SJSU football coach Alonzo Carter hosts Zoom calls with 500 coaches nationwide to open race conversations

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- San Jose State University running backs coach Alonzo Carter is bringing hundreds of coaches together nationwide through Zoom meetings with his new initiative called "Listen, Learn, Network."

"When we started it off, it was a professional development week to week thing," explains Coach Carter. "And the object was to talk about the game within the game, which would be how do we as minority coaches, how can we move up in this industry."

When protests surrounding social injustice began, Coach Carter shifted the focus of the Zoom calls.

Coach Carter started the Zoom calls with PAC-12 coaches. 35 minority coaches started talking about the game within the game of football in May. Not even a month later, the calls grew to 500 coaches nationwide, talking about the calls for justice in the country.

"A person like myself, that's from the inner city of Oakland, you understand how it is to be on the other side," Carter said. "I think that's how you figure out what the problem is. You have to listen to each other, you have to learn from each other and you have to understand what someone else is going through. The only way you are going to learn that is by listening to me. If you listen to me, then you can understand my pain and that's how we can grow together."