Why Coach Carter is Meaningful to Me

Coach Carter (): My Meaningful Film

The film Coach Carter (2005) changed my life. As a child, I’d always loved inspirational sports films, because sports meant so much in my own life. But Coach Carter was about much more than sports. Instead of focusing on whether a team would win or lose a big game, the focus of the film (and of the central character) was on the moral lessons the coach was instilling in his team, and the ways in which the team members learned important lessons about life from the coach. The fact it was based on a true story made it even more inspirational. Even though many of the players were talented, they were often undisciplined. The coach showed the players how becoming a better person, including becoming more disciplined studying at school, would enable them to succeed on the court and in life.

As a football coach who coaches inner-city kids, I like to think I put many of the values of this film into action. The coach is very much aware of the challenges his basketball players face that prevent them from succeeding in life, going to college, and making a better future for themselves. The coach clearly is aware of the fact that his players face obstacles that others might not, and one reason they are so hardened and angry to his teaching at first is because of the struggles they have faced. Their lives very clearly are not fair. But he is also uncompromisingly high in his expectations, and the students respect him for the standards he has set for them.

Because of my work, I am more aware of the fact that inspiring young people is not as easy as Hollywood makes it seem. There is no single shining moment of glory that validates the coach’s actions in reality, unlike the film. Every day can be a hard uphill battle just to ensure players are surviving day by day. But I am still moved and inspired by the final scenes of the film when the players tell the coach that his actions, including his toughness, saved their lives. In my own interactions with my students, I am not always as tough as the coach in the strategies I use, and I often employ more positive reinforcement. But I am still inspired by the idea that through playing sports, and the lessons conveyed by working as a team and respecting a coach, a player can learn lessons that will help him or her find a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Sports like basketball or football are often things that students feel an innate connection to already. By motivating students to succeed using something that already inspires them with passion, I can connect to students who might otherwise not feel hopeful about their circumstances. Sports releases aggression and energy, improves physical fitness, and teaches strategy and respect for teammates. It teaches students how to accept setbacks and defeat as well as how to win. The type of coaching portrayed in the film, in which the coach creates a strategy and demands players follow through with 110% is much harder in reality than it is on film. Often players are exhausted from the difficulties they face simply getting to school and to the playing field. This isn’t something that they can let go of, even after motivating exercises and pep talks, much less creative discipline like the kind Carter uses in the film. But I try to use my belief in them as motivation to believe in themselves. My belief I am doing good also helps me overcome the frustrations I may feel about my work.