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Miracle at Donna is a 2012 American documentary sports film produced and directed by Frank Aragon. The film is an inspirational look at a group of 17 young men, 11 Hispanic and 6 White, who won the State Championship in 1961. Coached by Earl Scott and Benny La Prade, these young men found father like figures in their coaches who through vigorous training methods were conditioned to great physical shape and unstopple mental state. Although the story took place in 1961 in the small town of Donna, Texas the team traveled to other parts of Texas on the way to their championship. These young men who were mainly from families of migrant workers, encountered prejudice and racism in other parts of Texas but were led by their head coaches to ignore what they faced and deal with it on the football field.

Background
Miracle at Donna is based on the actual experiences of the 17 young men who were coached by Rio Grande valley legends Earl Scott and Benny La Prade. In 1961, Head coach Earl Scott along with Benny La Prade found 18 young men who were willing to sacrifice all their hard work for a state championship, 11 of 17 were Hispanics, from families of migrant workers. These young kids did double duty working in the fields with their parents to keep food on the table and still making the time to dedicate themselves to two inspiring coaches who led them to believe they were capable of whatever they put their mind too.

Production team
The film was shot on location in the Rio Grande valley of South Texas.

Frank Aragon producer and director is best known as the producer of the critically acclaimed film Down for Life. Frank was born and raised in the streets of Boyle Heights, he has been involved in the creation of films as an actor, writer, director, and producer for over 23 years. He is a Mexican-American whose passion is to tell positive Latino stories through film. Aragon was drawn to the industry as an actor starring in "Angeltown" opposite Teresa Saldana and appearing in Deathwish IV starring Charles Bronson. He then found himself being captivated to behind the scenes work as location manager on Real Women Have Curves, Resurrection Blvd, and The Brothers Garcia. He formed his company, 1211 Entertainment to create, market and distribute American-Latino themed films with universal appeal in 2000. Down for Life is his 5th film in the capacity of producer. Some of 1211 Entertainment's emerging library of films include Aragons past works: My Father's Love, Boyle Heights, and Hollywood Familia. Aragon is a recipient of the Golden Eagle Award as Outstanding Independent Filmmaker from Nosotros for his work on "My Father's Love". He is dedicated to making a difference with his community and this passion continues to drive him to tell the stories of the struggles, truimphs, heart aches, and joy that often go unheard but when told disclose a universal message that brings understanding and awareness helping to unite our society. .

Related films
Although there are over 45 million Hispanics in the United States, relatively few films feature Hispanic actors or tell real life stories drawn from their experiences. By comparison, films targeted towards black audiences have enjoyed substantial success at the box office, beginning with films such as Remember the Titans grossing $115,654,751 in domestic ticket receipts. It earned an additional $21,051,932 in business through international release to top out at a combined $136,706,683 in gross revenue.

Latino film Bound by Honor (1993) achieved modest success at the box office ($4 million, as did the more recent Under the Same Moon ($23 million), a Spanish language film distributed by the Weinstein Company and Fox Searchlight Pictures. American Me (1992) and Mi Vida Loca (1993) enjoyed limited theatrical releases. Thematically, Miracle at Donna is most related to Remember the Titans (2000), a new coach, Herman Boone, is black, and his team is a mixture of black players and white players. The struggles and triumphs that arise from the racial diversity are profound and inspiring.

History
THE MAGICAL 1961 SEASON: For The Rio Grande Valley, Its Greatest Moment Ever... Donna 32, Refugio 0 (bi-district) Donna 12, Devine 7 (regional) Donna 32, Sweeny 14 (state quarterfinals) Donna 16, Brady 14 (state semifinals) Donna 28, Quanah 21 (State Championship)

DONNA, Texas - For a sleepy, dusty South Texas community of the 1960s, the game for this particular town represented much more than a state high school football championship - something which had never before happened, was not expected, and never happened again.

