{"id":586,"date":"2026-07-28T20:23:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viavirtutis.com\/?p=586"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:23:54","slug":"coach-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viavirtutis.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/28\/coach-carter\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is a saying: \u201cDress for the job you want, not the job you have.\u201d The idea behind it is that you want to show your willingness to take your professional life seriously. It shows that you are prepared to move up, to be promoted, to excel in your chosen field. It also means that you want to do better than you currently are doing \u2013 instead of simply accepting that where you are in your career is where you have to stay, you can help move yourself forward toward your goals by beginning to dress, act, and think for the job you actually want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the saying is meant specifically for the work force, it can also be adapted for life: \u201cAct like the person you want to be.\u201d This is the central message of the movie Coach Carter<\/em> \u2013 we don\u2019t have to simply accept our own current status, but can strive to achieve higher goals, to become better people, to aspire to something greater. If we refuse to hold ourselves to a higher standard, then our life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy \u2013 we think that we can\u2019t become better than we are (whether personally, professionally, in school, in our friendships, in our relationship with God); thus we don\u2019t try to become better; and surprise, surprise, we don\u2019t become better. In fact, a refusal to hold ourselves to a higher standard will usually mean that we become more accepting of increasingly lower standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the movie Coach Carter<\/em>, coach Ken Carter insists on holding the members of the Richmond basketball team to a higher standard. The boys on the team live in the poorer areas of Richmond. Their prospects are not great \u2013 only 50% of students graduate from Richmond High School, and of these, only 6% go to college. As the principal tells Carter at one point, schools are funded based on academic performance \u2013 this means that every year in which Richmond High does poorly, it gets less funding. This is a perfect example of a self-fulfilling prophecy \u2013 standards are lowered for schools performing badly, which just reinforces the idea that Richmond students are likely to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter is trying to fight against this idea, which he finds in the principal, in the students, and even in the parents. No one expects these boys to be anything better than failing students who can play basketball. The principal even tells Carter that this year of winning will be the highlight of many of these students\u2019 lives. She has bought into the atmosphere of failure that surrounds Richmond students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the individual cases of some of these students, we can see similar difficulties arising. The students themselves don\u2019t expect anything better out of themselves. They are initially offended that Carter would even expect anything out of them beyond playing basketball. We can also see the various difficulties that attend the lives of these students. For example, Kenyon\u2019s girlfriend Kyra is pregnant. For Kenyon, this raises many fears \u2013 he sees it as a burden that will hold him back, as a complication in his life that he doesn\u2019t want to face. Instead of supporting Kyra, he abandons her. Eventually he does the right thing and returns, but she has gone through with an abortion. Kenyon\u2019s selfishness in not being willing to take responsibility for the consequences of his actions leads to the death of another human being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter is determined to hold the students to a higher standard. He believes that they are capable of being better than they are, that it is not necessary that they simply accept failure at school or in life. He wants to teach them how to become men. At one point, he explains that he is trying to teach them the discipline that will help them achieve success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two key words, then, in Carter\u2019s approach are \u2018respect\u2019 and \u2018discipline.\u2019 He insists that, if they are to be respectable, they must begin by respecting themselves. This is the \u201cdress for the job you want\u201d idea \u2013 begin by showing respect for yourself, and then others will respect you. He gives them an example from the very beginning by showing that he<\/em> respects them. He respects them enough to hold them accountable through a contract. He insists that he refer to them as \u201csir\u201d: \u201cAs of now\u201d he says to one player, \u201cyou are a sir. So are the rest of you. \u2018Sir\u2019 is a term of respect. And you will have my respect until you abuse it.\u201d Carter begins by offering to the boys the respect that no one else has shown them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then demands that they show this same respect to themselves. He forbids the use of the term \u201cnigger\u201d \u2013 \u201cNigger is a derogatory term used to insult our ancestors\u201d; \u201cWe treat ourselves with respect. We don\u2019t use the word nigger.\u201d Using the term \u2018nigger\u2019 means accepting and internalizing others\u2019 lack of respect. As Carter explains, \u201cSee, if a white man used it, you\u2019d be ready to fight. Your using it teaches him to use it. You\u2019re saying it\u2019s cool. Well, it\u2019s not cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDress for the job you want.\u201d If we want others to show us respect, we need to begin by showing respect for ourselves. This means holding ourselves to a higher standard, acting like a person we can respect. Carter tries to instill this in his players by insisting that they take their schooling seriously, that they dress professionally on game day (suit and tie). He also instills this by asking the students to evaluate their own lives. After telling them that students from Richmond have an 80% higher chance of going to prison than going to college, he tells them: \u201cNow I want you to go home and look at your lives tonight and look at your parents\u2019 lives and ask yourself, \u2018Do I want better?