The fascination with Coach Carter rests within Samuel L. Jackson’s character Coach Carter who unyieldingly enforces his law on the student athletes at Richmond High School.  When Coach Carter arrives at Richmond HS, he discovers that the discipline, academics, and athletic performance do not stand high with the students who more or less seem to run the school.  However, Coach Carter does not tolerate mediocrity in any aspect of being a basketball player on the Richmond Oilers, as he hands over a contract for the players to sign at the first meeting with the players.  The contract states that they have to maintain a 2.3 grade point average, wear a shirt and tie on game days, and sit in front of the class.  Several people, players and parents, believe that Coach Carter is out of line by enforcing his rules on the players.  But Coach Carter remains firm with his coaching philosophy, as he merely states, “These boys are student athletes. “Student” comes first.” 

Nonetheless, Coach Carter faces a long road head of him, which begins with one victory after another.  Through the victories he begins to teach the players that hard work will eventually pay off, but he also coaches them about character and other worthwhile lessons that will be helpful throughout life.  On the academic side of the issue, Coach Carter discovers a strong resistance among the teachers and the faculty at Richmond HS.  They do not provide him with the progress reports that he needs to check on how the students uphold their contract by having a 2.3 grade point average.  Years of battling poor academics at Richmond HS seem to have sunken into the mentality of the teachers and faculty that these students cannot do better.  This is something Coach Carter finds unacceptable, as he deals with the problem directly by challenging the system.

Finally, when Coach Carter receives the progress reports after much trouble he finds out that several of the players are either failing or have incompletes in their classes.  Consequently, he cancels the practices and forfeits the games until the players will have increased their grade point average, and they uphold their contract.  This however causes much disturbance among teachers, faculty, and parents who find that the students, who are unbeaten at the time are losing games due to forfeits, which could harm their chances of going to the State Championship.

Besides dealing with academics and athletics, the film presents several interesting side plots through issues such as teen pregnancy, poverty, gangs, and drugs.  This portrays an authentic image of the real problems that teens face, yet these issues all get an obvious solution that might not feel true.  However, many young viewers can probably relate to the issues, and thus it makes it a powerful teaching tool, as they all deal with their own problems in their own way.

Coach Carter has its cinematic blemishes, which the audience should overlook when observing the message that the film tries to send to a most likely young audience.  For whatever reason the audience sees the film, they get to experience a positive message that displays several lessons such as perseverance, diligence, and teamwork.  In this light, one must consider the film to be a rather good film, even though some scenes have some awkwardness.  However, despite some of the cinematic gracelessness, Coach Carter delivers what he teaches—the message of diligently pursing ones own dreams so the inner winner will emerge.

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USA

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