Essay on Remember the Titans

In the movie “Remember the Titans”, T.C Williams High School is integrated which creates tension and conflict between the two races, especially on the football team. Coach Boone, who is colored, is selected to take over coaching duties from Coach Yost who is the fan favorite, and several players refuse to play for Coach Boone. Initially, his players and members of the community treat Coach Boone cruelly and unfairly, but as the season continues and Boone keeps winning, people eventually open up to Boone.

In the beginning of the movie, Coach Boone is assigned to take over coaching duties at T.C Williams High. Members of the community and even players and football staff were cruel and unfair to Coach Boone. After walking into the football office for the first time, an assistant coach under Coach Yost makes a comment that he refuses to work under Coach Boone because he is colored. Boone doesn’t get fazed by the other coach’s remarks and seems to not mind their opinions. At the dinner to announce Coach Yost’s firing, several parents announce their intentions not to support the new coach, and most of the players stand up and proclaim that they won’t play football for anyone other than Coach Yost. When it comes time for training camp, the white players reluctantly attend, but still display their dislike of Coach Boone. Coach Boone refuses to let race destroy his football team that is capable of accomplishing so much, so he decides to bunk one colored person with one white person. This helps to create unity between the players, as well as between the white players and Coach Boone. At the end of camp, the players treat him with respect, but as soon as they get back to school, everything seems to go back to the way it was before.

As the season progressed, Boone begins to win football games, but the racism still continued. Word spreads that if Boone were to lose a game, he would be fired and immediately replaced by Coach Yost. One night, people angry that Boone got the job threw a brick through his house window. Boone responded furiously and grabbed a shotgun in an attempt to catch the assailants. During press reports, Coach Boone remained upset, yet defiant towards those who threw the brick through his window. As the team continued to win, members of the community slowly began to open up to Coach Boone, but the racism and unfairness continued. During a state high school playoff game, several officials from the football league rigged the game so that Boone would lose, and eventually get fired, allowing Yost to regain his job again. The referees continuously called penalties against T.C Williams. Coach Boone tried to reason with the referees, but they only penalized them further. Eventually Coach Yost stepped in and threatened to tell the newspapers about the rigged game. After winning the playoffs and state championship, members of the community accepted Coach Boone for what he accomplished and did not discriminate against him based on skin color.

Coach Boone fought through adversity to gain the respect of his players, and members of the community. Where there was once hate, he turned it into respect. He was able to eliminate the hate his players had for each other and turn it into a mutual reverence for each other. Working together, they captured the state high school football title.

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