Teamwork In The Film 'Coach Carter' By Timo Cruz

I walked off the floor with sweat dripping from my hair. So many thoughts flew through my head that I couldn’t focus on anything. My junior year of basketball felt like it ended as quickly as a blink. It was as if in seconds we went from the stars of the state tournament to the embarrassments of it. I tried to forget the disappointment of it but it still will not leave. My desire and love to win games comes from the more apparent hatred of losing them. Junior year we had a chance to win a state championship, but we lost that chance. That was when I realized that I had one chance left to win. Senior year our basketball success would only be as rewarding as we would make it. The pressure placed on ourselves was substantial, and we faced trials on the road to success. In the end, we stood alone, crowned as the champions, not letting our chance slip away.

Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).

At the beginning of the movie after the first loss the coach told the team that winning is everything. This is important because throughout the movie I was able to see a change in the characters as they learned more about themselves. They were able to learn that winning wasn’t everything but learned that it’s important that they keep playing the game. During the funeral someone says, “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.” This was important to me because I can relate this to religion. There isn’t a real answer of why things happen the way that they do. It’s not in our control but a person can get through the tragedy by surrounding themselves with loved ones. That’s what I personally saw while watching the movie because the team rose beyond the ashes by having each other’s backs. The win at Marshall University was important because everyone in the town came together to watch the game. It just showed me that life keeps moving on but a person should never forget. In addition, another example is when Jack saw the West Virginia helmet has a MU on the back. This showed the role of religion in the community and how it unites people when times harsh, hence allowing the coaches to watch film in the opposing school’s campus. For religion and sports I believe that they are intertwined with each other. I say this because in the movie the players had faith and wanted to keep the team alive. By taking each day one at a time they were able to rise from the ashes and keep the program going. Even though the team wasn’t any good the University looked towards the light and saw this as a new beginning without forgetting about the past. Football kept the town going and allowed for people to remember the tragic

The Jesus movement was not just about kids learning to like each other, or sports programs having a spiritual leader, but it was more about the change God can have on people’s lives. We see the struggles of a young team and especially of a young man with a great gift in the sport of football, take that gift and use it to impact a community and then an entire state. It was the time to make a change and that’s is what a high school football team represented. Not knowing probably at that time, but they were representing hope for the future, and later that they had shown love within the sport and throughout the team members. Not yet only did this was teaching a lesson, but the way the team and city was putting God first in everything. Learning to trust and faith within God is what moved the hearts to love one another rather on the heart and not based on skin color. Why would a high school football team have such a big impact on the community? It is interesting how this all started with young kids during a very harsh time in life that had to deal with discrimination, it’s a reminder to the older generation how important it is to love and respect one another. Why was winning such a big deal? In the movie shows how the team lost, but still was a very inspiration within the town. Winning isn’t everything, but I saw how humble the

Remember The Titans is a great football movie, and an even better civil rights movie. The movie shows how TC Williams handled desegregation and how the football team brought the community together. When the white players and black players came together for the first time, they did not get along. Coach Herman Boone took the team to a camp, and the players started to get along. When the players went back to school, they experienced the racism all over again. Eventually, the team helped the school and community get over the desegregation.

Sports psychology deals with the mental and emotional aspects of physical performance. It involves describing, explaining and predicting attitudes, feelings and behaviours in an attempt to improve performance. In the film 'Coach Carter,' directed by Thomas Carter, sport psychology is used effectively to enhance the performance of a high school basketball team. However, this improved performance is not limited to the basketball court, it extends into the classroom where the students use goal setting, motivation, concentration and confidence control, ultimately to become accepted into college, avoiding a life of drugs, gangs and prison.

The film wasn’t about that 13-0 record and winning a state championship, but the struggle that came with it and all the hardships they had to deal and get past. Racism, prejudice, compassion and love were all key aspects of this film as shown. The racism, prejudice of the team when they first met was severe and had been changed. The love and compassion came as the team grew to become one unit and love each other and be able to become something more powerful than they could be by themselves.

