I think guy-coaching-high-school-sports-team should be considered it’s own genre. You really haven’t arrived as an actor until you’ve starred in a movie as a coach of a high school sports team. Here’s a few recent additions to the genre. I’m sure I’m missing many that could be added to this list.

Remember the Titans (Denzel Washington)
Friday Night Lights (Billy Bob Thorton)
Radio (Ed Harris)

And now Coach Carter with Samuel Jackson. This is not to say that these movies are bad. Quite the contrary. I’ve really enjoyed every single one of the movies mentioned above.

Coach Carter is of special interest to us Bay Area viewers because it’s based in Richmond California. However, the movie is about the basketball team and not the area in which they lived and played. Don’t expect to see a lot of Bay Area locations in Coach Carter.

The events the movie are based on the 1999 Richmond high school basketball team. One of the big news items of that time is the lockout that coach Ken Carter instituted when his team failed to meet minimum academic standards. Despite the headlines this made I knew absolutely nothing about it when it was going on. That goes to show how much I pay attention to the news.

The two documentaries about the real Ken Carter and the players are well worth the time to watch. It’s really encouraging to know that amazing things can happen in one of the worst school districts in the country. Coach Carter is a real hero and we need more people like him working with our kids today.