Leading Characters

Leaders would never achieve a position of power if they were unable to motivate people to follow them. Kouzes & Posner (2000) found that people want their leaders to be honest, forward-looking, inspiring and competent. Coach Carter displayed all of these qualities. When he was first introduced to the team by Coach White it is pointed out how many school basketball records he owns and these can clearly be seen hanging in the gym. Although at this point the team were uninterested they would have been very unlikely to pay him any attention at all if he had no relevant qualifications. Coach Carter makes many inspiring quotes throughout the film. One of his first is “the losing stops now. Starting today you will play like winners, act like winners, and most importantly, you will be winners”. Speeches like this help the team to in themselves and fulfil their potential. Coach Carter is honest with the team telling them things about his past and explaining basketball plays in terms of the women in his life. This helped the team warm to him as he was being open about himself and made them laugh. After the team wins the first game of the season Coach Carter looks ahead to the next one rather than getting caught up in the glory of winning. As the players boast about how many points they scored and assisted Coach Carter looks at how many turnovers they had and free throws they missed so they can focus on ways to improve before the next game.

As the basketball coach Ken Carter is a clear leader in the film however other characters also take on leadership roles within their lives. At the beginning of the film Timo Cruz is seen to be the ring leader of the basketball team although he does not display any positive leadership qualities. He asserts his dominance by chatting back to Coach Carter saying "Can you believe this uppity Negro Sir?" in an attempt to make fun of him. Coach Carter then tells him to get out of the gym "before I help you out". Cruz makes to walk off but then turns around and swings for the coach, Carter blocks him and pins him up against the wall. "Teachers aren't allowed to touch students" Cruz whines to which Coach Carter replies "I'm not a teacher, I'm your new basketball coach". After this altercation Cruz storms off and quits the team. Folger & Skarlicki (1998) found that the perpetrators of aggression in these types of situations often see themselves as victims of injustice. This fits with the plot as Cruz has grown up in an under-privileged area without much family support. However this is not the way for a good leader to behave as it does not encourage feelings of security and stability which Maslow (1943) identified as the second step in the hierarchy of needs. If these basic needs are not fulfilled then an individual will not be motivated go any further.

Principal Garrison is another key leader in the film as the head of the high school. Although she is the one to hire Coach Carter she does not always support his methods as she feels he oversteps his role as coach. When Carter goes to see her about the players progress reports she responds with "progress reports? You're the basketball coach". When Coach Carter tells her he wants his players to be able to go to college she scoffs "College? Mr Carter, Richmond graduates fifty percent of our students, a higher percentage of girls, so, in my very educated opinion, if you have fifteen players on your team, you will be lucky to graduate five of them... Mr Carter your job is to win basketball games, I suggest you keep doing your job". To which Carter replies "Ms Garrison your job is to educate these kids by any means necessary, I suggest you start doing your job". Although at times Principal Garrison does not appear to be a very good leader it is clear that she is trying to do the best for her school whilst up against many obstacles such as budget cuts. Her unwillingness to back Coach Carter at the start could be due to the fact that she would rather focus on helping pupils that want to attend and learn rather than use up valuable time trying to make pupils attend that do not want to especially when they have other skills (such as basketball) to occupy their time at school.