Roles of Leadership in Remember The Titans

Remember the Titans is a film that came out in 2000. It represents a group of guys who were on a high school football team in the 1970’s. It starts off at a funeral, and just like any other funeral, everyone’s dressed in black, flowers everywhere, casket in the center of the crowd, sobbing, and a close up of a girl with bright blond hair. She’s the narrator. It’s 1971 at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandra, Virginia. An African-American, Herman Boone, was hired as head coach at this high school. Reminder that this is a time where Segregation was popular still. He was assigned an assistant coach who was white. His name was Bill Yoast and was recently the head coach at the high school. This high school, and just like many other high schools in that area, were full of only white kids. Boone also refused the job of assistant coach, but is basically threatened by the white players that they would boycott if he didn’t coach. He takes up the position so that the players wouldn’t lose their scholarships either. Along with Boone as head coach, he brought a whole team of African-American student/athletes. About a week later, the African-American players attend a meeting in the high school gymnasium. While there, the white players interrupt the other players and get into a fiasco of racial slurs. As this goes into chaos, it’s eventually split up and the players get scourged.

On August 15, the teams of two different races gather together and head up to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for training camp and possibly a bonding trip. As their days of training progress, African-American members and Caucasion members of the team constantly clash physically or verbally with racial tensions. On a team run in Pennsylvania, the team gets a motivational speech and changes the view of the players. As the trip follows through, the team starts to look like a team and they start playing like a team, which means no fights, no drama, no racial slurs; just pure focus on the game. Eventually, the team heads back down home where things start rolling. The season for the titans is on a roll and unstoppable. They eventually go 10-0 and win a state championship. Their quarterback unfortunately gets in a car accident which paralyzes him from the waist down. About 10 years later, he gets in another car accident and unfortunately, ends up passing. The movie ends with the whole team being at the funeral singing “na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye”. Remember The Titans has many roles of leadership shown throughout the movie. Coach Boone took the main role in leading the team into becoming a team. Coach Yoast was hesitant at first, but he took after Boone and assisted in leading the team. Another group of leaders that were a big part in the movie, were the captains, the seniors, who took role when the coaches weren’t around and set a tone for the season. In conclusion, Remember the Titans has a lot of leaders set in the movie that represent the true meaning of leadership.