Coach Carter

 Return to List

Coach Carter 

Working with youth is a hard job. Especially when it comes to the education system, and many teenagers don’t’ want to be in school. Their reasons for struggling academically, can be attributed to a learning difficulty, but in many cases, it’s because they’re just not engaged in the learning process.

So, teens will find their outlet or their “thing” and focus on that and only that. But it’s a hard lesson to learn before becoming an adult, that without an education, you won’t get very far in life. Such is the experience for the high school students of Richmond High School, a large public school in the urban sprawl of Los Angeles. Only 50% of  their students finish high school, and far less will go onto college. Coming from a generation before them that didn’t succeed academically, they turn to their one passion as their hope for a better future; basketball.

 

But this team won’t be let off the hook so easily, especially when their new coach Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) comes along to mix things up. With a long history of basketball success for the same school, Carter has also learnt the value of a good education. He sees potential in the team, even when everyone else doesn’t. He isn’t always easy on his team, but he is always fair.

 

It’s Coach Carters integrity, tenacity and unwavering commitment to bring out the best in his team, that clearly distinguishes him as a coach, and not a teacher. Although he would go on to succeed more with the students than any of their teachers could, he has the unique position of being the adult who will help the students grow and see a future for themselves, rather than fit them into a box of failure and rejection.

 

It’s this take on the relationship between an adult and a group of youth – The Coach and The Team- that makes the film so enjoyable. The overall look and feel of the film is gritty and real, and the basketball scenes, whether the gruelling training sessions or the riveting games, are very well filmed and edited. Jackson shines in one of his best performances ever, and he’ll yell and command each scene as he does in every film, but you won’t hear his trademark “MotherF!@#$r” calling card in this film.

 

What I take away from the film is the power of being a coach over a teacher or trainer. Sure, the educational roles are integral toa young persons future, but are limited in the long term impact they can have as it’s one teacher with a class of as many as 30 students. But a coach, with a team of 10 or even just one player, can spend more time, be more hands on and relate the game to life more than anything done in a class room. As a result of that approach from the coach, the basketball team not only become better players, they excel in school, and look ahead to their own futures very differently.