Saucony Launches New NIL Deal with Nurses McFarland, USA, life has not exactly followed a Hollywood storyline. Since he graduated from California’s McFarland High School in 1989, he has battled drug addiction and spent time in prison. But thanks to the film, he’s been given a new lease on life.
“The movie made me a better person,” Puentes told Runner’s World Newswire. “It made me rethink the choices that I’ve made in the past, because I had a bad past. I don’t know if it changed everybody else, but it changed me.”
Puentes said his troubles didn’t begin until after high school. He attended California Polytechnic State University for two years, but he had to drop out because he didn’t have enough money to continue and his mother was sick.
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“My family [came] first,” Puentes says.
Puentes began experimenting with drugs and battled addiction off and on for many years. He takes full responsibility for that now. Over the past year, thanks in part to the movie, Puentes began cleaning up his act and is no longer using drugs.
“This finally gave me the strength to say, ‘You know what? I’m done. I don’t need it, I don’t want it,’” Puentes says. “I’m a better person because of this movie and because of my wife, family, and everybody else. I just don’t need it anymore.
“It’s changed my confidence. I walk with my head up high. I’m not cocky. I’m not like, ‘Hey, I’m Victor from the movie.’ I just feel a little bit better about myself because something good finally happened in my life, besides my children being born. It’s just something to be proud of. It’s about McFarland. I’m from McFarland and I’m proud to be from McFarland."
Puentes joined the McFarland cross country team as a freshman, after Coach Jim White showed up at his house and asked if he was interested in joining the team. He started off as a junior varsity runner but made the varsity squad as a freshman, working his way up from being the team’s number four runner to being the number two runner by the time he graduated.
“Slowly we became better and better at it,” Puentes says. But Diaz believes Puentes has the tools to turn his life around.
“Mindy Kaling Runs or Hikes 20 Miles a Week Puentes says. "He took care of us, he fed us, he clothed us. He took us to church once in a while. He looked after us, he made sure that if we got out of line, he corrected us.”
And he considers Coach White’s wife, Cheryl, to be an unsung heroine of the story.
“Without Mrs. White, I don’t think any of this would have happened. We were her sons,” Puentes says. “When we needed something, she tried her best to provide for us, even though we had our own families. She knew that some of us needed a little bit more. I give my thanks to her because she’s the foundation of [that] home and she opened her doors to every single runner that went through [the program].”
Over the years, Puentes says he has remained close to his cross country teammates, many of whom, like himself, still live in McFarland. Unlike many of his former teammates, Puentes no longer runs, but he misses it.
“I wish I had the time to start,” Puentes says. “When you run long distance, you just lose yourself. You don’t feel your feet hitting the [ground] anymore, you don’t feel that you’re out of breath. You’re just thinking about your life or whatever is going on around you at the time.”
Puentes’ former McFarland cross country teammate Danny Diaz recently told 23ABC News, “He made some bad choices and he’s the first to tell you, ‘You know what? I screwed up.’”
But Diaz believes Puentes has the tools to turn his life around.
“Out of all the 1987 team, Victor was definitely the smartest of all of us,” Diaz told 23ABC News.
For the past several months, Puentes’ work on a 220-acre ranch, where he helps maintain an almond crop, has kept him busy.
“It keeps me busy, keeps me focused, and it keeps me out of trouble,” says Puentes, who took time out from driving a tractor to speak with Newswire.
Puentes has been doing visits to local schools and speaking with the media in conjunction with the release of the film. He also attended the film’s premiere in Los Angeles with his daughters and wife earlier this month.
Though the film portrays Puentes as a ladies’ man, he says he was actually the shyest person on the team.
He was happy, however, to have Sergio Avelar, a former McFarland High School cross country runner himself, play him.
“I was lucky enough to get one of the best looking guys—he’s the best looking guy of all of them, so I’m proud that he played me,” Puentes says.
Though Puentes doesn’t see much of himself in the film’s portrayal, he says that’s not what’s important.
“The movie’s about Mr. White. It’s not about me, it’s not about the other runners. We’re part of his life,” Puentes says. "However Disney made it a good story is based on Mr. White’s accomplishment with us, with the nine state championships and everything else. It took all of us to make this—every runner who won a state championship from McFarland made this happen, not just myself or the seven runners. Without them, there wouldn’t be a legacy.”
Puentes is proud to be recognized for his role in the team’s accomplishments nearly 28 years later, and that the film has put his hometown on the map. And he’s optimistic that the film will be the catalyst that helps him stay away from drugs for good.
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