This story is part of a new podcast series, “American Suburb,” from KQED.

When Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of University of Michigan football and the former San Francisco 49ers coach, stepped onto the Antioch High School football field last fall, everyone knew he was there for Najee Harris -- the nation’s No. 1 high school recruit.

The crowd had come to see him, too. Harris and the team have notched up a winning record, inspiring many in the community to turn out for games: the old-timers from the team’s past glory days and the many newcomers who have moved into Antioch in recent years, seeking a better life in this Bay Area suburb.

“We’ve seen a lot of people that have come to these games the last couple of years that I haven’t seen at Antioch games for 20 years,” said Frank Mercado, 63, who played football for Antioch High. "It helps that Najee Harris is here. He’s brought a lot of people in and it’s been really good for the town.”

The team has become a rallying point for Antioch, which has struggled over the years as it was transformed from a working-class town into the diverse bedroom community it is today. Cities like Antioch have been some of the fastest-growing places in the Bay Area, with gentrification in places like San Francisco and Oakland pushing people to leave, and they’ve had challenges handling the population boom and the newcomers who have moved into town.

From Sleepy Town to Sprawling Suburb

Many of the changes began in Antioch in the late 1990s, with the waves of new people, many of them minorities, arriving in the small, mostly white community. The city's population went from 62,195 in 1990 to 102,745 in 2010, according to census data.

Some longtime residents welcomed the newcomers; others didn’t. Problems that accompanied the community’s growth -- including violent crime, which rose 31 percent in 2007, and poverty -- led some longtime residents to place the blame on the newcomers, causing rifts and fissures to surface along racial and socioeconomic lines.

It was natural that as the city experienced growing pains, some older residents blamed their new neighbors, said Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando.

"If people are coming in that look different, and people perceive it as worse, then the correlation is, well it’s them, that’s what’s causing it," he said.

At times, these tensions boiled over in the mid-2000s: A mosque was set on fire, a mixed-race youth was beaten up and robbed at a football game, a group of black teenagers was expelled from school after a melee with police at a gas station near school, and women living in Section 8 housing (homes for lower-income individuals) accused city officials of trying to push them out.

A series of “Quality of Life” forums hosted by Antioch leaders over several years to address the problems revealed the depth of the divisions, with one man recounting how he’d received several letters telling him: “You all haven’t been in this house for two weeks and it looks like a dump. ... Just load up the U-Haul and go back to Richmond or Oakland. You don’t belong in Antioch.”

Things have gotten better in Antioch since then: The city, hit hard by the nationwide recession, is emerging from it. Antioch High is performing better as a school. And some believe the racial tensions have improved, that people have learned to talk to each other.

And one thing that’s part of the mix is the Antioch High football team -- with the help of Najee Harris.

Harris: Antioch Migrant

Harris in many ways is emblematic of the newcomers: He bounced around the Bay Area before ending up in Antioch, nicknamed “Rivertown” for its location near the mouth of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

When asked where he’s lived the longest, Harris said, “Antioch. Four years.”

Harris lived with his brother, sister and mom, who moved the family to one of the roughest parts of Antioch because it was cheap. It’s a short walk to the high school, which has at times been associated with the poorer part of the city.

Najee said his favorite thing about Antioch is the people, including those who live in his neighborhood.

“The hood people -- like the drug dealers and stuff -- they always come to me and say, ‘Man, I’m hearing a lot of stuff about you. Whatever you do, man, just hopefully you make it out of here and represent us,’ ” he said.

Then there are the longtime residents -- the old football players and coaches -- who are coming out to the games and who tell Harris they appreciate what he’s doing for the school and city. Some of them are reliving their glory days, being transported back in time to when football was huge in Antioch.

“I’d have people crying to me. It’s weird,” he said.

Harris has helped to bridge a gap between older residents and those newcomers like him -- and that’s momentum Antioch High Principal Louie Rocha would like to build on.

A Principal's Mission: The Best Days Are Yet To Come

As the city was going through its growing pains, Rocha kept a mantra: The best days of Antioch High are still ahead -- a tough sell in a community experiencing a lot of change.

The growth in population and emerging cultures in Antioch have been hard on both longtime residents who feel like they’ve lost part of their town’s identity, and on those moving into these suburban communities searching for a place to belong.

“One of the things that probably was most disturbing for me living in the community was the perception by many that the best days of Antioch High School were in the past,” he said.

When Rocha took over the school in 2006, the community was grappling with problems on many fronts: the racial tensions were surfacing at the “Quality of Life” forums; the city was heading into the recession and was about to be hit hard with foreclosures; and poverty was already on the rise.

The school was suffering badly, too. Antioch High hadn’t had any major repairs since opening at its current location in 1954. The school had many needs: new science and computer labs, a cafeteria and sports facilities, including a new football field -- a modern overhaul.

In 2012, the district put a $56 million school bond measure on the ballot. Though it was the middle of the recession, the town rallied behind it in the November general election.

“It was almost a fatalistic viewpoint,” said Rocha, who saw the measure as a test of what the school meant to Antioch. “The stakes were so high. If we hadn’t passed that bond measure I don’t know what we were going to do.”

The first project funded was the new football field. The year it officially opened, 2015, was when Harris hit his stride.

Friday Night Lights: It’s Game Night

Harris led the Panthers to an undefeated regular season record that year -- one last achieved when Rocha played on the team in 1979. It was enough to bring people from across the city out to the games.

“Najee has really brought football back to Antioch,” said Gayle Autentico, a former Antioch High cheerleader who graduated in 1956. “It’s brought people out who probably didn’t go for a long time.”

Last fall, Gayle and her husband, Randy Autentico -- a former Antioch High quarterback -- joined their classmates at a football game for their 60^th reunion.

Under the night lights, the yellow-and-black Panther colors shone bright against the verdant artificial grass. The school kept the old bleachers but put a fresh coat of paint on them.

Antioch High has been able to keep that traditional feel, and Rocha has tried to make his school a place for everybody. It seems like it’s working, offering new and old residents a shared pride to coalesce around in a way that's been difficult to do otherwise.

“I think Antioch is becoming a better place, especially with football,” said Briana Davis, a senior and Antioch High cheerleader. “I think football is really bringing Antioch together as a community.”

Najee Harris graduated early and left Antioch to play football at the University of Alabama. Some wonder whether people will continue showing up to the games next fall.

But Rocha said his real pride isn’t what happens on the field. It’s the students being active off the field who are helping him try to ensure that the best days of Antioch High are still ahead.