eLog - The Call to Leadership (30 July 2009)

My Reflection:
Thursday, 30 July 2009

COACH CARTER

Coach Carter is a 2005 American drama film starring Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Thomas Carter, and released by Paramount Pictures. It is based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for locking out his undefeated team due to their poor academic results.

Plot

Ken Carter takes over as the basketball coach at his former high school, inner-city Richmond High School. He sets strict new rules for the players, insisting that they sign contracts agreeing to meet his standards. Some players decide to leave the team, and Carter's son transfers from his private school to join the team.

With Carter's intense coaching, the team begins the season undefeated, and wins a holiday tournament. However, Carter discovers that some of his players are not producing the agreed academic results. He locks the team out of the gym in the midst of their still-undefeated season, canceling practice and forfeiting games in favor of studying in the library.

The school board eventually votes to end the unpopular lockout, despite dissenting votes from the principal and the chairwoman of the board. Carter is about to quit, but he finds the players sitting at school desks in the gym, with teachers tutoring them. The players point out that even though the gym is reopened, the school board can't force them to play. Carter is heartened and decides to stay, thanking the players.

The team makes it into the state high-school championship playoffs. The climactic game takes place in the tournament's first round against the #1 ranked-team in the state, St. Francis (starring a superstar NBA prospect, Ty Crane). In the last second, Crane makes the winning shot to end Richmond's season. Over the closing song, it is shown that six of the players went on to attend college.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_Carter

Coach Carter is one of my favorite sports-oriented movie I love (the other being Remember the Titans). Here, Coach Carter did not just coach his alma mater's basketball team because of the salary but because of his passion for two things: (1) love for the game; and (2) desire to help the youth.

More than 50% of the youth in his side of town do not reach high school graduation. Some do not reach high school at all. Others, if not in jail, die in the streets because of crimes. He wanted to help and the way he can do it is through basketball. On the first training day, he gave each of the youth a contract and the deal was for them to meet academic standards, not to high but just enough for them to get a college scholarship. Academic development is new to the kids. Basketball for them does not equate to good grades. Coach Carter showed them that their grades are also important; that going to college is important; that if they want to excel in basketball, they also have to excel in other fields of endeavor like school work and other activities.

The parents of some kids hated Coach Carter for instituting contracts, for canceling games because the kids did not honor their contracts (by getting good grades). Carter explained to them that if their kids do not value the contract they signed now, they will not value the contracts they will sign later like the contracts they will have if they join the NBA or the contracts at work.

In one scene, during a game Coach Carter told his player to make a cut, go straight to the 3point line and shoot. The player hesitated and told him that he can't do it, that he is not the main option for that kind of play. Carter encouraged him that it is the same play that they are doing all the time in practice and that he can do it. The kid followed the instruction and made the winning basket.

In another scene, right after a lopsided victory the team went into practice. Every time the players made a basket, Carter would tease them, taunt them, and say invectives to them. He would shout that he made the play; that the shot was perfectly done because he trained them; that they are nothing without him. The kids were so irritated that one could not take it anymore and answered him back. Carter asked them, "Why do they always have to taunt your opponents; why do they always have to trash talk when they make a shot; isn’t it enough to win a game?" His point here was that it is also important to be humble in victory.

Our emotions are tested during times of stress and especially if we are under pressure. In the movie, Carter showed his level of emotional intelligence when for several times; he was harassed by angry parents or family members of the kids. Carter eventually won the battle when the community understood what he was fighting for.

Basketball. Leadership. Love.