Athletes possess unique backgrounds, expectations, beliefs, and values, which must be overcome in order to unite as a team for common performance and success goals. These individual differences can at times seem insurmountable, such as in the case of the Titans high school football team as depicted in the movie Remember the Titans (2000). However, various strategies relating to team cohesion are utilized for the development of more cohesive teams. Cohesion is defined by Carron (1982, p. 124) as “a dynamic process, which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its goals and objectives.” Throughout the season, the Titans must learn to develop team cohesion in the face of perceived insurmountable …show more content…
When teammates perceive a sense of cohesiveness within their team, they develop a sense of responsibility to fellow members and are more likely to make individual sacrifices to reach team goals. When the Titans first form as a team, there is little cohesion between players and therefore the players are largely unwilling to make sacrifices for the team. During the confrontation between Julius and Gerry, Julius says, “I’m supposed to wear myself out for the team? What team? No. No…I’m gonna look out for myself and I’m gonna get mine” (Bruckheimer & Yakin, 2000). The lack of cohesion among the Titans causes Julius to feel no sense of bond to his teammates or responsibility to the team. Therefore, he is completely unwilling to work hard and train for the team. However, over the course of the season, team cohesion increases and players are more willing to make individuals sacrifices for one another. For instance, when an opposing player uses excessive force to tackle Rev, breaking his wrist, Ronnie is sent in as an alternate. During the next play Ronnie defends Rev by purposely knocking the offending player to the ground. Although he too could have been hurt, Ronnie felt a duty to protect his teammate against a aggressive opponent. Furthermore, the perceived similarity between players can greatly affect group cohesion. When individual players perceive themselves to be fundamentally different from other teammates, cohesion is virtually impossible. Individuals must recognize commonality of goals, aspirations, and commitment in order to work together effectively as a team. When the Titans team is first created, the black and white players consider themselves inherently different from one another. The perceived differences between the two groups prevent players from relating to and bonding with one another, ultimately preventing the development of a cohesive
From the author’s perspective there are certain factors needed to build a strong team to overcome the obstacles the team faces. Davis, the author, thought that one of the factors necessary to build a strong team is to have a leader who can motivate the team to do their best. Another factor that the author thinks is necessary to have in the team is to have cooperation among the team
“Remember the Titans” is an inspiring story about racial harmony within a high school football team in the seventies teaching us to respect each other for what we are and not how we look. This wonderful movie is based on the true story of an African American football coach, Herman Boone, hired by a Virginia high school in 1971 to replace couch Bill Yoast. Neither man is happy with the situation, but couch Bill Yoast agrees to work as coach Boone’s assistant. Gerry Bertier who is the captain of the team doesn’t want black players on the team and other team members are also struggling with getting used to the new black players. They don’t only have to get use to one another but the community is working against them as well, which makes the situation worse. (IMDB, 2000)
In 1971 Coach Herman Boone replaced a popular, successful white coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in that community's effort to finally integrate its schools. The school and community were angrily divided by the federal integration order, and the volatility of the situation was heightened by the abrupt demotion of Coach Yoast and Boone's promotion to Head Coach. In this movie Coach Boone is on a mission to try to get the white and black players to unite and play together as a team. He wanted the two races to become a team. Around that time, there was a lot of racism and a lot of schools were segregated, so the players obviously didn't get along with each other at first. A lot changed when Boone replaced Yoast for the head-coaching job for the Titans. The city had a hard time accepting the fact that the Titans now had a Black man as head coach. Coach Yoast agreed to be assistant coach and convince the white players to play with the black players. Now it was time for them to go to camp to see what they were really made of.
In the movie "Remember the Titans" by "Boaz Yakin" the character Herman Boone, played by "Denzel Washington", is faced by a difficult challenge that is significantly important to the movie. Boone in a sense faces a challenge of acceptance in which, by the end of the movie, he has experienced in two noticeable ways. Boone faces the challenge of being accepted by the community, revealing to us that he wants the community working together rather than judging and persecuting one another. Additionally Boone fights for the acceptance and respect of his team, The Titans, proving to them that they can indeed "make this race thing work".
