Coach Carter is a movie that greatly demonstrates the relationship between academics, poverty, and social issues. This inspirational movie was based off a true story in which Coach Ken Carter (Samuel L Jackson) strives to remake a boys’ basketball team and to teach them that life is much more than basketball. Coach Ken Carter was once a former star player on the basketball team at Richmond High School located in Richmond, CA; so he was very knowledgeable about the negative statistics of student athletes at that school.

However, he wanted to be the person to “affect change in a special group of boys”. He believed that academics were more important than basketball and that every boy on Richmond High School basketball team could be someone in life. When he became the coach, he made the boys sign a contract stating that they will keep a 2. 3 GPA, they will attend all classes, they will sit in the front row of all classes, and that they will dress up on game days. When the boys failed to adhere to his rules, he put a lock down on the rest of the basketball team until they reached the goal of the contract.

Coach Carter wasn’t your average coach. He was also a teacher and mentor for these young boys. He gave these boys a sense of hope in life that no one ever gave them. He disciplined them, encouraged them, and even fathered them. There were fifteen boys on the basketball team; each of which experienced rough times such as times of poverty, instances of a broken family, or even relationship problems which lead to certain demeanors of disrespect and anger.