The movie, "Coach Carter," is based on the true story of Coach Ken Carter and the Richmond High School basketball team. The story of Ken Carter and his team gained national attention when he denied the entire team to play ball due to consistently poor academic performances. Carter sets a goal to make his boys become better students, better people and better basketball players, dedicating his life to teach the team to tackle their real-life issues - education, crime, conduct, problems at home, girl troubles and negative team mentalities.
"Coach Carter" sheds light on what's currently happening in the American education system. In the beginning of the movie, a frustrated Ken Carter makes every boy on the team sign a contract, enforcing the rules of staying out of trouble and improving and maintaining their grades so they can earn their degree. Soon after the contract signings, Coach sees that most of his players are failing in school and struggling in their personal lives. He becomes angry, locking the players out of the gym so they cannot practice or challenge each other in scrimmages. The town of Richmond takes great pride in their basketball team, and Coach's stance to keep the team from having access to the gym, causes outrage in the community. .
After a while, Coach's players start to stand behind Carter and get their grades up. This helps to show how people are starting to car about the wrong things in high school and illustrated that the education system should not provide kids entertainment but should give kids a future. This is best stated in a conversation between Coach Carter and the principal of the school states that "For some of these kids this basketball season will be the highlight of their lives," Carter responds with " Well I think that's the problem, don't you? (Carter). He these kids should be looking forward to much better times than high school basketball, the schools should make it possible for these kids to be so much more than just high school basketball players.
