McFarland, BHC: Plumber ran for team depicted in new movie

BULLHEAD CITY Inspired by a true story, the Disney movie McFarland, USA follows coach Jim White as he forms a championship-winning cross country team with a crew of unlikely runners from a predominantly Latino high school in small-town California.

It is a true story, said Felix Gonzalez, owner of Gonzos Plumbing. Its also my story. Coach White changed my life.

Gonzalez was, in his words, a troubled kid.

I was born in Compton, California, he said. I ran the streets of Los Angeles and was heading in a bad direction when my mom moved us to McFarland in 1981. Thats where everything changed for me.

Moving to a small farming town was tough for the big-city boy.

I was a bully in the seventh grade, Gonzalez said. I was picking on a kid, taking his lunch money when a man came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, We dont do that at this school.

That man was Coach Jim White.

He told me he wanted me to come run with his team after school, Gonzales said. For some reason, I showed up and I ran with the team. Coach White saw something in me that day and I got a new direction.

White told the young Gonzalez that he had done as well as some of the top runners on the team.

He told me I was good at something, Gonzales said. Every assembly, Coach White would tell everyone I was the most improved runner. Not the best runner, the most improved. It taught me so much I learned I could always improve and I learned that I could succeed.

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McFarland, BHC: Plumber ran for team depicted in new movie