Management Review : Remember The Titans

In Remember the Titans we witness Coach Boone fighting for civil rights, signifying the image of an outsider integrating into a foreign white team as their coach. Director Boaz Yakin, uses techniques to strengthen Coach Boone’s character where the initial hate and disrespect towards him succours the development of a meaningful arc. The disrespect and aggression is employed when a brick is thrown through his house window, threatening him with the derogatory coloured comments calling him “Coach Coon”. The pressure of quitting was not felt and heroically he encompasses the journey with Yakin emphasising Boones evocative discipline and determination forcing integration amongst the segregated football team. This technique is employed when we witness Coach Boone stepping up, pushing equality for the players in a determined strike to stop racial abuse for good. His actions initiate the forced building of friendship and acceptance when he forces both races to get to know and accept each other at the camp. Yakin heightens the themes of overcoming racism when Boone rallies the troops together to support their team mate during a sad time. Instinctively, the implicit segregation is evoked further bringing unity to the team, Coach Boone emerges as a ‘hero’ to both the coloured and white community.

In order to live up to the reputation of the town and peers, the Permian Panthers and the coaches set goals so that they will have a winning season. The goal that is set is to win the state championship and nothing, including injury will change that goal. This occurs when Boobie Miles, the star running back, chooses to play in spite of a torn ALC, rather than yielding to the unimaginable pain that he is in. The team imposed a structure, which establishes the goals and values of the team, therefore reinforcing the team’s solidarity to winning the championship not only for them but for the town.

They recruit guys from soccer, basketball, a farm and even other football teams to come and play for them. Lengyel has a new vision for Marshall, and calls them the “Young Thundering Herd.” Jack is the person to do things that most coaches wouldn’t do because that just in his personality. As a result he seeks out help from Bobby Bowden, the coach of the University of West Virginia. Jack asks him “if He and Dawson can see the coaches’ videos, plays, and handbooks and even if he had any tips for them.” Bowden laughs at first and asks “if Jack was serious…” He then see that the men are serious and allows them to view the tapes, rules, handbooks and anything else they wanted. He does this because Bowden understands that a team is in grief and confusion. When this happens Dawson’s disbelief that he had about the team and Jack trying to help changes and he becomes a little bit more optimistic about the future of Marshall and the town.

In 1971 Coach Herman Boone replaced a popular, successful white coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in that community's effort to finally integrate its schools. The school and community were angrily divided by the federal integration order, and the volatility of the situation was heightened by the abrupt demotion of Coach Yoast and Boone's promotion to Head Coach. In this movie Coach Boone is on a mission to try to get the white and black players to unite and play together as a team. He wanted the two races to become a team. Around that time, there was a lot of racism and a lot of schools were segregated, so the players obviously didn't get along with each other at first. A lot changed when Boone replaced Yoast

In the movie Remember the Titans, coaches Yoast and Boone demonstrate leadership through the three leadership styles; authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire.

As a black coach he faced way more challenges than Coach Yoast, the white coach, would ever have had to deal with. The situation that he was in was extreme; therefore, he had to take extreme measures to gain control of the situation. Eventually, the movie portrayed the fact that Coach Boone had the skills that a coach should possess. He was knowledgeable, caring, fair, and a quick thinker.

The film wasn’t about that 13-0 record and winning a state championship, but the struggle that came with it and all the hardships they had to deal and get past. Racism, prejudice, compassion and love were all key aspects of this film as shown. The racism, prejudice of the team when they first met was severe and had been changed. The love and compassion came as the team grew to become one unit and love each other and be able to become something more powerful than they could be by themselves.

In the begging of the film, Herman Boone which is Denzel Washington was brought in as an assistant coach to join the all-white coaching team. Couple days later, because of high school rule Coach Boone had to be a head coach. But at first he was unwilling to take the offer the head coaching job at first because same things had happened to him when a white coach was selected as head coach over him in South Carolina. In this scene you can tell Coach Boone respects everybody and not hating people. But soon He finally accepts the head coach when he sees that the black people lived in the town saw him as a symbol of pride and hope because he could be the one could overcome the racism in the town. When he talks with coach Yoast, coach Yoast was worried because his white kids won’t start the football team but Boone told him “I aint going to cut them and eat them. Best player will play color won’t matter”. In this sentence he doesn’t care black or white or not, he wants to best player to win the games

