Jim White’s wife Cheryl White was played by actress Maria Bello in the hit film, “McFarland, USA”. Coincidentally, the movie brought in over 45 million bucks with a budget of 17 million, so calling it a hit movie is more than fair. But the real Cheryl White gave birth to three daughters and not two (as portrayed in the movie). You assume Disney could afford to hire another actress for a third daughter. But maybe consolidating the cast is easier for budget and story.
Jim and Cheryl are very devout Christians who have said try to infuse their religion into the work they do. Jim White’s wife met him at a college that doesn’t exist any more. The couple both attended Magic Valley Christian College. They were students there in 1959 at the spry age of nineteen. Even back then their religion played a huge part of their life since the college itself was associated with their Church of Christ. They married at the age of 21 just two years after meeting. The movie may not have mentioned how heavy the religious affiliation was for the coach and his runners when he started working at McFarland High School. The coach and his runners prayed before every match.
Cheryl classifies both herself and Jim as “country bumpkins”. She attributes everything in her life and the movie’s existence on the will of God. Like I said, they’re hardcore religious people. In a Christian periodical, Cheryl is quoted as saying,
“We were both young, came there, lived there and did our thing. The bible says whatever you can find to do, do the best you can.”
Hey, that’s not such a bad message. Score one for the bible! Jim White’s wife Cheryl White reiterates how much they both love helping kids. This fact has come up in more than one article about the White’s. Plus: there was never any controversy with Cheryl and Kevin Costner. Rumors about Kevin Costner and sports wives are best kept to anomalies.
