Remember the Titans: an Analysis of Different Leadership Styles

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.

After Gerry’s disastrous car accident, Coach Boone is faced with the moral dilemma of selfishness. Boone has always been a coach who strives to win, not only for himself, but for the team, however after the accident, he lacks empathy for the boys and thinks more about what he wants. When he suggests that the team incorporate more training to cope with the changes so that they can win, Yoast feels that Boone is being selfish and lacking consideration of the team's loss, so confronts him with the questions “Is this even about football anymore? Or is it just about you?” To express his reaction to being described as selfish, the

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

Just before the state semi-finals, a member of the school board tells coach Yoast that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame after the Titans lose their game. Coach Boone was threatened to be fired if the team lost a single game because he was an African American head coach in a white society. The game was being officiated in the opposing teams favor. Coach Yoast went up to an official and threatened to tell the press of the scam they were trying to run. After the Titans came out victorious, Yoast lost his spot in the Hall of Fame. Although that was his dream, he didn’t want to be inducted that way. He’d rather not be inducted than let his team down.

Coach Dix believes that this style of coaching helps him motivate his young team. Being that crazy, funny, heady, and intense coach gets the young teens pumped and ready to run through a wall for him. When we talked about the difficult situations he has had to endure while coaching, Dix described two situations that occurred during his tenure at East Hall; Coach Dix mentioned a time when his star player who happened to win the Georgia Player of the year the previous year, kicked a ball during practice and broke out a window in the gym. He stated this was a difficult and sticky situation because the team played its big rival in two days. He said he did not sleep well the next few nights because of the impact a suspension would have on his squad. Another situation Dix had to deal with was a parent during a game, walked to the bench, grabbed their son and told the player to get dressed, we’re transferring from this school. Dix said that this was new territory for him and at that time he did not know what to do. To conclude the interview, I asked Dix two final questions. I asked him what were his ultimate goals for his team and what advice would he give to a first year coach? “Championships and graduation,” Coach Dix stated. As for advice for a first year coach, Dix said “Preparation was KEY.” “Great coaches are always prepared for anything and everything!”

As with most sports teams, the Titans have an autocratic leadership style. Coach Boone is the one and only person who makes the decisions, he is the main man in charge. The style is productive, and the team wins games. Although he has assistant coaches, such as Bill Yoast who is the defensive coordinator, all the decisions must go through Coach Boone first. The democratic leadership style is not applicable on a football team because that’s why teams have coaches. The team does not make group decisions. Coach Boone also uses Job Enlargement in ‘Remember the

However, based on six main traits suggested by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman & Fetter we can make a conclusion that Yoast wasn’t a transformational leader in the context of the movie. In this particular situation, where coach Boone was a head coach, and Yoast had to accept the rules of the game, he probably could not display his full potential being an assistant coach. So, the question “what if Yoast was a head coach...” is not relevant to the movie current context and will be discussed later.

At times he may have gone too far in being tougher on white players versus black players, but it was his intention to maintain a sense of balance. For example, Yoast gives Petey another chance after making a bad play and places him in a different position that benches a white player. During the regional championship game, Yoast sacrifices his hall of fame nomination and a chance to become head coach next year by challenging the referees who are favoring the opposing team. Coach Yoast’s action helped win the championship and demonstrated that he was willing to do anything for the team even if it was lead by a black coach. This made all the players work harder together and support each other even more.

In April of 1971, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that finished all state-forced segregation in government funded schools. This was that year that T. C. Williams High School situated in Alexander Virginia was incorporated. This is the setting for the film Remember the Titans, gazing Denzel Washington who portraits Herman Boone the head coach of the Titans.

That is the leader I want for our football team not taking mediocre play and not afraid to call guys out for that. He's an awesome coach and a great man I'm glad we gave him the opportunity to grow with this organization to see what it can become it's been awesome to watch and I can't wait for

When they first came together, there was a significant amount of vying and jockeying for power, between the players and the coaches. The leader of the white players (Gerry) tried to assert himself to Coach Boone early, but the coach made sure Gerry knew his place. A coach is a leader and must take charge if a player oversteps his boundaries. The difference in the coaching styles also showed early on, as both coaches had different objectives. Coach Boone, who was fighting to keep his job, was almost like a drill instructor and demanding. While Coach Yoast was more lenient towards the players and more hesitant to yell at them. This may have been due to the fact that Yoast was told that the head coaching job was his if Boone lost a game.

Leadership by the team leader, who has responsibility for the team, is critical for team

As the movie progressed and Coach Boone’s vision came together, Coach Yoast slowly but surely began to show more support. Coach Boone’s consistent preaching, that he did not view the team as black and white players, but instead, simply as football players who must form cohesion and take actions not for self, but for team, eventually rubbed off on Coach Yoast. This is where the culture in the coaching staff began to form. Trust also began to build and the three coaches, now more cohesive themselves were able to accomplish much more in order to coach their players much more constructively. By the time the Titans had made it to the championship, all three coaches had put their differences aside, bought in to the vision and culture, and were able to coach their players to victory.

As Mike Singletary once said, “A player responds to a coach who has the best interest at heart.” This is true for me and the rest of my team whenever Greg Schwebach is coaching. He is an amazing person on and off the the field or court.

Basketball teams need a coach that believes in them. The team needs a coach that will work hard to help them achieve the goal of winning. They need a coach that communicates and shows interest in each of the players. On the other hand, they need a coach that can be directive, but also supportive. In the case study this week, Shirley was quite the opposite. Conflicting enough, by all appearances she did not have a total grasp of the concept of leadership in coaching basketball. Factors that could cause the lack of leadership could be confidence or even lack of knowledge (Cohen, 2000). In this paper, Shirley’s leadership style and behavior will be discussed, along with looking at situational factors and other leadership styles that