In the movie, Coach Boone is a master motivator. He does an excellent job of energizing his players, sustaining the motivation, directing the motivation to the right players at the right time, and also knowing when to stop motivating. The satisfaction progression hypothesis is also displayed in the movie. Coach Boone knows that the small things, such as making the routine plays in the game, must be done first before the main goal can be achieved, winning the game. He also has a high expectancy of his team. He believes that the effort of his team will lead to performance and that the performance will lead to results. He expects his team to practice just as hard as they play in the game. Julius Campbell and Gary Bertier, the two main characters on the team, are also excellent motivators. They get their teammates pumped up before and during the game.

The team went through a very challenging formation phase because there was a lot of resistance to integrate the school and football team. White players were concerned about loosing their starting positions and were upset that their Head Coach (Bill Yoast) was demoted to Assistant Coach, which almost caused them to quit the team. The black players were under a lot of pressure as well, being placed in a white school and knowing that they would be subject to a lot of hatred. Both the new Head Coach (Herman Boone) and Coach Yoast initially did not want to take on their new positions.

Remember the Titans directed by Boaz Yakin, is an inspirational feature film that retells the true story of a high school football team that overcame racism to win the football championship. Set in Virginia during the forced integration of high school districts in the American south, the film explores the idea of racism, friendship and communication in sports through the use of camera shots and angles, props, body language and juxtaposition. Yakin suggests that racist attitudes are the product of ignorance, but can be overcome by communication and friendship through the representation of Gary’s girlfriend, Emma’s change of attitude toward Julius. Yakin’s representation of Coach Boone

This pursuit of an undefeated season itself is symbolic of a message that success can be achieved through racial integration. Once again the driving factors behind the success of the team is the relationship we see between Julius and Gary. By constantly having this foundation to fall back on in times of difficulty the overall team comradery stays well completely in tact. The audience is able to see how Julius and Gary conduct themselves when they call team meetings where they are the sole ones talking about overcoming their difficulties. This is yet another straight forward attempt by the film to create these two individuals as signs of the racial integration and progressive

Boone and his family face horrible experiences when moving to Alexandria. When moving to the neighborhood, many neighbors were so upset but many were also happy that he didn’t back down. He was offered the head coach position but turned it down because he felt it would be incredibly disrespectful to Coach Yoast. Boone & Yoast agreed to make the relationship work. The African American students meet with Coach Boone in the gym, the meeting turns into a disaster when Coach Yoast and the white students arrive and disturb the meeting. Gerry Bertier was one of the students among the crowd of white students to interrupt. “I’m Gerry Bertier. I’m the only All-America you got on this team. If you want us to play for you, you reserve over half the positions …we don’t need any of your people on defense we’re already set.” said by Gary Bertier to Coach Boone. Boone makes it clear that all players will be on the team regardless of the color of their skin.

In the film “Remember the Titans” head coach H. Boone exhibits many perspectives of an effective leader of change. He embraces natural tactics of being Real, Relevant, and Relatable as a way of implementing change amongst these divided young men.

The Expectancy Theory illustrates the mental process that employees endure when making decisions while doing voluntary things. The theory describes that the effort will determine the performance and the performance will help indicate the overall outcome. “Expectancy represents the belief that exerting a high level of effort will result in the successful performance of some task,” (Dr. Creasy PowerPoint). There are some advantages of the expectancy theory. One advantage is that it emphasizes on rewards or pay-offs,” (Expectancy Theory of Motivation, n.d., para. 5). In Remember the Titans, Coach Herman Boone, portrayed by Denzel Washington, expects big things out of his high school football team. As the newly appointed head coach and a black man, Coach Boone was faced with big expectations or else he would have to face the consequences. Coach Boone established that his team would show tremendous effort in the fall football camp at Gettysburg College. He set ground rules as he told all of his players that they would leave the school by 7:29 AM and made them all wear dress shirts, ties, and a jacket. Coaches appreciate the athletes that display the expectancy theory because they want more out of their team. At Gettysburg College, All-American linebacker Gerry Bertier, confronted fellow starting linebacker, Julius Campbell and wanted him to put in more effort during practice and play the right assignment. As