Ken Carter, the high school basketball coach who inspired the movie ‘Coach Carter,’ will speak Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Schine Student Center about the value of education.

Carter, a basketball coach-turned-motivational speaker, is speaking as a part of Syracuse University’s Black History Month celebrations. The Office of Multicultural Affairs is sponsoring the event through the Partnership for a Better Education, which aims to ensure Syracuse public high school students graduate and pursue higher education, to provide this lecture for free to all interested students.

‘We had a particular interest in Coach Carter because the message that he carries, although the vehicle he uses is athletics, is very important on a number of levels,’ said David Morgan, director of the Partnership for Better Education.

Carter is best known for coaching the Richmond High School basketball team from 1997 to 2002. In 1999, he stopped all practices and games for the undefeated team for eight days in order for 15 team members to work on getting passing grades.

Though Carter was criticized across the nation for his decision to forfeit two games in those eight days, he was later praised for single-handedly inspiring his team to take education more seriously.

‘How many ball players do you know of – out of all the schools in the country – that will go to the NBA? A small percentage,’ said Cedric Bolton, a program coordinator in the Office of Multicultural Affairs. ‘If you get a broken arm or get in a car accident, you’re done. You don’t have an education to back you up. You’re no good to anyone.’

Carter’s success led to the 2005 movie ‘Coach Carter,’ which starred Samuel L. Jackson as Ken Carter.

‘This guy was working in a hard inner-city community,’ Bolton said. ‘He took these young men and said, ‘You have to have a commitment to education. Basketball is great, but you have to have an education in order to get you where you need to be.”

Along with traveling the country to inspire young students to do better in school, Carter is also the founder of the Coach Ken Carter Foundation, an organization that focuses on youth education. He is also a distinguished author and owner of Prime Time Publications.

Students from SU and local high schools will have the chance to ask Carter questions about his experiences, Morgan said.

Both Morgan and Bolton said they hope students will find motivation from Carter for every aspect of life and strive to be better students.

‘Having him here and having him talk about not only what he did but also him as a person and his commitment to communities will be a great engagement and a chance for people to ask questions about how they can design or strategize the work they do with kids in the city or here on campus,’ Bolton said.

pvohra@syr.edu

Published on February 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm