Coach Ken Carter made his entrance well felt.
He walked down the center aisle of The Colvard Union ballroom blowing his whistle, throwing out T-shirts and giving hi-fives to the people in attendance.
All seats were filled. There was minimal standing room for the California High School basketball coach’s presentation as the keynote speaker in last Thursday’s Black History Program.
He started his speech with these delightful words: “You guys could be in trouble, giving a coach a microphone.”
The McComb native spoke on a number of topics. He included his steps to being successful and his acronym for the word “job,” Just Over Broke.
Carter started coaching girl’s basketball and advised the aspiring coaches in the audience to not start with girl’s basketball.
In 1997 Carter took control of a Richmond High School team in California that was in an academic slump. He laid the ground rules and let everyone know that he was not playing games.
He benched his undefeated team for its poor performances in the classrooms. He also locked the doors to the gym until his team learned to “rise as a team.” He told us the story of one of his former players wanting to rise to the occasion. “Worm” wanted in the game when his team was down six points. He told “Worm” to get on the court and get ferocious. When “Worm” got to the scorer’s table, he turned around and asked what number was ferocious wearing.
Paramount Pictures and MTV Films released “Coach Carter” in early 2005. The movie described the thought process behind his decisions and the people it inspired. The movie brought in more than $24 million in ticket sales, the most ever for the opening weekend of any MTV Films release.
No longer in coaching, Carter is an author and inspirational speaker. He also heads the Coach Ken Carter Foundation, which develops educational, training and mentoring programs for minority youth.
He has been selected for the Harvard Club’s Distinguished Secondary Educator Award, NAACP Impact Citizen of the Year Award, California State Lottery/Governor Gray Davis’ Heroes in Education Award, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown’s Leadership Award and California’s Unsung Heroes Award.
After his presentation, he was showered with gifts from the MSU family. Associate dean of students Aretha Jones-Cook, Holmes Cultural Diversity Center peer counselor Nakeitra Hill, MSU basketball players Piotr Stelmach, Jamall Edmonson and Bernard Rimmer, and Starkville High School student Claire Antonia Crawford presented Carter with gifts.
Unable to present his gift personally was head football coach Sylvester Croom.