Ken Carter
When famed high school basketball coach Ken Carter literally locked his undefeated, state playoff bound team out of the gym and forced them to hit the books and stop counting on athletic potential as the only ticket out of a tough inner city life, he sent a powerful message. The film Coach Carter, based on the lockout and starring Samuel L. Jackson as the Coach, is a testimony to the strength of his convictions. At the podium, Coach Carter delivers hard hitting advice about accountability, integrity, teamwork, and leadership to succeed both on and off the basketball court.
A successful businessman when he accepted the head basketball coach position at Richmond High School in Richmond, California in 1997, Ken Carter had a monumental task at hand. The students were failing academically at an alarming rate, and the athletic programs were in poor condition. Within two years, Carter had nearly single handedly transformed the school, physically cleaning up trash, graffiti, and drug activity, and mentally resetting expectations as well. A contract that each player and his parents signed outlined crucial rules of conduct: treat others with respect; avoid drugs and alcohol; sit in the front of class and participate; wear a suit and tie on game day; and maintain at least a 2.3 GPA.
When not all players met these obligations, the playoff bound, undefeated Richmond Oilers (13-0), including Carter's own son Damien, were locked out of the gym and removed from all basketball activities to learn how to rise as a team. Academically strong players tutored those who were struggling, and the entire team raised their GPAs. Most importantly, these inner city students returned not only to the court but to a new standard of winning, one that extended beyond high school hoop dreams to college educations and futures they may never have imagined.
In addition to coaching SlamBall's champion team, The Rumble, Ken Carter is a business entrepreneur and an author. He is also the founder and chairman of the Coach Ken Carter Foundation, a nonprofit organization that develops, promotes, and provides education, training, and mentoring programs for minority youths. In 2002, he was selected to carry the Olympic torch for the San Francisco Bay Area and Richmond, California.