\u2019\u201d He wants the students to take responsibility for the direction of their own lives \u2013 they don\u2019t need to just mindlessly follow the paths of mediocrity and failure that the statistics say they will, or that even their own parents and teachers expect they will follow. Instead, they can be agents for change in their own lives and it begins by taking ownership and treating themselves with respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This respect needs to be extended to others as well. Carter is dismayed when he sees how the boys taunt their opponents. Winning has gone to their heads, and now they are willing to taunt others. Carter asks them, \u201cSince when is winning not enough? Playing hard not enough? [\u2026] What gives you the right to wear Richmond on your chest and act like punks?\u201d Kenyon tries to defend their actions with the classic excuse that \u201cthey were doing it too.\u201d Carter\u2019s response is blunt: \u201cSo? You can\u2019t show some class? Act<\/em> like a champion?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again we see Carter telling the boys to \u201cdress for the job you want\u201d \u2013 or \u201cact like the person you want to be.\u201d In order to be a champion, you need to start by acting like one. Champions don\u2019t use other people\u2019s failures as an excuse for sinking to their level. Champions don\u2019t belittle their opponents. Champions hold themselves to a higher standard. This is true both in sports and in life, and is an excellent example of the way that sports can, if properly engaged in, be a valuable training ground for life. As Carter says at one point, \u201cWinning in here means winning out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We mentioned above that \u2018respect\u2019 is one of the key terms in Carter\u2019s approach. The other is \u2018discipline.\u2019 The two are linked \u2013 by practicing discipline, we can become the kind of person we can respect; further, we respect ourselves by holding ourselves to a higher standard, which is a kind of discipline. Carter expects discipline out of his students. He makes them sign a contract and expects them to honour it, even when this means locking the students out from playing basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key difference between Carter\u2019s philosophy and that of many of the school\u2019s educators and parents comes through most clearly in the scene where the school board and the parents have gathered to discuss the lockout. Most of the parents and teachers insist that Carter ignore the fact that the students\u2019 grades have suffered and let the boys keep playing basketball. A parent says, \u201cThen I move that we end this lockout and let the kids play.\u201d This is the goal behind parents\u2019 concern \u2013 letting the kids play. It doesn\u2019t see the students as young men capable of making decisions, but sees them simply as \u2018kids\u2019 playing a game. It doesn\u2019t see the connection between lessons learned through playing a game and living in the \u2018real world.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter, however, disagrees with this: \u201cYou really need to consider the message that you\u2019re sending these boys. It\u2019s the same message that we as a culture send to our pro athletes, which is that they are above the law. Now, I\u2019m trying to teach these boys the discipline that will inform their lives and give them choices. If you endorse the fact that 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds don\u2019t have to honor the simple rules of a basketball contract, how long do you think it\u2019ll be before they\u2019re out there breaking laws? Now, I played basketball at Richmond 30 years ago. It was the same thing then. Some of my teammates ended up in prison. Some of them ended up dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice the difference then between the parents\u2019 reaction and Carter\u2019s. The parents see basketball as a way of keeping their kids out of other mischief, as a kind of substitute for parenting, in a way. This is similar to the view the principal presents at some points \u2013 that there is no real connection between basketball and academics, or basketball and the real world. Basketball is a sort of \u2018safe-haven\u2019 for the boys until they enter the inevitable downward spiral into crime, poverty, prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter\u2019s view is different. These boys are no longer children, but are young men whose decisions and actions now will affect their lives. Notice the difference in language \u2013 the parent says \u201clet the kids play\u201d; Carter says that he wants to \u201ceffect change in a special group of young men<\/em>.\u201d Here he is showing the respect he expects his players to show themselves and each other \u2013 they are young men, not kids anymore. Further, Carter insists that there is a real connection between basketball and life, between academics and life. The lessons learned on the court and in the classroom are relevant to how these young men will then go out and think and act once they enter the so-called \u2018real world.\u2019 They need to start acting now like the men they will be expected to be once basketball is over and they have left school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie, then, is about setting the bar higher for ourselves. If we want to be shown respect, then we need to begin by respecting ourselves enough to become the kind of person we can respect. The movie is about growing up, about beginning to think and act like young men rather than children. This means, as Carter explains, making decisions and learning to live with the consequences. Finally, the movie is about refusing to accept low standards \u2013 dream big! Finally, the way towards these goals is by \u201cdressing for the job you want\u201d \u2013 \u201cact like the person you want to be.\u201d This is called cultivating the virtues. A virtue is a good habit; like any habit, you only get better at it by practicing it. Carter tells his players to act like champions in order to be champions. The same is true in all areas of life \u2013 if we want to be champions, we need to start acting like champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is in the movie, but as Catholics we also know that there is more to the story than this. Self-respect, discipline, setting the bar high \u2013 we know that all of these things are possible for us because of Jesus Christ. He is the one who calls us to a higher standard. He tells us that we were so precious to Him that He was willing to die for us \u2013 what greater basis for self-respect is there than that? Should we not want to respond to this great evidence of His respect for us by acting as He would have us act? He tells us not to return \u201can eye for an eye\u201d but to love our enemies \u2013 this is a very lofty goal, which we wouldn\u2019t even dare attempt if He didn\u2019t promise us His grace!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. \u201cDream and your dreams will fall short.\u201d \u2013 St. Josemaria<\/p>\n\n\n\n