This was the 1961 Donna Redskins squad, largely a collection of Mexican-American kids with a few White boys thrown-in, who overcame not only a lingering reputation that said Mexican kids could not play with the boys upstate but never with an undefeated team from a football-rich North Texas town that had expected to win, and win big against the brown-skinned lads from far South Texas.

The victory on a cold, mid-December night in Austin remains the greatest moment in the history of the much-maligned Rio Grande Valley. The RGV is a land that, like others in Texas, loves its football as much as it loves its politics and its all-consuming Hispanic culture. "Friday nights after September around here is a drive to the stadium and then a drive to the taqueria," said one resident of Donna, where the historic game still holds a special place in the small town's huge heart.

The rare accomplishment is so revered that many do not count a flight into space by a NASA astronaut from nearby McAllen. There are several military Medal of Honor winners, but their names are largely known only on the western side of the Rio Grande Valley - in Edinburg, where the town named a backroad after its hero, Freddy Gonzalez, and in McAllen, where once-lonely, now-busy 2nd Street also is known as Nikki Rowe Blvd. Other notables are former U.S. Rep. Kika De la Garza; former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen; the country-rock musician Freddy Fender, from San Benito; the idefatigable Othal Brand, ex-mayor of McAllen; the fabled federal judge Reynaldo Garza of Brownsville; the Olympian Bobby Joe Morrow (born in Harlingen, raised on a farm in San Benito); and, more recently, the state high school soccer champ teams from Brownsville.

All brought moments of pride to the region.

But it is the Donna Redskins, led by stoic quarterback Luz Pedraza and hard-running Alfredo Avila and Fred Edwards, that remains the singular mark of excellence, an accomplishment often claimed by anybody & everybody who calls the Valley his or her home. The shiny championship trophy went to Donna; the patina of the historical victory always has been claimed by an entire region.

Not that it was easy, or that anyone saw it coming. Not that year. Donna lost its first two games that season, to Rio Grande City and Mercedes, before reeling off 13 straight wins to claim the title. Its first playoff game, against Sweeny in Freeport, saw a coach for the opposing squad say this to Donna Head Coach Earl Scott: "Can these pepper-bellies play?" And play they did, whipping Sweeny 32-14 and ultimately making the drive to Austin, where they took to Memorial Stadium's storied field and played their hearts out.

The Quanah Indians that year mauled every team they played. They entered the championship contest with a stellar 14-0 record, having outscored their opponents 483-56. Like most of Quanah's opponents, Donna fell behind 7-0 early in the game. Still, they battled back, with Pedraza calming nerves in the huddle and wiping away tears from some of the younger Redskins' faces when the Indians scored and things seemed ready to turn full-out against Donna. Pedraza remembers concentrating on moving the team via the wishbone offense Coach Scott favored, handing off to Alfredo Avila or occasionally passing to Edwards. The final score was 28-21, Donna on top.

Books and college papers would be written about that Donna Redskin team. And although the school endured football team hazing scandals more recently, it is the unexpected victory in the 1961 championship game that shines on.

Like a beacon only Valleyites can see, it remains the ever-lasting prideful light of an entire culture, a land inhabited by people steeped more along racial and poverty lines than people claiming a game not quite their own. In the years that followed 1961, numerous RGV squads journeyed north, many of them carrying undefeated records. Last year's Harlingen Cardinals squad was the latest. And they tried; they tried, but they lost to bigger and faster northern players.

For the region, now almost 50 years later, the Donna Redskin victory ranks as big and symbolic as the nation's landing on the moon in 1969. We weren't there when the came home, but whatever celebration followed had to be wild and ecstatic for the few thousand residents that called Donna home back then.

That is how big Donna's state championship was - and is...