The town and school have come together a lot since the beginning of the season. When Jeane Bertier, Gerry’s mom, enters the stadium, everyone stands up and cheers. The white and the black fans. They all start to chant Gerry’s name. Before the game starts Gerry’s girlfriend, Emma, comes down onto the field. Earlier when Gerry introduced her to Julius she would not shake his hand. She has come a long way with racism and now accepts Julius as Gerry’s best friend. She came down onto the field to shake Julius’s hand. The first half is ugly but the Titans are only down 7-0 at the end of two quarters. In the locker room at half time a lot is said. Coach Boone starts off saying, “It's all right. We're in a fight. You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that. Win or lose... We gonna walk out of this stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best. That's all anybody can ask for.” Julius tells him out of respect that doing our best is not enough. He tells Coach Boone that he has demanded perfection out of them. He goes on to say that no individual can be perfect, but by never losing a game this season, they can be perfect as a team. One of my favorite quotes of the movie is said by Coach Yoast after Julius spoke. It signifies just how important this team really was for the entire town including himself. He said, “I hope you boys have learned as much from me this year as I've learned from you. You've
The Newark Football team, for the past ten years, has been historically not very successful;however, with a change in coaching and a new mentality brought by the coaches and the players, it is all starting to come in the right direction. The players believe what the coaches say and we buy into the program and it has payed off so far. With our 2-0 start, this is the best start for a Newark football team since 2006, when we last made the playoffs. Being part of a football team is great, the players learn useful lessons about teamwork, mental strength, and how to handle adversity. The team has to work together at all times because we are only as strong as our weakest link; therefore, if one person is not on the same page, then that could result in a detrimental breakdown that could cost the team. The great thing about football, is the next play, football games are not won on a single play, it takes eleven men on the same page, firing on all
Good teams are made of diverse people with specific needs to be met. The team’s diversity can be strength.
At the beginning, Practices get off to disastrous start, with white players accusing blacks of not playing up to their potential, and blacks accusing white players of failing. According to that, Coach Boone orders black and white youths to spend time together, interviewing one another. The captain’s attitude towards a team is very essential. It leads the players to reach their victory.
Initially, the mistrust created a climate that appeared insurmountable, however, as the coaches and players began to integrate and understand one another, trust was built. The trust that grew amongst the players was the ingredient required for a winning team. As the community saw the faith and friendship build among the players, the tide of racism began to turn. Once the Titans began to win games, most of the town began to support the integrated team.
An effective team typically develops through several stages. Tuckman and Jensen developed a model for how teams should develop that includes five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (as cited in Martin ,2006 and Fulk, Bell,& Bodie ,2011). In forming, the first stage in team development, team members are introduced to the team’s purpose and goals(Martin, 2006 ; Fulk et al. ,2011). Fulk et al. (2011) explain that members are usually motivated and excited about working together to accomplish the specific goal, but they point out that interactions among team members can be affected by uncertainty about purpose, anxiety, mistrust ,and reluctance to share ideas and opinions. Nevertheless, despite such uncertainties, team members usually avoid conflict and move on to the next stage, storming(Fulk et al.,2011). Unlike the forming stage, the storming stage is marked by conflict (Martin...
The group cohesion–group performance relationship has been studied extensively and findings by early researchers did not present a methodical connection linking performance and cohesion (Forsyth, 1990; Stogdill, 1972).Though two meta-analytic studies asserted that positive relationship between group cohesion and group performance existed minimally (Evans& Dion, 1991; Mullen & Copper, 1994). However, subsequent studies differed with these meta-analyses on whether the cohesion-performance relationship was moderated by other variables such as level of analysis, task interdependency, goal acceptance, and group norm (Gully, Devine, &Whitney, 1995; Langfred, 2000; Podsakoff, Mackenzie, & Ahearn, 1997).
It is proven that teams who work well together perform and have a higher rate of success compared to teams who do not work well together or communicate with each other. A recent article with regards to leadership discussed the topic of group cohesion and how this is a factor for success. The article discussed several situations, one about a business company, one about a sports team and one about a military operation. The article closely analyzed the leaders of the three situations and discussed the similarities and differences between the three. The main similarity between was there focus on cohesion. The article contained facts about how the business was operating and how that in recent years, production and sales as increased drastically, and one factor for this increase was the CEO implemented a mandatory team building exercise each
In the movie ‘Remember the Titans’, there are many management concepts covered throughout the movie and he is the agent in the movie. The players on the Titans are the targets of the influence. ‘Remember the Titans’ is the perfect movie for Exam 3. It covers many topics that were on the exam, and this class has given me a different way of looking at the movie. I have seen the movie many times, but I never looked at it from a management perspective. It now makes sense to me to look at a football team, or any other type of sports team, from a management point of view.
A team's weak cohesion will result in poor performance that may prevent the team from reaching its goals. Individual team members must forget their arrogance and take their roles and responsibilities seriously. Managers, trainers and leaders must make a significant contribution to making the team come together. First of all the leader has to choose the right
Teamwork is the combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient. Any group of people could form “teams”, but when you form a group where everyone can work together and teach each other things such as self-respect and self-confidence, you have teamwork. When everyone is struggling, why not help each other out? Coach Ken Carter in demand of respect and commitment transforms a group of teenage boys into a group of young men in the movie Coach Carter. The fact that Coach Carter had transformed this group of boys is not why I enjoyed this movie. My interest moves more towards how he transformed these boys. He taught these boys to value themselves not only as a team, but also as individuals. He also taught them to look at something more than the moment at hand; and look more into the future.