-that's the motto of USI's Hispanic Heritage Month keynote speaker Thomas Valles, a member of the state champion McFarland High School cross country team featured in the 2015 Disney film McFarland USA.Through a conversation moderated by Paola Marizan '15, Valles will discuss his historic and inspiring running career, the challenges he faced growing up in a small Latino farming town in . Julie Pettitt-Booth: Executive Director of Undergraduate New Student Services McM 104 . I never photographed or met Sylvia Diaz or Herlinda Gonzalez, but the memories of the pictures I took in the aftermath of their deaths in 1986 would impact me deeply and remain with me through the remainder of my photojournalism career. MileSplit California Editor: His mom called White who hopped in his vehicle and set out to find Valles and talked him down when he found him. Her first appearance on the show features in episode 6 - titled 'The Tourist . Learn more about the McFarland, USA true story by watching the Jim White interview below. "David and Danny (Diaz) are in education. Well acted and tremendously inspirational. Theres a scene in the movie where Valles parents are arguing and Valles steps in as his father hits a wall in a drunk rage. If he wasnt at school, Valles was expected to be at home or in the fields helping his dad. Yes, the McFarland High boys did win a team title at the first CIF-State Cross . His team's won nine CIF-State cross country titles, five in a row between 1992-96 and three in a row between 1999-01. She was my number one fan, she talked to everybody at school how her big brother would someday be a Catholic priest. We had birthday parties with them. John Harte is a photojournalist and teacher who spent decades on the staff of The Californian. By Sahil Kapur. I remember shooting the pictures, but I'm disappointed in myself for never learning about the girls. "I was getting interviewed by the Bakersfield Californian (newspaper). Sept. 17, 2022 Submitted by the famil of Remedios E. July 14, 2022 Submitted by relatives Mary Ann Ruiz May 10, 2022 OUR CONDOLENCES TO FAMILY OF NICK RUIZ April 15, 2022 Submitted by the Ahumada Family Eddie Ahumada, Our Hometown While the idea for the motion picture was conceived in the 1990s, it was not made until Disney bought rights to the story and actor Kevin Costner, who played Mr . visual effects editor: shade vfx Charles Baden . Raul would walk across the graduation stage that spring without his sister, her hopes and dreams a memory preserved by his photographs. Even though we both have the same last name, we are not related and she made sure to tell me that on a few occasions.". Victor Puentes is just to his left. "He was our second dad. johnny sameniego. The circumstances brought Valles to a low point. those boys were heroes to many. White, a newcomer to McFarland when he coached the team to the state championship, still lives there. This mantra propelled the boys of McFarland High School to their the first California State Cross Country Championships in 1987. danny diaz. Through his work speaking, hes made many friends and returned to cheer at many cross country meets for kids hes met. "The tragedy that happened to McFarland cross-country that year (1986), I believe catapulted many of us to run with more heart in the following years," Diaz said. None of us could carry a tune even if our lives depended on it. Every year we remind the team of the tragedy of that painful afternoon, so it's always in my short-term memory.". I broke my moms heart at 13, he told the kids. I was assigned to cover two of McFarland's races following the accident. The Hate U Give, written by Angie Thomas and Published by Balzer and Bray, is realistic fiction. Teammate updates and McFarland photos courtesy of Thomas Valles. They trained for hundreds and hundreds of grueling miles, one foot in front of the other, up hills and down hills, only to push further come race day. He said your story back then is mine now, Valles recalled. That interaction inspired Valles to continue sharing his story and without holding back. Idk if people were aware that MHS, did not want 2 pay 4 Herlinda Gonzalez & Silvia Diaz hospital bills. The first time Valles got real with an audience, a kid approached him afterward. Jim's lack of experience in coaching cross-country isn't some throwaway plot point meant to give the character one more . McFarland also had a superb girls' cross-country team. White has lived in McFarland ever since. The three Diaz brothers featured in the new Disney movie, David, Damacio and Danny, all speak highly of both of their parents. He has been fired from several jobs, and eventually ends up in the titular town (the only place that would hire him). Not long after, their car is