A tough-as-nails high school football coach shepherds his players through an up-and-down season in Old Coaches, an interesting documentary helmed by Troy McGatlin, director of the dynamic serial killer thriller Head Hunter and - not coincidentally - the coach's son.

Fans of sports movies, or high school sports, will enjoy the storyline, as the former Colorado state champion Green Mountain Rams try to fight back to the playoffs after an 0-3 start.  Holding it all together is long-time coach Don McGatlin, a larger-than-life figure who cajoles, praises, lambastes and inspires his players through their highs and lows.

And Coach McGatlin holds the feature together as well, a character whose rough charisma and homesput mannerisms reminds one of Robert Duvall. But here, of course, the people and their lives are real.

Where I found fault with the project is that it has a tendency to stick to an upbeat portrayal and gloss over any potential unpleasantness-the coach's divorce being one of those elements- and that the production values are sometimes lacking, especially in some less-than-dynamic shooting of football games.  I also couldn't help but wonder if the black-and-white shooting was to cover up some uneven lighting or color balances.

Old Coaches is certainly a change of pace for Troy McGatlin; not quite deep enough to be a character study, not explosive enough to be a sports drama, but entirely satisfying as a slice of life.  My heart raced twice, my eyes misted once and that's a pretty good record.

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Coach Mac has coached high school football at Green Mountain high school for over two decades - with a dedication that cost him his marriage of over 25 years. Old Coaches follows him through his 1998 season as he takes his team towards a state championship.

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Old Coaches

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