The Group Process In The Film Remember The Titans

I decided to observe the group process of the characters in the movie, “Remember the Titans”. The movie takes place in Alexandria, Virginia, where high school football is a big deal to everyone in the town. The students of T.C. Williams were used to being an all white school. After hearing the big decision that the school board had made, the students and people of the town have to get used to the major change of integrating blacks into the school, and having an integrated football team as well. This event caused a major uproar among the white football players and the town’s people because racism was a huge problem during this time.
Before Coach Boone took the position, the group had certain norms and accepted the norms of being an all white

football team with a white head coach.
The already established group process was interrupted once Coach Boone became head coach. The group now had to accept the new norms that they were going to have an integrated football team along with having an African American head coach.
Throughout the movie new group norms, and the level of cohesion of the team develops greatly due to the characters taking on different leadership roles within the group or team.
All of the characters played an important role in the formation of the group and getting the group to work together and become whole, but of the central characters there were two obvious leaders.
The first leader of the group is Coach Boone.

He is the African American coach that was offered the head-coaching job over Coach Yoast. Boone felt hesitant about taking the position at first because he felt unwelcomed within the community and by the white teammates. The white teammates were holding a grudge against him because they felt as if he was taking the role of their previous coach, and they didn’t want to listen to a new superior. Despite not feeling wanted by many people, he remained polite and respectful to others that were acting in the complete opposite way towards him. Coach Boone made it clear that he knew that there was an obvious conflict among the teammates for multiple reasons. His way of dealing with this conflict was his plan of making the team go to a summer camp for football. During the summer camp, he uses his authoritative power to set the tone (or norms) for the staff and team. He relies on his position of head coach to accomplish his goal of providing structure and order within the group. The summer camp was a way of getting the team to actually get to know each other and not let their prejudice thoughts get in the way of learning about one another. Coach Boone had each of the teammates room with someone of the opposite skin color and forced them to know everything about that person. By the end of the summer camp most of the teammates were getting along. On the bus ride home it shows them all getting along, singing together, and having a good

time.
The second leader of the group is Coach Yoast.

Coach Yoast was the previous head coach, who was greatly respected by the community and his athletes. When he found out that Coach Boone was replacing him his first instinct was to apply for other head coaching positions at other high schools. Despite the fact that he had heard back from many of the places he applied to, he decided to accept the assistant coach position under Coach Boone. The parents of his players that he previously coached thought the idea of him taking the assistant coach position and working under Boone was crazy, but Yoast decided to do it to support the players. I think that by Coach Yoast swallowing his pride and deciding to work under Coach Boone, it sets an example for the white players by showing them that they aren’t any better or deserve any special treatment more than the African American players just because of their skin color. Yoast’s major role within the group was supporting Coach Boone. He knew how his teammates were and when Boone was caught up in the idea of winning and pushing the players too far, Yoast naturally became his conscious and reminded him that he can’t be doing that. As the movie developed Coach Yoast began to respect Coach Boone and his way of coaching more and

more.
The sub-groupings in the film are obviously the different races, White and Black. Back during this time they felt like they were competing with each other for the title of which race was the best. The whites felt like they were more entitled than the blacks did. Within the team these sub-groups were very prominent in the beginning of the film. The white teammates felt that Coach Boone didn’t have the right to be offered Coach Yoast’s head coach position. They also felt that they shouldn’t have to listen to an African American Coach. They let their prejudice thoughts take over and get in the way of what they really wanted to do, which was play football.
In the sub-groups within the team there were two unofficial leaders of each sub-group. The leader of the white sub-group was Gerry Bertier. At the beginning he was just like everyone else, he was judgmental, racist, and arrogant towards the African American teammates. As he works with them and gets to know them better and begins to see them as real people and even starts to consider them brothers. His ability to learn to set aside prejudice thoughts and focus on the team regardless of color makes him a team leader. As the movie moves along he sets an example to all the other teammates and they follow his ways and start to have the same mind set as he does by the end of the movie.
The leader of the African American sub-group was Julius Campbell. Just like every other African American, Julius felt unwanted and a little distrustful coming into this situation. He had his guard up at first because he knew the prejudice thoughts that the white teammates had against him and the other African American players. It didn’t take long for him and the others to start being friendly towards the white players. They had nothing against them even though the white players had strong feelings of dislike towards them. The situation that can be responsible for giving Julius the label of leader is when he confronted Gerry about his leadership style and his way of being captain. This showed that he knows what it means to be a leader, and knows that as a leader you need to set aside your differences and do what is best for the group as a whole. Julius helped Gerry become a better leader and captain.
The critical event that had a huge impact on the group as a whole was when Gerry got into a car accident after the last play off game. After winning that game the team advanced to states where they are given the chance to win the state championship. Gerry was in the hospital and was given the news that he was paralyzed from the waist down and would obviously not be able to play in the state championship. The team as a whole was devastated when they heard the news about Gerry. The entire team went to visit him in the hospital, but none of them were allowed to see him. Julius tried to come in, and the nurse’s response was; “Only family is allowed in here.” Gerry then said to the nurse, “He is family, cant you see the resemblance?” After this tragedy happened to the team, they all realized that they need to come together and stay strong for Gerry. Before this happened they were already starting to work together and become a group, but after it happened they created a stronger bond within the team and became whole.
From the beginning of the movie to the end, the group process changed drastically. At the beginning, the school and team were used to it being an all white school. The group was an all white team with a white coach that had already established norms and a strong group bond. When Coach Boone came and took over the coaching position it changed everything. The team and school was now integrated. With this change it affected the mindset of the white players and brought out their prejudice thoughts. The African American players came in feeling unwanted and both races wanted nothing to do with each other. As the movie and characters developed, everything changed. Towards the end of the movie as I mentioned above, the team went through a tough situation when Gerry got hurt and was in the hospital. This caused the teammates to push all their differences aside and become whole. The group dynamics of this team changed for the better. They got rid of the previous norms and replaced them with the new norms of unity and becoming one.