A new female coach fresh out of college takes over the cross country program at an all girls private Christian school and tries to lead them to their first state title.A new female coach fresh out of college takes over the cross country program at an all girls private Christian school and tries to lead them to their first state title.A new female coach fresh out of college takes over the cross country program at an all girls private Christian school and tries to lead them to their first state title.
Jonathan K. Riggs
- Eastern Valley Coach
- (as Jonathan Riggs)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWriter-Director Dave Christiano ran cross-country in high school and college, and has coached two different high-school cross-country teams.
- GoofsCross-country uses rank point scoring. The final scores don't add up correctly. The 5 Orange runners come in 4th, 14th, 20th, 21st, and 30th. Add them together and the score is 99. Eastern scores were 1, 5, 25, 28, and 31, which add up to 90.
- SoundtracksRun On
Words and music by Kara Coats
Performed by Allie Ray
Produced by Galen Crew
Supervised by Steven Paske
Copyright 2016 Beautiful Warrior Girl Publishing
Featured review
My Favorite Endurance Sports Movie, so far
The title I've given this review may seem a bit back-handed or gratuitous (like the commercials for Christianity embedded in the movie), because
there's very little competition in this space. In fact, the only other fairly recent movies about distance runners that come to mind are McFarland USA
(2015, with Kevin Costner), and Saint Ralph (2004, with Campbell Scott). These are both well made movies, with star actors that I like, but, like most
sports movies, they fail to dig into the technical as well as the psychological guts of the sport. Most sports movies are movies about underdogs
triumphing in the end (in fact this is a formula that many reviewers are heartily tired of), but the ones I like best also feature coaches who have the
insight to imagine a radically different approach that challenges orthodoxy, and the moral fortitude to pursue it and stake their all on the outcome.
Hence my love for such true story based movies as Moneyball (2011, with Brad Pitt), Coach Carter (2005, with Samuel L. Jackson), and even Draft Day (2014, with Kevin Costner).
Although this movie is strictly fiction (and Christianized fiction at that), and can be criticized for various improbabilities, the coach in this movie likewise embodies most of the virtues of the ideal man of Kipling's poem, If (including, literally, filling "the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run") - even though she is a comely young woman. And as with the other movies of this sort that I've listed, this one is charged with genuine suspense because you wonder how in the h--- the protagonist is going to pull off his/her plan - which, of course, I will not disclose as that would be spoiling.
And finally, although I am not a Christian myself, I am also not a disrespecter of Christianity, and, unlike certain other reviewers who are alienated by the Christian themes of faith, hope, and love (maybe because Christianity was shoved down their craw in their youth, or otherwise out of unrecognized envy), I congratulate the director, Dave Christiano (whose IMDB bio acknowledges his didactic Christian intent) on the appropriateness both of the behavior and of the Christian parables his protagonist invokes.
Could this short, low-budget, movie be better? Sure, with a bit more time to develop the specifics of training, and the depth psychology of the relationships, and perhaps to smooth over the improbabilities with circumstantial exposition, such as one would find in a book.
But for those non-Christians who find the same sort of virtues in this movie that I do, it's sequel, The Perfect Race (2019) which features the same coach protagonist translated to a college environment, is also a must view.
Hence my love for such true story based movies as Moneyball (2011, with Brad Pitt), Coach Carter (2005, with Samuel L. Jackson), and even Draft Day (2014, with Kevin Costner).
Although this movie is strictly fiction (and Christianized fiction at that), and can be criticized for various improbabilities, the coach in this movie likewise embodies most of the virtues of the ideal man of Kipling's poem, If (including, literally, filling "the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run") - even though she is a comely young woman. And as with the other movies of this sort that I've listed, this one is charged with genuine suspense because you wonder how in the h--- the protagonist is going to pull off his/her plan - which, of course, I will not disclose as that would be spoiling.
And finally, although I am not a Christian myself, I am also not a disrespecter of Christianity, and, unlike certain other reviewers who are alienated by the Christian themes of faith, hope, and love (maybe because Christianity was shoved down their craw in their youth, or otherwise out of unrecognized envy), I congratulate the director, Dave Christiano (whose IMDB bio acknowledges his didactic Christian intent) on the appropriateness both of the behavior and of the Christian parables his protagonist invokes.
Could this short, low-budget, movie be better? Sure, with a bit more time to develop the specifics of training, and the depth psychology of the relationships, and perhaps to smooth over the improbabilities with circumstantial exposition, such as one would find in a book.
But for those non-Christians who find the same sort of virtues in this movie that I do, it's sequel, The Perfect Race (2019) which features the same coach protagonist translated to a college environment, is also a must view.
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $119,100
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $70,136
- Aug 28, 2016
- Gross worldwide
- $119,100
- Runtime1 hour 28 minutes
- Color
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