-- The Team roster: Richard Avila Alfredo Avila Luz Pedraza Jackie Roberson Harry Lantz Joe Gonzalez Jim Hulme Raul de la Garza Fabian Barrera Oscar Avila Abel Benavides Nick Padilla Bill Brumley Raul Alvarado Verl Hopper Johnny Badeaux Tommy Stone Raul Zamora Freddie Edwards

Head Coach: Earl Scott Asst. Coaches: Bennie La Prade Verle Clay Don Cummings

The Donna High School Redskins, and in particular the team's Mexican American players (11 of the 17 were of Mexican descent), battled such perceptions of inadequacy as they took the field in December of 1961 against the Quanah High School Indians in a contest for the Class AA state football title.

For the 1960 season Donna administrators hired Earl Scott, who had a proven record of succeeding with border area teams, in hope of winning their long-sought-after district championship. The coach's credentials were impressive as, starting in 1955, he had guided the Eagle Pass (Maverick County) Eagles to a record of seven wins, two losses, and one tie (with a team that was 90 percent Mexican American) before moving on to Laredo (Webb County) in 1956. Prior to his arrival, Laredo school board members actually considered dropping football because, Scott asserts, many of them believed that the town's "kids could not compete in the league."

The Donna Redskins, the unlikely powerhouse from the Rio Grande Valley, marched into (and through) the tournament, defeating Refugio (32 to 0), Devine (12 to 7), Sweeny (32 to 14), and Brady (16 to 14) to reach the state title game with Quanah. In all five contests, they were considered the underdogs and were also the visiting team, which increased the difficulty of success. An examination of the Texas Class AA team polls from the 1961 campaign reveals that Donna never ranked in the top ten of the classification, while for the majority of the season, Sweeny, Brady, and Quanah were all ranked in the top five.

Donna's season had a happy ending, however, although the title game did not start off very well. Donna received the opening kickoff and quickly had to give up possession of the ball and put to Quanah. The Indians marched down the field and scored to take a 7 to 0 lead after only five minutes of play. The scrappy Valley team responded with a drive of its own, although its offense lost possession of the ball near their opponents' goal line. The Redskins' defense then made a gallant stand, lead b Raul ("Chief") de la Garza and Fabian ("Outlaw") Barrera, who combined to sack the opposing quarterback, forcing Quanah to surrender the football. An appalling punt left the Redskins on the Indian's twenty-yard line, from where they quickly drove their offense across the goal line to make the tally 7 to 6 (Donna failed on a two point conversion attempt). The powerful Indian offense was unable to gain ground on their ensuing possession, and the Pedraza-led offense scored again with less than two minutes left in the second quarter. At halftime, surprisingly, the underdog led by a score of 12 to 7.

The second half began with an exchange of punts until Quanah pushed across the Donna goal line with about four minutes left in the third quarter. Uncharacteristically, the Redskins then turned the ball over on a Pedraza interception, and their opponents scored again to take a 21 to 12 advantage. The championship dream seemed to be slipping from the Redskins' grasp. Team member Joe Gonzalez recalls that this was the only moment of panic for the squad. "Two or three guys started crying in the huddle, but Luz helped get them refocused on the task at hand."

Atoning for his earlier miscue, quarterback Pedraza drove the offense down the field for a score and made a two-point conversion to narrow the deficit to 21 to 20. With less than six minutes to go, the Redskins' defensive unit stopped the Quanah offense and regained possession of the football. The Redskins' drive began on their opponent's 42 yard line and, with pinpoint passing and the hard running of Fred Edwards, scored a touchdown with about three minutes left. The Indians, in a final attempt to salvage victory, took the ensuing kickoff and drove down the field to make a tying score. Their last-ditch effort ground to a halt when Oscar Avila, one of the five siblings on the Donna squad, sealed the title by intercepting a pass. The final score read 28 to 21 in favor of the Rio Grande Valley's representative. The Laredo Times reported the triumph by stating that "Donna's Redskins were the only team to pull an upset. They brought the first state [football] championship in history to the lower Rio Valley area."The Donna Redskins had done what many prognosticators thought impossible: A Rio Grande Valley team had become football champion of the state of Texas.

