LOGLINE:
Based on the true story of a high school football coach leading a winless team to the state championship in one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in sports history.

COMP PITCH:
REMEMBER THE TITANS, INVINCIBLE, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

PLOT SUMMARY:
Based on a true story …

The Hillcrest Knights, of Ammon, Idaho, close out the 2007 season with a 39-0 loss to perennial powerhouse, Blackfoot. It’s the Knights 22nd straight defeat, and the school decides to make a drastic change. In steps Darin Owens, a coach from California with a unique offense, a history of turning around losing programs, and a simple plan of having one great season so he can get another job offer back home.

As a “hired gun” outsider, Owens faces an uphill battle from the start. Players and parents resist the discipline he tries to instill. Players, boosters, fans—even some of his own coaches—all doubt the strange brand of football that has become his hallmark. After an opening season loss, Owens can’t help but wonder what he’s gotten himself into and why he’s dragged his wife and two young daughters from their sunny ranch in California, to the frigid, high plains of Idaho. The fact he has a senior quarterback who’s on the verge of revolt, and a troubled player with secret demons, only makes matters worse.

As the team gets on a roll, and his players and the surrounding community begin to buy in to Owens’ approach, new obstacles threaten to derail the season. His troubled running back’s behavior becomes unmanageable, his star right tackle is suddenly homeless, and the bridges he’s burned begin to come back to haunt him. When the troubled back goes off the rails and is ejected from the final regular season game, Owens cuts him. Through the guidance of a local booster with a big heart, Owens gains insight into the player’s dark past. Owens ultimately recognizes what he’s become: a hired gun, so focused on winning that he’s lost the ability and desire to connect with his players and community. He addresses the team, admitting that he’s lost track of what’s important, before leaving the decision of whether to reinstate the cut player to a team vote. The players don’t hesitate to bring their brother back into the fold, and they assure Owens that they believe in him as much as he believes in them.

The team makes its way through the playoffs, eyeing a showdown with a powerhouse opponent, a team with a wild, open offense—the exact opposite of Hillcrest’s. Before the state championship game with the Jerome Tigers, Owens tells his players what the game really means and what will be most important about it when they look back on it one day. The game itself is a high-scoring battle, and in the final seconds, Owens has to decide between sticking to his guns or abandoning the offense that has given him so much success. Hillcrest defeats Jerome in a nail-biter, completing one of the greatest turnarounds in sports history.