When the Game Stands Tall

Taken from the non-fiction book by Neil Hayes, the film involves a legendary California high school football coach and his team with an incredible 151 game winning streak spanning over 12 years. It's an inspirational and motivational film, primarily for teens and families, full of character building buzzwords and phrases that inspire success through dedication and hard work. During the offseason, the team's head coach suffers a heart attack, and its star graduate with a scholarship to play for the Oregon Ducks is murdered on the street. About two weeks after these events, the team opens its season with a loss to a team from Washington. The film now deviates from reality when they suffer a second loss in a row. While in the hospital recovering from his heart attack, the head coach is visited by team members who learn true adversity and how to face it. Side stories involve the coaches wife and her support of the coach and the team, along with a heavy handed meddling father who pushes the coach and his own son to break a rushing record. The team and audience learn that everybody falls, but life is also about how you get back up.