When people think of Ken Carter, many strong qualities come to mind. He is a man that speaks with authority and treats everybody with respect. Carter has an immediate impact as soon as he begins speaking to the high school boys. The team had been struggling and Carter had solutions. His demands were either going to be met by everyone or the team would fail. Those were his philosophies. Even if you were the best player, you had to think team first and hard work. Although Coach Carter seemed to be pretty harsh, his ideas were going to help these boys grow as a team, as athletes and most importantly, as people.
Coach Carter was determined to make changes in the group. One area that the coach saw as a weakness was the respect of the players. They had absolutely no respect towards the newcomer. Even though Ken Carter was older, he showed as much respect to these kids as he would to anybody, but the return was at the opposite end. In fact, within five minutes three players quit the team because they weren’t happy with the seriousness of their new coach. He had not done anything extreme; all he was asking for was a little respect.
The results of the players both on and off the court were extremely lousy. The former Richmond ball player set up a contract that was to be followed in order for each individual to participate on the team. The contract was simple and was made to benefit the team and each player. But again, the reactions of a few players were extremely negative. The coach simply wanted to instill commitment within the group. Those were his methods, in which he was confident would bring success.
Also, the approach Carter took was an in your face type. He stood strong and said what he had to say, he simply got straight to the point. The players certainly weren’t use to having someone with authority speak to them in this tone and it showed that they did not know how to react other than displaying their lack of respect. These boys were use to resorting to violence when faced with adversity. One individual even tried to hit the coach, only to wind up against the wall neutralized. Immediately, you could see the effect of this on the rest of the group. Right then and there, the ball players knew that he was for real.
In conclusion, Ken Carter’s ways of dealing with the problematic team were harsh, yet they were going to teach the boys a lot. His mental strength and physical strength could withstand anything the boys were going to throw at him. His approach to coaching was intense, but was going to benefit the boys and most of them realized that. His philosophies were solid and he had solutions to the many problems. He emphasized a number of ideas in which would help the boys succeed.
