‘Undefeated’ – Memphis Flyer

”You must absolutely be beside yourself,” said the reporter to the man on the red carpet. “How will the movie winning the Oscar change your life?”

“It won’t,” answered the man. “Tomorrow, they’re going to roll the red carpet up and next year, another great movie will come out, and I’ll be an afterthought.”

The man being interviewed was Bill Courtney. The movie about his coaching the Manassas High School football team in Memphis was Undefeated, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2012. And an “afterthought” Courtney may be in some quarters. Don’t tell that, though, to the inspired audiences who hear Courtney on the speaking circuit. And don’t tell that to readers of Against the Grain (Weinstein Books), Courtney’s book of life lessons (co-written with author and journalist Michael Arkush), which Courtney will be signing at the Booksellers at Laurelwood on Saturday.

The book draws from Courtney’s own life; the lives of the students he coached; the lives of his workforce at Classic American Hardwoods (the local lumber company Courtney owns); and the lives of fellow Memphians, including Dr. Scott Morris, Jim Strickland, Fred Smith, and Jacqueline Smith. The book’s subtitle covers the territory: “A Coach’s Wisdom on Character, Faith, Family, and Love.”

Courtney covers his coaching philosophy in just a few words too. Never mind the standard X’s and O’s. Courtney “starts with believing that players win games and coaches win players.” And elsewhere in Against the Grain: “I didn’t coach football. I coached kids who played football.”

And no, winning isn’t the only thing, according to Coach Courtney. There’s something to be said too for commitment, civility, perseverance, personal responsibility, and dignity. Grace, too, and forgiveness when times get tough, on or off the field.

Jonathan Loe, with trophy

Here’s a good column by reporter Preston Williams in the Washington Post that highlights the schools issues we are debating in Memphis and Shelby County.

It’s about home schooling, but it goes to the heart of the underlying issue: schools and sports teams as vital parts of communities and the passion that parents and students feel for them.

As Williams writes, there is a Tennessee angle in the story because home schooling came up last year in the state legislature. There are some 6,000 home-schooled children in Tennessee.

“But according to Bernard Childress, executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, just a few students have been denied spots on their schools’ teams. “It really hasn’t been a big issue,” Childress said. “This is what we were told by some of the states that we surveyed prior to our implementation.”

In 2001, Bartlett High School won the state AAA basketball championship with star player Jonathan Loe, who was home schooled in Mississippi but came to Bartlett for his senior year before going to Ole Miss. Loe attended classes. In Virginia, the focus of Williams’ story, the issue is home schoolers who play for a school they do not attend.

Williams has some thought-provoking comments: “And if high school fields and gyms are extensions of the classroom, a home-schooled student has no more right to elbow Johnny off of a team’s roster than he does to kick him out of his seat in history class.”

In Memphis, we’re talking about merging city and county school systems and the possible establishment of municipal school districts in the suburbs. But the issue is really bigger than that because of the thousands of children who attend private schools, charter schools, or are home schooled. And those numbers are likely to grow as the deregulation of public education picks up steam in Nashville.

I believe there’s a case to be made for a merged school system and traditional public schools, but backers must emphasize the benefits of such things as teams, tradition, and marching bands. There is a lot of movement — and some recruiting and cherry picking — between schools as parents, coaches, and motivated students zero in on a particular team, special academic offering, or talent.

For a longer take on the schools merger story from an outside perspective, check this article in the Atlantic Monthly magazine. Thanks to Tom Guleff for sending it over.

Finally, the documentary film “Undefeated” about the 2009 Manassas High School football team, is getting wide release and a lot of good publicity since it was nominated for an Oscar. Here’s a review by John Anderson in the Wall Street Journal which, unfortunately, puts the school in “West Memphis, Tennessee.” Manassas has come a long way since 2003 when it was barely able to field a team and lost to Mitchell 81-0.