Quotes

"What you've achieved goes far beyond the crossover dribble, the three point jumper or the trap defense. What you achieved same men never achieve. What you achieved is the ever-so-elusive vicotory within. YHou have made me proud. Four months ago, I took this job and I had a plan. Well, that plan failed. I came to teach players and you became students, I came to coach boys and you became men. " Coach Ken Carter

Comparison

The book and the movie are alike in many ways, but different in others. The same things would have to be, the team struggling with their grades, not knowing what it is like to be a team, and not having any disipline. They struggled with other things too. Every person on the team had different struggles in life. Cruz, for instance, was involved with drug dealing with his cousin Renny. Curz had worked really hard once to get back on the team and than walked away from them when the lockout started. One night he was dealing with his cousin Renny, and say Lyle, Worm, and Battle acrossed the street. He goes over to talk to them, and is going back over to Renny when he sees his cousin being shot. The others run after him. Cruz than goes to Carters house and asks to come back on the team and that he would do anything to get back on the team.
The differance there is, in the book, Cruz is already across the street when Renny gets shot, in the movie he is over talking to the guys and is walking back across to see Renny being shot.
The other differance is that when they got done with the school board meeting they did not go to the Hambagur barn and talk about what happened.
There are so much more that I could right about, but I dont want to give away the whole book. If you have not read or seen Coach Carter, it would be a good thing to do becuase this book will change the way you think about life. It will also change the way you feel about thoughs around you. To sit here and write a whole blog session about the book and the movie, I would be giving away alot. So I am just telling you some of them and what I think happened.

Thinking Question

Why do you think the players took it so hard when Carter quit?

Summary

The thing that happened in the part of the book that we read was that Rennie got shot and Cruz wanted back on the team. The boys got their grades up and were able to play again. They got to play in the playoffs but they were a very low seed. They had to play St. Frances for their first game. It was a close game but in the end they lost by two points. Most of the boys got scholarships to college to play basketball.

Book

When we first began the story of Coach Carter, the basketball players were not doing so well in school. They were skipping class, not getting good enough grades, and did not have any disipline. When Coach Ken Carter took the spot of the head basketball coach, he knew that he had a lot to deal with. He had to teach the boys disipline and what it ment to be a team. He also had to help them with their school work in order to play on his team. Carter once said, " Your a team. If one player struggles, the whole team struggles, If one player triumphs, the whole team triumph." He said this because they did not know what it was like to be a team. Carter did not think that the team would actually make it as far as they did. At a point in time, Carter put a lock on the gym and canclled two big games, living the team with two loses. The only reason he did this, is becuase they did not earn the right to play on his team. Until they could earn that right the gym was locked. The town of Richmond is all about basketball. So when they heard that Carter had put a lock on the gym, the media and the whole town was going after Carter. Finally it went to the school board where it was voted that the lock out end. The next day when carter was going to clean out his office, he went into the gym and saw his team sitting in desks working. Worm said that they can cut off the lock, but they cant make us play. He is right about that. Even thought it was voted to end the lockout, they can not make you do anything. Than Cruz, who has had some problems throughout the whole book stood up and quoted Marianne Williamson, which states, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most fightens us." Than the team gets a call to go to the state championships, they may have not won the game but they won scholorships. They also won the respect they wanted and what it ment to be a team.

other questions

If you now know what Cruzes deepest fear is from the book, do think he had faced it or do you think that he is still living it?
When his cousin Renny was shot, why do you think Cruz went to Carters house, instead of going to get help?

Thinking Question

Why do think it is so important that the guys on the team have good grades?