Face with overwhelming desegregation issues and racial tension to include disharmony within his high school football team, Coach Boone (the new black coach who had just replaced the highly successful white coach) gained respect and brought harmony to both the team and ultimately the community with discipline, rigorous training, and a “Command Coach” style in order to break the player’s will to establish a workable environment for teamwork. In the video, Coach Boone woke his team in the middle of the night during a training camp in order for him to lead a long distance run through the woods for conditioning and discipline. The timing caught the team off guard with “shock and awe.” This reduced complacency, reinforced the coach’s philosophy and objectives, provided a situation for the team to adapt as …show more content…
The run ended at a famous civil war battlefield where the coach used timely analogies with emotional impact to refocus and bring meaning to uniting the team divided by racial tensions. The coach strongly believed in his philosophy and demonstrated this when he stood up to the assistant coach’s (who happened to be the former head coach that had credibility with the white players) critical comment, “this is high school football team, not a marine team”. The initial racial issues required the coach to adapt his style to a tense environment and be forceful with the rigorous training depicted in the video. Because he led by example in the conditioning run, the Command Style brought about change faster than it would have with other styles. Afterwards, the team bonded, developed character, showed respect and acceptance of the coach, and a achieved a level of self-awareness to discipline themselves within. Coach Boone’s coaching style later changed to more of a Cooperative Style as the movie progressed as he continued pursing racial harmony within the community. His leadership and coaching styles ultimately brought about change within the community, not just his