Miracle at Donna
Miracle at Donna is a 2012 American documentary sports film produced and directed by Frank Aragon. The film is an inspirational look at a group of 17 young men, 11 Hispanic and 6 White, who won the State Championship in 1961. Coached by Earl Scott and Benny La Prade, these young men found father like figures in their coaches who through vigorous training methods were conditioned to great physical shape and unstopple mental state. Although the story took place in 1961 in the small town of Donna, Texas the team traveled to other parts of Texas on the way to their championship. These young men who were mainly from families of migrant workers, encountered prejudice and racism in other parts of Texas but were led by their head coaches to ignore what they faced and deal with it on the football field.

Background
Miracle at Donna is based on the actual experiences of the 17 young men who were coached by Rio Grande valley legends Earl Scott and Benny La Prade. In 1961, Head coach Earl Scott along with Benny La Prade found 18 young men who were willing to sacrifice all their hard work for a state championship, 11 of 17 were Hispanics, from families of migrant workers. These young kids did double duty working in the fields with their parents to keep food on the table and still making the time to dedicate themselves to two inspiring coaches who led them to believe they were capable of whatever they put their mind too.

Production team
The film was shot on location in the Rio Grande valley of South Texas.

Frank Aragon producer and director is best known as the producer of the critically acclaimed film Down for Life. Frank was born and raised in the streets of Boyle Heights, he has been involved in the creation of films as an actor, writer, director, and producer for over 23 years. He is a Mexican-American whose passion is to tell positive Latino stories through film. Aragon was drawn to the industry as an actor starring in "Angeltown" opposite Teresa Saldana and appearing in Deathwish IV starring Charles Bronson. He then found himself being captivated to behind the scenes work as location manager on Real Women Have Curves, Resurrection Blvd, and The Brothers Garcia. He formed his company, 1211 Entertainment to create, market and distribute American-Latino themed films with universal appeal in 2000. Down for Life is his 5th film in the capacity of producer. Some of 1211 Entertainment's emerging library of films include Aragons past works: My Father's Love, Boyle Heights, and Hollywood Familia. Aragon is a recipient of the Golden Eagle Award as Outstanding Independent Filmmaker from Nosotros for his work on "My Father's Love". He is dedicated to making a difference with his community and this passion continues to drive him to tell the stories of the struggles, truimphs, heart aches, and joy that often go unheard but when told disclose a universal message that brings understanding and awareness helping to unite our society. .

Related films
Although there are over 45 million Hispanics in the United States, relatively few films feature Hispanic actors or tell real life stories drawn from their experiences. By comparison, films targeted towards black audiences have enjoyed substantial success at the box office, beginning with films such as Remember the Titans grossing $115,654,751 in domestic ticket receipts. It earned an additional $21,051,932 in business through international release to top out at a combined $136,706,683 in gross revenue.

Latino film Bound by Honor (1993) achieved modest success at the box office ($4 million, as did the more recent Under the Same Moon ($23 million), a Spanish language film distributed by the Weinstein Company and Fox Searchlight Pictures. American Me (1992) and Mi Vida Loca (1993) enjoyed limited theatrical releases. Thematically, Miracle at Donna is most related to Remember the Titans (2000), a new coach, Herman Boone, is black, and his team is a mixture of black players and white players. The struggles and triumphs that arise from the racial diversity are profound and inspiring.

History
THE MAGICAL 1961 SEASON: For The Rio Grande Valley, Its Greatest Moment Ever... Donna 32, Refugio 0 (bi-district) Donna 12, Devine 7 (regional) Donna 32, Sweeny 14 (state quarterfinals) Donna 16, Brady 14 (state semifinals) Donna 28, Quanah 21 (State Championship)

DONNA, Texas - For a sleepy, dusty South Texas community of the 1960s, the game for this particular town represented much more than a state high school football championship - something which had never before happened, was not expected, and never happened again.

