Ed McNulty Interviews the Subject of the Oscar Winning Documentary
Recorded over the telephone on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. Note that at various points some expanatory notes are enclosed in paraenteses.
CC: Hi Ed, how are you?
Ed: Fine, fine. Do you prefer to be called "Coach," or "Mr."?
CC: Call me whatever you want.
Ed: Well, I will always think of you as Coach Courtney, so I will call you that. First of all, thanks for taking the time...it must be like a marathon for you today (there being so many interviews).
CC: Oh it is, it's crazy, I think I need to join a union or something down here.
Ed: I want to congratulate you for not only the film's winning an Oscar, but also for you being the Person of the Week on ABC (this was on Friday Feb. 24).
CC: I, I honestly had no idea that that was happening when I did that interview. I just thought it was another interview. I didn't even see it.
Ed: Oh, well I hope you can get a video of it. One of the things I was curious about as I watched the video (screener sent to critics) of your film was how did you first become involved with volunteering.
CC: A fellow that works with me named Jim in Sunday School class had some men that were going out and doing some mentoring work in inner city schools, and he was doing it at Manassus. I taught school and coached football for a living before I got out into the private world, and Jim told them about me. I went over to spring practice to help out for a couple of weeks--that turned into six years.
Ed: That's great! Another question I have is "How during those kind of lean years--what sustained you during that period?
CC: What sustained me?- It was the kids. They inspired me! I mean, they come from abject poverty. They come from an area that you're more likely to be incarcerated than go to college. They're surrounded by gangs. Most of the industry has left, which leaves people without much resource or hope for a job. And despite it, they welcomed me into their lives. And they listened, and they yearned for discipline and commitment, and they just wanted to be part of something good and exciting and successful. We started with 17 kids my first year on that football team, and ended up with 70 five years later because they were just grappling on to what we were doing--and what kept me coming back, and what sustained me was how inspirational those kids were.
Ed: That's great. Obviously you must have inspired them because I was really impressed by the way in which Chavis took your very strong criticism and all (during practice the boy had been in a fight), so they must have respected you a good deal.
CC: Well, I think here is this thing--if you talk about commitment and discipline and character and all that stuff, but then you kind of walk a different life, I think it just sounds like noise to them, and they don't respect you. They'll sit down and shake their heads, and say "Yes sir," because that's what you do in the practice, but it won't mean anything to them. The flip side is, you know, if you surround yourself with a bunch of other good coaches (in the film we see a number of other volunteers assisted Coach Courtney in a number of ways) who are like-minded men who see theses kids as souls, and these kids then get surrounded by people who do talk about character and commitment and discipline, but also are consistent in their every day form, then they start getting it. And I don't really necessarily think that I was, you know, inspirational to them, I just think I was consistent. And I think I was something they could look at that was different from whet their surroundings were, and it gave them a different glimpse at what life could be, if you adhere to some principles beyond what you might see in every day life.
Ed: I was impressed, too--I am a pastor as well as a film critic--with your prayer with the kids that was included (in the film). You didn't try to assume, or bargain to get God on your side.
CC: No, I mean I'm not sure if God is a football fan or not. Since the Bible doesn't really tell us whether or not He likes football, I didn't think it was appropriate to invite Him to the game. I figured He'd come if He wanted to, but what I wanted the Lord to bless us with was perseverance and selflessness and, and character, and discipline. I pretty much figured that if the kids were blessed with that, the football would take care of itself.
There is more to the interview which can be seen by Googling http://visualparables.blogspot.com. The site also includes my review of the film. This review was suposed to have been posted here last week, but something apparently went wrong.
