Remember the Titans

In the movie "Remember the Titans," there were major racial difficulties between black and white students. This was during a time when the school had just been integrated to allow blacks into the school and the high school football team. These challenges helped the Titans grow as a team and made them more co-operative and successful. The difficulties of a multiracial team were overcome with the assistance of democratic and authoritarian coaching styles, motivational skills, self-fulfilling prophecy, and the perception of the athletes and coaches. Because of these actions, the Titans were able to defeat the challenges they were faced with as a team and come out superior.

The authoritarian coaching style, demonstrated mostly by coach Boon, helped the team become more cohesive and strong. He believed in perfection, pushing his athletes to the limit, and being in control. During practices, if an athlete made a mistake they would have to run laps as a punishment. Sometimes during games, it seemed like all he cared about was winning. On one occasion, coach Yoast decided to show this style of coaching by getting angry at a referee for making unfair calls on their team. Authoritarian coaching styles encourage control but can be very effective when trying to coach a large team or complete tasks.

Another coaching style, which the assistant coach Yoast tended to use, was democratic. He noticed that coach Boon was being extremely rough on the football players and told him that some athletes do not respond well to humiliation and put-downs. This shows that coach Yoast was concerned about the well-being of his athletes, not just their success. On the last game of the season, coach Boon decided to have a more democratic view of coaching. He told the team to "try their best" instead of demanding perfection. This is a friendlier approach but it seems that he has almost given up all hope of winning by saying what he did. Democratic coaching styles made the athletes feel useful and