MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — It's 11 p.m. on the first day of the Elite 11 Finals and Trent Dilfer and the Elite 11 coaching staff are huddled inside a small conference room on the second floor of the Belamar Hotel.
He sits at the end of the table with a handful of his trusted staff members, and they are all staring at a dry-erase board that will prove to be their ultimate battleground over the next 48 hours.
On that board are magnetic placards with 24 names—one for each of the finalists. The first 11 are gold, and the rest are black.