Sports movies are a favorite genre of movie for me. Probably for various reasons, ranging from the classic under dog story, overcoming adversity, the slow clap, and I just like sports. Sports teams need a coach, someone to bring the rag tag group together to beat the perennial champions. Someone to humble the superstar, to bring the team together for that last play. Someone to bring the community together to support their team.
Below are 5 coaches who each embody something different about a great coach. Each was faced with a different challenge, whether it was personal, or the team they were given. Disclaimer, I recognize that I haven't seen some movies, and this is all personal preference. Please share thoughts about what I missed. Mostly I am sharing what is great about these coaches.
Herb Brooks demonstrated the ability to bring a team together. (Now this is a real person, and a true story. I am basing these thoughts off what is shown in the movie not what really happened, even though Hollywood is real.) As much as I love this movie, and what Herb Brooks accomplishes, I always have this inner battle. It almost comes across that Herb Brooks does what he does for himself. There is the scene where his wife has the courage to call him out on it. Herb was bent out of shape for being cut years earlier from the Olympic team. Now that I got that off my chest, what does he to bring this team together to beat the USSR, or as my generation knows them as Russia?
Herb takes not the best college hockey players, but the right college hockey players. Brooks picks players that he had coached at Minnesota, from Boston, and other top hockey colleges. Players that have been going against each other in college for the last couple years, not including junior hockey. He is taking players that have no reason to like each other and he makes them a team. Herb doesn't care if the players like him, they want them to realize they are a team. One of my favorite lines comes from the trainer, "Well, maybe if they hate him, they won't have time to hate each other." He says it with an accent which makes it sound all the wiser. Herb's greatest moment is his locker room speech before the semi-final game against the USSR. There is nothing I can say to explain it, so here it is.
Now wipe those tears away. Herb makes everyone in that room believe they are going to win, but more importantly he points out that they have earned that opportunity because of the work he made them do. We all remember the 'again' scene after the players were more interested in the babes in the stands than the game. Side note, Mike Eruzione is a great captain. I love that speech.
Irving 'Irv' Blitzer overcomes a dirty past of cheating in the competitive sport of bobsledding. He had his world records, and medals stripped. Irv did what we would all do if we were cheaters, he went to Jamaica and bet on horse racing in a dumpy bar. I don't want to be to hard on Irv though, we see it all the time where people want to be the best and they push the line. Irv got as far away from the sport as he could (take a note A-Rod).
In walks Derice Bannock and Sanka Coffie. Both top class athletes in their respected sports. Derice a world class sprinter who gets tripped by a guy that looks like Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bell Aire. Sanka is the best push cart driver in all of Jamaica. Derice wants to get to the Olympics, and since Carlton's doppelganger Junior Bevil tripped him and Yul Brenner, he needs a new event. Bobsledding is what he chooses. They convince Irv to coach three of Jamaica's top sprinters, and a push cart driver. He decides to do it, probably because he wasn't good at picking the right horse at the track.
They get to Calgary, and Irv has to face his demons. A life he has tried to put behind him for years. The bobsled Olympic committee which has some of the people that where affected by Irv's past did not want him and his Jamaican bobsled team in the Olympics or getting any attention. Irv busts into a meeting to give this speech. Irv Blitzer Speech (Sorry youtube didn't have this)
Irv doesn't owe those boys anything, but he fights for them. Side note, Irv Blitzer is a based on the real coach named Howard Siler Jr, and as far as I can see he actually didn't cheat, but bot does it make the movie better.
Billy 'Bill' Heywood is the youngest coach to make the list. Billy is the grandson of the Minnesota Twins owner who dies. The team is left to the kid. When the team needs a manager, he decides to make himself the manager.
Billy was in middle school, and fishing with his friends, now he is trying to tell grown men how to bat, and what the starting lineup is going to be. Billy soon becomes Bill, because that is how you get the respect of any adult. Somehow this kid learns how to manage the baseball team, and keep his friends.
The reason Bill makes the list is mostly based on his knowledge learned from his grandpa and studying the game. Bill doesn't have the life experience that any of those players have, but lives by what he saw his grandpa do, and isn't afraid to stick to his guns. Accept for when his mom makes him do his homework during the season. He had a good support group that had to keep him grounded.
Jimmy Dugan coached women's baseball, while the men were all at war. He had great players, but had to deal with this...
Enough said, he went through a lot, and they had a great season.
The last coach had to overcome personal problems, but was also given a rag tag team. To start we see the dark place that Conner O'Neal is in. Sports gambling is his weakness, and it gets him mixed up with the wrong people. As part of paying back his debts, he has to coach a baseball team made up of inner city kids that live in the projects.
We have seen this with Gordon Bombay when he has to coach the Ducks. Conner doesn't want to coach these kids, so he starts out by putting close to zero effort into it. Over time he sees what the kids are going through. And shocker, he begins to like them. He gets them uniforms, buys them pizza, and gives them rides after dark. Coach O'Neal is doing his best to keep these kids out of gang life. Once his debt is repaid he wants to leave, but the relationships he develops pulls him back to finish the season.
O'Neal made the list because he helped the team that needed the most help. He gave these kids things they wouldn't have had otherwise. He let the team change him.
I know that this list is incomplete. Below is a list of Honorable mentions, and other great coaches. Please leave your comments on what you agree with and more likely disagree with.
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