I am sure most of you have seen the movie Coach Carter, about the true story of Richmond High School in Richmond, CA where the basketball coach turns around the lives of his students and players. Coach Cater was played by Samuel L. Jackson if that helps you remember the movie.
Anyway, at the National Leadership Conference for Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) that I attended over this past week, the real Coach Ken Carter was the keynote speaker and also a workshop presenter. Coach Carter started his speech by giving a quick background on Richmond, CA and the school system and presented this information: something like over 80% of the students at Richmond H.S. will not graduate and around 50% are more likely to go to jail then go to college. (I may have these statistics wrong, since I did not write them down, but the numbers were similar to that)
Samuel L. Jackson did an excellent job at portraying Coach Carter just as he is. It was a little weird meeting him as there is a very close resemblance between him and Samuel L. Jackson – even down to the voice.
Anyway, long story short, he was a great keynote and a very good motivational speaker. He even made three people do pushups during the workshop! I would definitely recommend to anyone that gets a chance to hear him speak to take the opportunity because you will not be let down.
Here’s a couple quick pictures of me and the Coach and also from his workshop.
Might I offer a suggestion? If you plan on going to these events, bring a tape recorder.
Thanks Reid. That was definitely something that came across my mind before the conference (I would have had to borrow one from my school since I don’t own one) but ofcourse it slipped my mind until we were already at the conference!
Oh well, I definitely will not forget it for next time though!