Bleachers by John Grisham is a sports fiction novel that takes place in modern day settings. The exact location of the town of Messina is never described, although from the names of the colleges given and the mention of extreme heat it appears that it would be in Texas, or perhaps another southern state. The reason Grisham would create a town like this in the novel would be to show the way football is treated almost as a second religion in some places, and to create an event in the story that would bring everybody to the town and allow him to sum up a lifetimes worth of self insight and reflection on some characters parts and put it in a relatively short novel. 

The idea of a coach winning 13 state championships at a high school doesn’t seem highly plausible though it is possible to happen in reality. Even more improbable is “The Streak” that is referred to in the book in which they win a ridiculous amount of games and championships in a row that appears to be ludicrous. The novel appears to be based off of real events but if so the stories of these ideas have been overexxagerated in order to create a more interesting fiction story. This book wouldn’t quite be rationalized as realistic but more of a stretch on an account of actual events.