How the director achieved their purpose was through all of the elements of film combined in this movie. For example, the lighting in a few scenes reflected the mood. In one scene it was dim, monochrome, and dull. I feel the sense of the lighting really gave the feeling of what the director was trying to pursue. Another example is camera angles and techniques during the sports scenes. Sports scenes are difficult to film because of the constant movement and the scenes incorporating sports were done perfectly. The acting, writing, and music was genuinely beautiful. The acting really made me feel like that it was in the 1940s by the way they talked and the writing was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it and how it was written. There wasn’t much music in this movie but when there was it related to the scene and was beautiful. As an example, during those intense sports scene, intense music would play. There are many strengths to this movie including the acting, directing, and honestly the overall performance, in my opinion. One weakness though was the language (cursing) used throughout the movie. Even though it was historically accurate for the way they talked, I feel like the movie could’ve been just as successful without it. My overall response to this movie is that it was intriguing to watch. I say this because I found the storyline and how that it was about Jackie Robinson and what he went through interesting,

I thought the movie was fantastic! The characters were perfect and so well played. It really showed all the great aspects of Jackie Robinson and his family. It also portrayed all of the hardships he had to go through and live with everyday. The message the movie was sending is that racial barriers have been broken, and many other barriers can be broken as well as long as you persevere. I learned all about Jackie Robinson, his family and how he became involved in Major League Baseball. I would most definitely recommend using the movie in class to support a content area. We could probably spend an entire week on the movie and race ideologies. This movie was a perfect example of the ideology, and it teaches you about it too. Overall it was a great film, and I am so glad it came out in time for this

The coaching staff at the newly racially integrated T.C. Williams high school was one that was assembled from different schools in segregated communities. Upon receiving their coaching positions, they did not yet have a unified culture of beliefs, assumptions, or feelings because they didn’t know each other and had not worked together.

Within Hollywood’s movies depiction of drug addiction, many have failed to represent all true aspects that come along with such lifestyles. The movie, The Basketball Diaries, is based off a novel Jim Carroll wrote from his own diary entries. As a teenager growing up in the sixties, Carroll reveals his progression of drug abuse which eventually leads him addicted to heroin.Heroin is a white powder derived from morphine found in opium. It is commonly prescribed as a painkiller, but is also a popular street drug.The director casted Leonardo DiCaprio as Jimmy, and concentrates on creating the character as a stereotypical drug abuser. DiCaprio’s most captivating scene is when he is going through heroin

In this course we also discuss Transformational leadership. One of the factors of transformational leadership is Inspirational Motivation. The textbook states that this factor is descriptive of leaders who communicate high expectations to followers inspiring them through motivation. In the fil Coach Carter, Timo Cruz quit the basketball team shortly after getting into a slight altercation with his new head coach Ken Carter. Weeks later Cruz returned back to the gym and expressed his interest in wanted to play basketball again. Coach Carter instructed Cruz to complete 1,000 suicides and 2,500 push up by Friday before he could start practicing with the team. Once Friday came Coach Carter informed Cruz that he had come up short and asked him to

Ken Carter A.K.A Coach Carter is a fictional character from the Docudrama Coach Carter. Ken shows signs of an authoritarian complex as his personality has an exceedingly apparent correlation with; sociopathy, draconian authority, and an almost dictator like persona. Using references from the film we gain proof of Ken's autocratic demeanour. During the time after the Oilers (Richmond high basketball team) win their first game Timo Cruz comes to the gym seeking to amalgamate with his bygone team. Timo becoming a perfect caricature of penitence Ken acted against this remorse with a gargantuan and quite frankly unattainable task (2500 push ups and 1000 suicides by Friday.) as a form of punishment. This account provides evidence that Ken Carter's despotic and tyrannical personality and values (Authority, Self-Righteousness, Respect, Reputation, Status, and Success.).

Every coach has their own style of teaching and training their players, however after watching the film Coach Carter it is palpable that Ken Carter has a very unique and particular style of coaching. After taking on the role as a basketball coach at Richmond High School, Carter recognises that his students have no intent on succeeding in their academic studies and simply have the mindset to be successful in their beloved sport of basketball. Carter obtained a strong disagreeing of these views, as well as the belief the staff in the school acquired that the statistics are too difficult to beat, so the additional effort put in will not differentiate anything so Carter made a contract for his students which stated what rules they must follow,

In the film, Coach Carter initiates a lockout after learning some members of his team failed to uphold the academic requirements mutually agreed to between the Coach and the players in a signed contract (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). In place of practice, the players were confronted by a sign on the gym door asking that they meet the Coach in the library (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). Going forward, practices were cancelled and the team was forced to forfeit games they demonstrated an improvement in their grades (Watch Coach