Complex leadership concept in the film “Coach Carter”
Filmed in 2005, the movie “Coach Carter” tells the real-based story of the coach, Ken Carter, and his coaches, a Richmond High School’s basketball team. In this biographical teen sports drama, the main characters are going through a growth journey from impolite, aggressive, and lousy team players to a respectful unified team of champions and promising students [1].
Mr. Ken Carter (played by Samuel Jackson) is a graduate of Richmond High School and was also a well-known basketball team player for Richmond Oilers 30 years ago. With a sigh of disappointment, Ken Carter empathetically relates to his subordinates and concludes that nothing in this school has changed but just worsened. So, Karter has decided to take the job of a coach in this school because of the sense of nostalgia and desire to “fix things” in this school.
Before analyzing the coach’s approach, it is essential to understand what basketball and student-athlete mean to Mr. Carter. In his conversation with the head teacher of Richmond High School, Ken Carter says, “And, basketball is a privilege, ma’am.” [2] For coach Carter, basketball is not just a sport but a way of living and thinking. It is an honor to play it, which is one reason why he takes this job extremely seriously.
The student-athlete concept is a general notion that a person can be either a good sportsman or a good student. Ken Carter rejects it completely: “If you don’t perform in the classroom, you will not play.” [2] He thinks that an athlete is a combination of academic achievements, training, and a specific “winner” mindset.
Several times Carter mentions that “These students are student-athletes. “Student” comes first.” [3] It is the reason why the coach decides to sign a contract with each basketball team player where one of the requirements is to maintain a 2.3 (C+) average point and attend all classes.
The concept of training is not only a way to keep a good physical shape in basketball players but also a way to maintain discipline and punishment. That is why, during the film, it is widespread to hear from the coach something like, “You owe me 1000 pushups and 1000 suicides before you can play. I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.” [3]
While seeing his subordinates for the first time, coach Carter builds up a base for the winning mindset by saying, “Starting today, you will play like winners, act like winners, and most importantly, you will be winners.” [3] Putting aside exhausting pieces of training every day, coach Carter even shifts the way his students talk: they have to refer to Mr. Carter as “Sir” and avoid the word “nigga” and any other insulting slang in communication with each other. Moreover, he prohibits his coaches from insulting or bullying a losing side, even during plays with other teams.
From inner changes to outer, coach Carter makes his students wear suits and ties to attend classes where they must sit on the first row. Through small and significant changes, coach Carter strives to change the Richmond Oilers team for the best.
Critically these changes would be done according to 4 leadership styles and two theories that were partially presented in the video “Coach Carter. Leadership Analysis” [4] and were independently analyzed by the author of this article.
Authoritarian [5] + transformative leadership [6]. Firstly, coach Carter chooses a revolutionary approach to change these young people’s lives. He breaks down everything these players believe to be correct, their routine and ways of thinking, and tries to build something new on these ruins. He is doing this by presenting a list of things he expects basketball players to do in the form of contracts. Any disobedience of these rules would mean disqualification of the team. Moreover, if any team player disagrees with his rules, he would welcome to leave the team or pass through additional training to punish deviant behavior. However, these complicated relationships between coach and coaches are permeated with a deep philosophy of winning, the vision of succeeding both in the sport and life: “If you listen and learn, you will win basketball games. And gentlemen, winning here is the key to winning out there.” [3]
This eclectic style of leadership could have worked smoothly if these students were “tabula rasa” (blank slate) for coach Carter to “mold” them as he pleased. However, it is essential to mention that Ken Carter comes as a substitute teacher in the place of another coach — White. Due to his old age, Coach White admitted to being unable to deal with a group of young men. It leads us to conclude that these students were free from any expectations for a very long time and created their tactics for playing and communicating with each other. Having this negative but “liberating” example makes the job of coach Carter more challenging to implement. Not surprisingly, some players leave the team; parents gather at the meetings to criticize his way of teaching, and young men who stay on his team constantly rebel against his coaching methods.