confronted by a group of punks that bother Javi. PrepCalTrack.com conducted this Jim White By Carlo Vellandi Nov 22, 2022. "We had no idea, with him not performing that day, if we'd actually won it. The message is so clear, never give up, even when the odds are against you. They were Rosa Soto, 18, Lionel Martinez, 16, Efrain Rodriguez, 19, and Sandra Perez, 17. He also did find Thomas Valles on a freeway overpass and help him deal with his I'm coming! World Premiere Of Disney's "McFarland, USA". "That's how we developed that. He promised to take him places away from McFarland, California. As a boy, Thomas Valles could never have imagined that his running ability would shape the . White said he started the McFarland track club in 1973 and launched the cross country program at McFarland in 1980. After learning about Valles, Subealdea and Albert Salinas, another administrator at the JJAEP campus, felt his story would resonate with the kids. Sylvia Diaz is in the middle. No one outworked the boys of McFarland. McFarland was that 'small' then and is still today. By 1986, Texas-born Coach Jim White, nicknamed Blanco by his Latino team, had built a locally dominant cross country team. Thomas Valles, runner featured in Disney film 'McFarland, USA,' set for 1st NYC Marathon. But he never truly felt he made amends for that with his mom. So, White relocates his family to a new town taking on a lowly post teaching science and P.E., a last resort job, in a poor agricultural community that's largely made up of Mexican American farmers and produce . But hours and hours together with nothing to do but run mile after grueling mile together creates a bond. Thanks, a cake. Following McFarlands legendary championship, Valles went to College of the Sequoias in Visalia to study and run for their cross country team. Central Valley. Later, Javi and Lupe offer to take Julie out for her own "parade", with Thomas accompanying them. But Coach White led his boys to running and running beckoned them past the lines that lay before them. Here are five things that you may or may not have known about Julie White: Grew Up in Austin, TX. He showed Valles how running could set him free. Despite a strong group returning from the '87 championship team, McFarland only placed fifth in 1988. Seated on bench from left: Eva Renteria, Sylvia Diaz, Alicia Herrera, Herlinda Gonzalez and Hollie Wykoff. It was the first time their children and grandchildren had seen the movie. As stated above, the real Jim White started teaching in the McFarland School District straight out of college in 1964. "(White) told me he thought I had some potential (that if) I applied myself and ran during the summer that I could be pretty good.". All of a sudden I saw these headlights and it was Mr. White in his '59 Chevy." Team member Deborah Carter Stockett, who now lives in Virginia, told me she resented my being at those races and yelled at me to go away, but now she says she is glad I was there. Brief Version. What the movie does get right is the life-changing team atmosphere and support that Valles and his teammates received. He recently retired as a California State Correctional officer supervising adult males. "But we'd try to run in the shade in the almonds," he said. Et que tu t'enfuies la queue entre les jambes aprs qu'on t'ait expropri pour rcuprer notre d, celui que ta classe exploiteuse nous a vol ! "All my teammates are still here. He got into the truck and began to talk with Coach White about his difficulties at home. Dad didnt want us in the calles, in the streets, Valles said. They still live in McFarland and still want to make a difference in the community.". He won nine state titles and went to the state meet every year but one, he said. Danny Diaz, daughter Delia Diaz, Gabriel Right now, you are writing your own story.. I realized (while working in the prison) had not somebody intervened in my life -- I thought of that many times during my career -- that these men that are incarcerated share a lot of similarities to me. -John Harte, Yes, and at times the White family paid for new shoes and clothing for the team out of their own pockets. The image in the film of the boys running hills in the almond field is actually three piles of dirt covered in plastic to look like piles of almonds, both White and Valles said. on their time as cross country runners However, it happened a little differently than in the movie. Valles and his wife Cheryl met at Magic Valley Christian College in 1964,! Between 1992-96 and three in a row between 1992-96 and three in a row between 1999-01 state.. Mcfarlands legendary championship, still lives there his photographs not performing that day, if we 'd try run... 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