Coach Carter
I had a wonderful time at the reunion Saturday night. My emotions ran the gamut from almost tearful to hilarity. I don’t think I have heard anything funnier than Coach Carter describing the opposing coach turning one of his players over his knee and spanking her right in front of everyone.
I heard all the tributes to Coach Carter, have been reading them on the blog, and today read Bruce Goddard’s blogs about the reunion and his call to action regarding getting Coach in the Coaches HOF and the Georgia Sports HOF. I want to add a few personal observations that will help give some insight into the kind of coach he was and the kind of man he is.
Coach Carter started coaching me in 6th grade. He instilled a dedication to excellence based on fundamentals, belief in yourself and your teammates, and plenty of hard, hard work. He made us believe we were as good as anyone. Unlike the girls teams, who were usually just a whole lot better than their opposition, we played a lot of teams that had a whole lot more talent, were bigger, faster, and usually had much nicer facilities in which to play and practice. What they didn’t have was Coach Carter. Just one example is when we played Warner Robins High School in the Tom Porter Tournament in Macon in December, 1965. Warner Robins was AAA, the highest classification at the time. We never thought that we weren’t supposed to beat them. Never mind that they were undefeated and ranked first in the state. (They finished third or fourth in AAA that year.) If we had played 10 games, they would have beat us at least eight times. We played them once, and Coach Carter had told us we could beat them, and more importantly, showed us how we could do it. We played them once and beat them once. I’ll never forget, after the game, seeing the WR coach just sitting in his chair with his head in his hands. Tough luck, I thought.
In the Class C boys state championship game in 1966, we played another bigger, faster team. Adrian had a couple of boys about 6’3” or 6’4”. That was big for Class C in those days. I had the good fortune to make four fairly high-pressure free throws in the last minute or so of that game, which we won 78-76. Fast forward to the 66-67 season. Harris County beat us by 30 in Hamilton. We played them later in Butler in a very tight game. I had a one-and-one free throw situation with the score tied with less than a minute left. They called time-out to put the pressure on me. All Coach said in the huddle was, “I’ve seen you make tougher ones than this.” I missed the first free throw, Harris Co. got the rebound, scored, and we lost by two. I was devastated. In the locker room, as Coach walked by me without even stopping, he said, “Don’t worry about it. It happens to the best of us.” I had expected not a chewing out, but at least an expression of disappointment. The next week during practice several of us were horsing around during our free-throw practice. I was banking my free-throws off the backboard instead of doing it like I was supposed to. I didn’t even know Coach was watching us. Suddenly, like out of no where, he was standing behind me. All he said was, “I didn’t notice you banking any free-throws Friday night.” Again, I was devastated. I knew I had let him and the team down by not taking something as important as free-throw practice seriously. The point is that he knew when and how to build his players up, and when and how to put us in our place, all the while doing it in a way that wasn’t obvious to fans, and many times not even to the other players. By the way, we beat Harris County by two in a triple-overtime game in the region tournament, knocking them out of a chance to go to the State Tournament.
Coach Carter is one of those people that knows what works and knows how to inspire people to do those things that work. According to one of my friends who works with State Probate officers, The Golden Rule is recognized by authorities as one of the best and most successful facilities of its kind.
Coach Carter, nor any of us who played for him, would expect anything less.
Mark Harris
posted by taylor2007 @ 2:36 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
I remember very well when Taylor County beat Harris County after they had defeated us twice earlier that season. I was just a young eight grader, but kept up with the basketball teams. I knew we had played Harris County the night before, but didn't know who had won until I got to school the day after the game. My classmate, Allen Smith, met me all excited when I got to school to tell me about the game. We had beaten Harris County in double overtime when my big brother William Robinson had rebounded a shot by Mark Harris and put it in at the buzzer. I think I remember that there was some kind of officials' meeting that was held later before the result was official. I still feel the pride even today when I think about the game. Coach Carter really put the faith in his players that they could accomplish anything. Martin Robinson Class of '71
Mark, I'll never forget the Adrian game. I must have been about 13 at the time. The pressure defense toward the end of the game created so many turnovers. I still can see you stopping short and having one of the big guys from Adrian run into you and being called for a foul. I believe he fouled out on that call. I worked with some folks from Adrian when I was paying my way through grad school as a campus cop at the University of Georgia. This must have been around 1975. When they found out I was from Taylor County, they really lit into me about that game. I guess it really stuck in their craw after those 10 years or so. One would think we lucked into winning that game. I always enjoyed responding that they were out played and out coached. We were all fortunate to have Norman Carter on our side.
Chuck Wright Augusta, GA
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