The movie 'Coach Carter' tells the true story of a high school basketball coach who implements strict academic standards for his players, emphasizing leadership and personal development over sports alone. Faced with resistance, Coach Carter's tough love and commitment to discipline lead the team to realize their potential, respect the importance of education, and foster teamwork. The film illustrates how effective leadership can transform lives, stressing values like hard work, family, and moral integrity.

1. Coach Carter movie Summary
Assignment # 1
Course: Leadership and Change
Course Instructor: Ms Faryal
Group members:
Anam Siddiqui
Babar Reyaz
Yousuf Rafi

2. From then pen of Mark Schwahn and John Gatins here comes a movie which is more than just
about basketball. It is about leadership and tools necessary to achieve goals as a team. 'Coach
Carter' is based on a true story of Coach Ken Carter, a controversial high school basketball coach
played by Samuel L. Jackson. Coach Carter took the coaching job under his rules. Coach Carter
(Samuel L. Jackson) is not an ordinary coach, he made the whole team sign a contract in which
students were supposed to maintain a grade point of 2.3 or higher in their academics. He also
made students attend all classed and sitting in the front row. But how does that all connect to
basketball. It does. Coach Carter was not only teaching students ‘how to play basketball’ his am
as mentioned in the first half of the movie was to get more students in the collage. He was using
strict disciplines of leadership to teach students ‘how to be a better human being.’ It's about time
there's a movie about morals.
Statistics from Richman High as mentioned by the principle was that only 50% of students
graduate and of those only 6% go to high school. Coach Carter saw the big picture already and
found out the problem pretty early. That is what good leaders do. They see what other cant and
start executing. When Coach Carter first started students resisted to change, they were unwilling
to come out from their comfort zone. A student namely Timo Cruz got angry and Coach Carter
threw him out of the gym. Later when Timo Cruz wanted to rejoin the team Coach Carter ordered
him to do 2500 pushups till the end of week. This task seemed impossible in the start but Timo
started with the pushups. For days he tried but at the end of the week he was unable to complete
the task. But just after Coach Carter declared him as a looser whole team stood up for him and
agreed to complete the pushups for him. In this scene Coach Carter provided us the importance
of teamwork. No matter how strong you as individual but as a team you can always achieve
greater results.
After an hour in the movie we can see that Coach Carter forced the principle Garrison to request
teachers to provide academic report of students. As soon as Coach Carter came to know that
students were not paying attention in their academics he closed the gym and asked students to
get their academics straight before they can start playing. Parents protested and even the
principle forced Coach Carter to resume the basketball practice but Coach was serious about his
decision. A jury was set for Coach Carter to decide whether Coach can continue with his job.
Coach Carter was voted out by the teachers to quit his job. Right in the court Coach Carter
explained the importance of doing the things his way. “You really need to consider the message
you're sending this boys by ending the lockout. It's the same message that we as a culture send
to our professional athletes; and that is that they are above the law. If these boys cannot honor
the simple rules of a basketball contract, how long do you think it will be before they're out there
breaking the law?”

3. But then students stood with him as a shield. Students promised to attend classes and work on
with their grades. Once Coach made sure that students were ready he resumed the basketball
practice. This affected the parents too. Junior Battle’s mother Mrs. Battle begged Coach to train
his son. As a leader that is the single most important trait, winning people heart even when
people don’t like you. Coach Carter with his different approach a leader turned an underdog team
into a highly trained team. Coach told us the importance of building a vision. Thinking your way
through
Even though they did lose the last game but as Coach Carter said himself ‘l came to coach
basketball players, and you became students. I came to teach boys, and you became men.’ This
movie not only teaches us importance of doing things with passion but also outwitting things that
come along the way. Coach Carter taught importance of family and discipline, and working hard.
Each player realized the potential they are born with and worked their way out. This is an
excellent film. If you love basketball, true stories, and Samuel L Jackson, I can guarantee you will
find things to like about this one. At least I hope you do