This was the 1961 Donna Redskins squad, largely a collection of Mexican-American kids with a few White boys thrown-in, who overcame not only a lingering reputation that said Mexican kids could not play with the boys upstate but never with an undefeated team from a football-rich North Texas town that had expected to win, and win big against the brown-skinned lads from far South Texas.

The victory on a cold, mid-December night in Austin remains the greatest moment in the history of the much-maligned Rio Grande Valley. The RGV is a land that, like others in Texas, loves its football as much as it loves its politics and its all-consuming Hispanic culture. "Friday nights after September around here is a drive to the stadium and then a drive to the taqueria," said one resident of Donna, where the historic game still holds a special place in the small town's huge heart.

The rare accomplishment is so revered that many do not count a flight into space by a NASA astronaut from nearby McAllen. There are several military Medal of Honor winners, but their names are largely known only on the western side of the Rio Grande Valley - in Edinburg, where the town named a backroad after its hero, Freddy Gonzalez, and in McAllen, where once-lonely, now-busy 2nd Street also is known as Nikki Rowe Blvd. Other notables are former U.S. Rep. Kika De la Garza; former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen; the country-rock musician Freddy Fender, from San Benito; the idefatigable Othal Brand, ex-mayor of McAllen; the fabled federal judge Reynaldo Garza of Brownsville; the Olympian Bobby Joe Morrow (born in Harlingen, raised on a farm in San Benito); and, more recently, the state high school soccer champ teams from Brownsville.

All brought moments of pride to the region.

But it is the Donna Redskins, led by stoic quarterback Luz Pedraza and hard-running Alfredo Avila and Fred Edwards, that remains the singular mark of excellence, an accomplishment often claimed by anybody & everybody who calls the Valley his or her home. The shiny championship trophy went to Donna; the patina of the historical victory always has been claimed by an entire region.

Not that it was easy, or that anyone saw it coming. Not that year. Donna lost its first two games that season, to Rio Grande City and Mercedes, before reeling off 13 straight wins to claim the title. Its first playoff game, against Sweeny in Freeport, saw a coach for the opposing squad say this to Donna Head Coach Earl Scott: "Can these pepper-bellies play?" And play they did, whipping Sweeny 32-14 and ultimately making the drive to Austin, where they took to Memorial Stadium's storied field and played their hearts out.

The Quanah Indians that year mauled every team they played. They entered the championship contest with a stellar 14-0 record, having outscored their opponents 483-56. Like most of Quanah's opponents, Donna fell behind 7-0 early in the game. Still, they battled back, with Pedraza calming nerves in the huddle and wiping away tears from some of the younger Redskins' faces when the Indians scored and things seemed ready to turn full-out against Donna. Pedraza remembers concentrating on moving the team via the wishbone offense Coach Scott favored, handing off to Alfredo Avila or occasionally passing to Edwards. The final score was 28-21, Donna on top.

Books and college papers would be written about that Donna Redskin team. And although the school endured football team hazing scandals more recently, it is the unexpected victory in the 1961 championship game that shines on.

Like a beacon only Valleyites can see, it remains the ever-lasting prideful light of an entire culture, a land inhabited by people steeped more along racial and poverty lines than people claiming a game not quite their own. In the years that followed 1961, numerous RGV squads journeyed north, many of them carrying undefeated records. Last year's Harlingen Cardinals squad was the latest. And they tried; they tried, but they lost to bigger and faster northern players.

For the region, now almost 50 years later, the Donna Redskin victory ranks as big and symbolic as the nation's landing on the moon in 1969. We weren't there when the came home, but whatever celebration followed had to be wild and ecstatic for the few thousand residents that called Donna home back then.

That is how big Donna's state championship was - and is...

