Case Study: Mcfarland, USA

McFarland, U.S.A., began by showing the White’s arrival in McFarland, CA and also noted that it was one of the poorest towns in the country (Ciardi, Gray, & Caro, 2015). When Coach White first arrived at McFarland, it was obvious that most of the community was Hispanic. This was evident as many of the students were pickers, alongside their parents, when they were not in school. While Coach White was, at first, hesitant when he began his new job at the local High School, as time went by he realized that community meant everything to this little town. In this sense, Coach White utilized what Kirst-Ashman & Hull explain as the systems theory, which, “provides a conceptual perspective that emphasizes interactions among various systems” (2015, pp. …show more content…
In this case the various systems were the students, families, and community that Coach White interacted with on a daily basis. A weakness that he was first faced with was acceptance, he seemed timid when he first arrived in McFarland while trying to be polite. He also seemed to lack trust in his new community, which was evident during his oldest daughters Quinceanera where the car she was in was attacked. Nonetheless, the strengths that Coach White was able to focus on was his students. He was able to notice that his students, while not football players, could run. He built upon this strength to help create McFarland’s first cross-country team, which at the time was considered a “private school” sport (Ciardi, Gray, & Caro, 2015). As Coach White began helping his team grow, he noticed how they worked hard to help their parents and the pride their community had in them. When he received a job offer from a more prestigious school, he chose to stay in McFarland. A small town that welcomed his family from the beginning, and forced him to become a better and more trusting