Path-Goal Theory [7]. Coach Carter comes with a ready-made plan for how to go from point A to point B. He provides his students with a “remedy” for their failures and explains the importance of following his plan to achieve what they desire most — winning in basketball matches. In inexperienced hands, pushing blind faith among apprentices, in the case of failing the initial plan, can lead to disastrous consequences for the team and the coach [7]. However, the strong assurance and perseverance of Ken Carter brought first wins to Richmond Oilers, which calmed down most of the arguments with students and all of them with parents. As a result, even one of the “bad guys” — Timo Cruz — decides to come back to the team to follow the philosophy of Ken Carter.
Psychodynamic theory [8]. Meanwhile, as training and games pass, Ken Carter gets to know better the complexity of the lives of these young people: Jason’s fear of following the footpath of his criminal father, Junior’s loss of a brother, and his insecurities rooted in this experience, tragic death of Cruz’s nephew in cross-fire and his desire to be a better man. According to the psychodynamic theory, a leader may gather information on his subordinates’ behavioral patterns and triggers that cause them to use to maintain better coach-coachee relationships. It is what happens when coach Carter gives a speech in the library on the importance of entering a college, basing his speech with facts and figures and words that would mostly touch young men: “Now, I want you to go home and look at your lives tonight and look at your parents’ lives and ask yourself, ‘Do I want better?’ If the answer is yes, I will see you here tomorrow.” [2] Choosing the deepest fears of these young men as a source of motivation and inspiration, coach Carter gets the result he always wanted — high grades and high school attendance.
Servant leadership [9]. Coach Carter shifts his mainly authoritarian leadership style to a significantly altruistic servant leadership when he sees positive changes in his students and gets to know them better as young men with fears and insecurities. He says: “And, I promise you, I will do everything in my power to get you to college and a better life.” [2]
It is also when Ken Carter starts to project himself and his own experience on these teenagers. Their success means more than his reputation, public opinion, and even his job: “Some of my teammates went to prison. Some of them ended up dead. I took this job because I wanted to effect change in a special group of young men, and this is the only way I know how to do that.”. [2]
One of servant leadership’s main traits is when the apprentices’ success becomes more important than the success of the organization or institution [9]. So, the coach locks the gym doors when he discovers that his students fail subjects one by one and do not attend classes at school. This action became public domain, and all districts arose against coach Carter: his shop was vandalized, and he got insulted and bullied while being in public. All teacher-colleagues are also against him because he breaks the order of school procedures.
In his speech during the disciplinary meeting, he rebels against a mainstream educational system where “I see a system that’s designed for you (Richmond Oilers) to fail.” [2] Unfortunately, when the disciplinary meeting comes in favor of ending the lockout of the gym and making these children play, coach Carter goes: “The board sent the message loud and clear. Winning basketball games is more important than graduating from high school and college. I’m sorry, I can’t support that message.” [2]
Shared leadership [10]. The moment of truth comes when coach Carter leaves the school because he does not want to align with the system that expects young athletes to fail. However, he finds his apprentices in the gym not playing but studying. It is one of the film’s most moving scenes where a spectator sees all the way these young people came to become thankful, honest winners of the day. In the emotional scene, Timo Cruz quotes an updated version of Marianne Wilson’s poem “What is our deepest fear?” [11] Ultimately, he says: “Sir, I just wanted to say thank you. You saved my life” [2].
All the complexity of relationships that coach and coaches have passed turned into cooperation, mutual respect, and freedom to make independent decisions: “You said we’re a team. One person struggles; we all struggle. One person triumphs; we all triumph.” [2] As coach Carter admits, “I came to coach basketball players, and you became students. l came to teach boys, and you became men.” [3]
This story is a happy ending because coach Carter’s aim has been achieved: most students have received an invitation to prestigious colleges on full-scholarship bases. Maybe the methods of coach Karter were radical, but at the end of the day, what is more important than the knowledge that people you care about are safe and sound? Maybe it is worth playing big to get significant results and let our apprentices judge our methods.
“Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so others won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do.” [2]