The story happened in 1970s where theracial issue was still very serious in the U.S. Three high schools, in regardto a certain reason, merged together to one. Not only were the Caucasian and African American students put togetherbut also two coaches, Bill Yoast and Herman Boone had to get familiar with eachto coach the football team. The football team suffered from putting a teamtogether but eventually succeeded to win a series of games. It also showed tothe city that the difference between races would not affect the friendship.
Character Analysis: Herman Boone
Boone played an important role in theentire movie. His ability of taking charge could be summarized as “there is nodemocracy” in his opening to the summer camp. He brought his team to the battlefield to show them the importance ofthe team and the fierce battles they were still fighting against. This visionwas confirmed and repeated by Coach Yoast later in the end of the movie: “Youguys taught to the city how to trust the soul of the men, not the look of theman.” Meanwhile he gave empowerment tothe team. For example, when Garry told him he wanted Ray off because he was notblocking purposely, Boone said Garry was the captain, meaning that Garry shouldtake good charge of it.
Another example that demonstrated Boone’staking in charge was he never considered quitting his job. He came to T.C.Williams at a very bad situation. Coach Yoast had been with the team for years andthe Caucasian players claimed to sit outside in the coming season. Even thoughlater Coach Yoast agreed to stay as an assistant coach, Boone was threatenedthat he would be fired even if he lost any game. His position was hardlyaccepted by the public and even Coach Yoast’s daughter, Sheryl, did not likehim.
Several movie reviews all commented on his‘brute force’ in the summer camp to merge Caucasians and African Americanstogether. He forced the players to sit with, room with, and get to know theplayers of a different race. Indeed themix involved some fights and culture shock, i.e., “ohm, wait, he does have ajob, doesn’t he?” But fortunately Boone’s effort was eventually paid off. Twoleaders, Garry, an All-American start and Julius, an African American playerbecame sworn brothers. Lewis succeeded to get admitted to college although henever thought he could maintain a grade of C. Boone seemed to be a good pioneerin the small town to motive people of different races closed. He was a footballcoach. He understood in sports as long as a team functioned well, it did notmatter the colors of the skin that its altheas have.
As Boone firstly announced to the teamthere was no democracy, it has been determined that one-way communication wasthe way that Boone adopted. He gave a harsh discipline even before the summercamp started. When he asked for every team member to arrive at 7:30, he meanteven if the member one minute late, he would sit at the bench and watch thegame in the season. He took the example of wearing a tie to explain how hisword should be strictly followed. But his lack of understanding to team membersalso generated instability in the team. In one game, Petey was forced to leavethe game by Boone, while Yoast used a milder way to encourage Petey. Booneconsidered it as a challenge to his management and questioned Yoast why henever did that to Garry or other Caucasian players.
Coach Boone demonstrated his great passionin the training and in the game. When Boone's tactics finally began to pay off,the players started to recognize who they were and where they wanted to go as ateam. Each player on the team learned to have respect and loyalty for oneanother. They became leaders on the football field and at school. Coach Boonecreated relationships with the players, which was crucial in management. Theplayers finally saw that Coach Boone had credibility, now players weremotivated to work harder because he was so motivated towards the team. Witheveryone respecting each other, a clear vision of the goal and team work they wereable to accomplish there goals.
Character Analysis: Bill Yoast
Yoast is a mild person in the movie. He hasthe passion to football but his mild personality makes him laid back. He was agood listener. Unlike the one-way communication that Boone adopted, he listenedto team members and Boone. He fully respected Coach Boone’s decision when theystarted to work together. That was part of the reason that he was quiet in thesummer camp.
Yoast was good at taking charge of detailedissues. He seemed to better know his boys than Boone. In the game, he used hisown way to inspire Petey and Ronny (I am not too sure if it was Ronny) in thegame. When Boone gathered the team together in the game, he assigned the taskand said “Coach Yoast will tell you where to play”. According to Boone, Yoasthad been a trustworthy guy that he could let him assign detailed game plans.
At the start of the movie when theCaucasian team refused to play in the next season, Yoast agreed to stay. He wasnot a racist. If he did not want to cooperate with Boone, even the summer campwould not succeed.
Sake of Comparison and Conclusion
We talked about one-way and two-waycommunication in class. Boone brought the team one-way communication. The teamwas originally combined from three schools. A one-way communication efficientlygathers the team together. A two-way communication is slow-paced and seemed tobe hard to have its effect in a short while. Later Boone learned to listen toYoast and did not consider Yoast’s word as a threat to his management. Theydeveloped good partnership in the game. For several times, Boone adoptedYoast’s advices.
On the management level, Boone’s aggressivepersonality was ideal for a sport team. Before the game, everyone was convincedthat Titan had already won the game. Boone’s one-way communication forced theteam to be one person who would only focus to score in the game. As an assistant coach, Yoast’s attention todetail, patience, and encouragement to team members are definitely assets.
Obviously both of the coaches have greatpassion to the football game and their career. The movie did not give too muchdepict to Coach Yoast’s leadership. It is more focused on the racial issue andCoach Boone’s leadership. We do not know how Yoast trained his team. However Iwould say it may not be too perfect by observing how he educated his daughter.I agree that a sport team must have the ability to put everyone’s mind to oneperson. Such a brainstorming would make a team as Titan instead of tinyindividuals.