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. Jim White (Costner) finds his days as a football coach numbered when an incident with a player leads to his dismissal. Desperate for work, he moves his wife (Maria Bello) and daughters (Morgan Saylor and Elsie Fisher) from Idaho to McFarland, CA, a rural town that's predominately Latino and the only place willing to give him a teaching job. The family feel like they don't fit into their new community, but White has an epiphany one day when he sees his students running from their early-morning farming jobs to school: Why not channel their talents into running cross-country track? Soon enough, White is connecting with his young charges, particularly a gifted athlete named Thomas (Carlos Pratts), and the squad set their sights on a state championship..