-- The Team roster: Richard Avila Alfredo Avila Luz Pedraza Jackie Roberson Harry Lantz Joe Gonzalez Jim Hulme Raul de la Garza Fabian Barrera Oscar Avila Abel Benavides Nick Padilla Bill Brumley Raul Alvarado Verl Hopper Johnny Badeaux Tommy Stone Raul Zamora Freddie Edwards

Head Coach: Earl Scott Asst. Coaches: Bennie La Prade Verle Clay Don Cummings

The Donna High School Redskins, and in particular the team's Mexican American players (11 of the 17 were of Mexican descent), battled such perceptions of inadequacy as they took the field in December of 1961 against the Quanah High School Indians in a contest for the Class AA state football title.

For the 1960 season Donna administrators hired Earl Scott, who had a proven record of succeeding with border area teams, in hope of winning their long-sought-after district championship. The coach's credentials were impressive as, starting in 1955, he had guided the Eagle Pass (Maverick County) Eagles to a record of seven wins, two losses, and one tie (with a team that was 90 percent Mexican American) before moving on to Laredo (Webb County) in 1956. Prior to his arrival, Laredo school board members actually considered dropping football because, Scott asserts, many of them believed that the town's "kids could not compete in the league."

The Donna Redskins, the unlikely powerhouse from the Rio Grande Valley, marched into (and through) the tournament, defeating Refugio (32 to 0), Devine (12 to 7), Sweeny (32 to 14), and Brady (16 to 14) to reach the state title game with Quanah. In all five contests, they were considered the underdogs and were also the visiting team, which increased the difficulty of success. An examination of the Texas Class AA team polls from the 1961 campaign reveals that Donna never ranked in the top ten of the classification, while for the majority of the season, Sweeny, Brady, and Quanah were all ranked in the top five.

Donna's season had a happy ending, however, although the title game did not start off very well. Donna received the opening kickoff and quickly had to give up possession of the ball and put to Quanah. The Indians marched down the field and scored to take a 7 to 0 lead after only five minutes of play. The scrappy Valley team responded with a drive of its own, although its offense lost possession of the ball near their opponents' goal line. The Redskins' defense then made a gallant stand, lead b Raul ("Chief") de la Garza and Fabian ("Outlaw") Barrera, who combined to sack the opposing quarterback, forcing Quanah to surrender the football. An appalling punt left the Redskins on the Indian's twenty-yard line, from where they quickly drove their offense across the goal line to make the tally 7 to 6 (Donna failed on a two point conversion attempt). The powerful Indian offense was unable to gain ground on their ensuing possession, and the Pedraza-led offense scored again with less than two minutes left in the second quarter. At halftime, surprisingly, the underdog led by a score of 12 to 7.

The second half began with an exchange of punts until Quanah pushed across the Donna goal line with about four minutes left in the third quarter. Uncharacteristically, the Redskins then turned the ball over on a Pedraza interception, and their opponents scored again to take a 21 to 12 advantage. The championship dream seemed to be slipping from the Redskins' grasp. Team member Joe Gonzalez recalls that this was the only moment of panic for the squad. "Two or three guys started crying in the huddle, but Luz helped get them refocused on the task at hand."

Atoning for his earlier miscue, quarterback Pedraza drove the offense down the field for a score and made a two-point conversion to narrow the deficit to 21 to 20. With less than six minutes to go, the Redskins' defensive unit stopped the Quanah offense and regained possession of the football. The Redskins' drive began on their opponent's 42 yard line and, with pinpoint passing and the hard running of Fred Edwards, scored a touchdown with about three minutes left. The Indians, in a final attempt to salvage victory, took the ensuing kickoff and drove down the field to make a tying score. Their last-ditch effort ground to a halt when Oscar Avila, one of the five siblings on the Donna squad, sealed the title by intercepting a pass. The final score read 28 to 21 in favor of the Rio Grande Valley's representative. The Laredo Times reported the triumph by stating that "Donna's Redskins were the only team to pull an upset. They brought the first state [football] championship in history to the lower Rio Valley area."The Donna Redskins had done what many prognosticators thought impossible: A Rio Grande Valley team had become football champion of the state of Texas.