Jim White has coached so many state championship cross-country teams that he could have just about any job he wanted, like maybe a high-paying one at a cushy private school in a beautiful, rich town. But Coach White and his wife Cheryl are staying right where they are, in McFarland, where the high-school student body is mostly poor Latino kids from farm workers’ families.

In the summer, his students may begin their days at 5 in the morning, harvesting fruits and vegetables until dusk. But when the temperature has finally dipped below 100° and the boys have finished their work day, they don running shoes, stretch their calves and hamstrings and, under the tutelage of the coach they call “Blanco,” they begin running, long and far.

Seven times in 12 years, McFarland High School, enrollment 412, has won the California state boys’ cross-country championship. They’ve beaten the rich teams from Carmel, the surfer teams from Laguna Beach, the city teams from Los Angeles and San Francisco, the teams from prep schools and suburban schools and Indian reservation schools. They’ve beaten them all—repeatedly. No team in any sport from any California high school has ever had such a record.

These winning athletes will tell you the secrets of their success are the coach and his wife. The Whites are surrogate parents to the team members. They visit the boys in the fields and in their homes. They counsel them on getting jobs, on going to college. The coach has worked in the fields with them to raise money for track shoes and for trips to meets. The Whites have taken the kids on weekend “vacations” with them and stood as witnesses at their weddings, and when a kid needs a place to go, he knows he can head for the White’s home. These days, alumni of earlier track teams assist the coach and act as mentors to the current team members.

White turns down all offers from other schools, saying that McFarland’s kids need a chance to change their lives. He’ll show you a wall of trophies his teams have won and tell you, “A young kid can look up at that wall and dream.”

As Blanco’s kids dream and win and move out into the world, they know how good they are and how right Jim and Cheryl White have been to believe in them.