At the beginning of the year, Ken Carter, otherwise known as Coach Carter, coach of the Richmond Basketball team in Richmond, California, came to visit our school.
Every athlete knows that when you join a sport, you sign a contract stating such things as the promise that as long as you are on the team you are to do well in school. When one goes below their expectations, they are to sit out of whatever athletic event they are suppose to attend and are put on academic probation. In 1999, when 15 of Coach Carters 45 basketball players did not meet the standards of his contract, he took immediate actions. With a successful attempt, he refused to let his undefeated Varsity team to play the season; he closed the gym to the high school, and banned everything that had to do with basketball until his players lived by the contract. Ever since his actions, a movie has been made based on his life. Samuel L. Jackson plays him in the movie Coach Carter.
Hearing him speak was very motivational. All the students in the gym listening were fellow athletes and I knew every coach in there was listening to every word he said. When it comes to motivational speaking, I give coach carter an A because he knows exactly what he is talking about. He talks about actual examples that have happened in his past and teaches people you can do it (anything you set your mind to).
Looking around the gym I saw that no one single soul dared not to pay attention. It wasn’t that he was intimidating, even thought it WAS Coach Carter, but because it wasn’t hard to listen to what he had to say. Unlike other speakers, he really kept everyone’s attention the whole time.
After he spoke, he gave out Dvds of the movie and signed autographs, talking to anyone who wanted to take his words meaningfully. Before he left to catch his plane he told me and two of my friends that we could do anything as long as we set our minds to it. He said it a little better than that, but it was still pretty cool to talk to him. After he shook our hands, he thanked us for joining his speech and he left.
With his jokes, expert advice on winning, in the game and in real life, and his words on education, we were all thankful that Coach Carter made it out to Nova Southeastern University.
2 comments:
the reaction you describe is intriguing. What do you think kept the students' attention? Was it the force of his personality, or his commitment to the larger picture (education) over the desire to win games?
he told interesting stories that had happened to him and his players. Hos commitment to the larger picture over games was the fact that we need to face reality; not every girl or boy on the team was going to make it to the MBA or even college basketball, so you cannot be completely focused on the 'game', but you need, if you will, a fall back.
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