Sadly, after 20 years at Camp Kilpatrick, the stellar football program featured in the film was sidelined in 2014 pending the outcome of a study on the long term benefits thereof; despite helping to send multiple former Mustang players to college.
During a practice scene, Dwayne Johnson can be seen paying tribute to his college career by wearing the number 94, the same number he wore during his time with the Miami Hurricanes.
Though portrayed as the antagonist of the film, the real Paul Higa was one of the biggest advocates of the program.
One of the players on Barrington had the last name of Plank. Kevin Plank is the founder & CEO of Under Armour. All the team's uniforms in this movie were sponsored by Under Armour.
Based on a true story of a juvenile detention center football team that made it to the state championship. The team was followed by a film crew and the footage became a TV documentary in 1993. After it aired on TV the creators were swamped with big studio offers to make it into a feature film but for various reasons it took over twelve years to make it to the big screen as a feature.