The loss of and difficulty of Internet access at work and at home respectively has set me back in my postings in my blogs. It kind of took me off tangent and for a while was at a loss as to what to write about. But while walking to the wash room today, the light bulb in my head suddenly turned on and Coach Carter came to mind which I watched last night.
I'm not sure if the movie has been screened in the country already so it means that I watched a pirated DVD copy. It's a sports movie in the league of Remember the Titans, which drove me to tears. The movie is based on the true story of Ken Carter who coached a high school basketball team. He was not the average basketball coach who only cared about shooting percentages and defense but he wanted his players to be students first before they were athletes. He couldn't have said it more clearly: "Student comes first in "student athlete". So what he did was to let his players and their parents sign a contract that the players had to maintain a grade point average of 2.3, attend all their classes and sit at the front rows, and wear coat and tie on game days as a sign of respectability. He gained popularity or notoriety, depending on which side of the fence stakeholders were, when he benched his undefeated team when they failed to live up to the contract by cancelling the most important games and locking the gym. This is as far as I go with the movie. but the sub plots were also interesting which I will save for later.
If there's a group who should watch this movie, its the varsity players in our schools. I couldn't agree more with Coach Carter 's principle of academics first before playing because there is so much more to life than just playing ball. I don't even have to look far for an example because I have a nephew who's a college ball player.
My nephew (my bro-in-law's son) is 21 years-old and he's no different from the characters portrayed in the movie. Basketball to him is everything. Four years ago, he came from the province where he was also in the varsity team, hoping to make it to the UAAP. But as luck would have it, he made the rounds of the universities and he wasn't good enough for them plus the fact that he had no clout to back him up. Yes, there's politics in sport too, if you're not aware of it. He wasted an entire year loafing around, trying out in different schools hoping that his talents would be appreciated. A year later and with my hubby's right connections and pressures, he was able to make the team for NCAA.
To make a long story short, he's still in college but I can only guess how long he stays there or if he'll graduate at all because he's not exactly taking his academics seriously. Last sem, he enrolled in two subjects. He failed one and was incomplete in the other. To think he dreamt of being drafted in the PBA. But I guess he has accepted the fact that he will never make it to the PBA.
I also recall the student athletes I had when I was a university instructor. I had to be and was told to be extra lenient to them but I share Coach Carter's views so even if they had games and were absent in my class, they had to catch up with the lesson. I remember failing a couple of them but it's not something I'm particularly proud of. They did beg me as well as their coaches to reconsider but I already bent over backwards to accommodate them early on but they simply were too busy playing. I guess they lost their scholarships after I failed them.
Maybe there is a Coach Carter in all of us. Let us not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in even if it means facing the ire of an entire community and change the culture of leniency to athletes, after all they are still students. Because sports is not supposed to be an end but a means to an end.
I'll save my reflections on the sub plots tomorrow.
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