The Coach Carter Impact Academy is an unconventional boarding school that was founded and opened by Ken "Coach" Carter

Ken Carter

Kenny Ray Carter is an American business owner, education activist and former high school basketball coach. Carter attended college at San Francisco State, then Contra Costa College, and finally George Fox University, where he played basketball.-Biography:...

 in 2009 in the small Central

Central Texas

Central Texas , is a region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is roughly bordered by San Marcos to Fredericksburg to Waco, and to Brenham, and includes the Austin–Round Rock, Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Bryan-College Station, and Waco metropolitan areas...

 Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 town of Marlin

Marlin, Texas

Marlin is a city in Falls County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,628 at the 2000 census, but decreased to 5,967 by 2010. It is also the county seat of Falls County, and has been so since 1851...

.

The Coach Carter Impact Academy has about 150 students, with 64 living on campus in dormitories. The academy is known to have a strict academic and athletic atmosphere. Opportunities available for students to partake in include aviation

Aviation

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

, entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...

 and video game design.

The school day lasts twelve hours, from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. which includes activities such as classes, homework, athletic activities like baseball, basketball, football and soccer. The students also are in charge of their own laundry

Laundry

Laundry is a noun that refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered...

, and run their own campus retail and barber shops.

Coach Carter and Marlin

Ken Carter

Ken Carter

Kenny Ray Carter is an American business owner, education activist and former high school basketball coach. Carter attended college at San Francisco State, then Contra Costa College, and finally George Fox University, where he played basketball.-Biography:...

, founder of the academy, had not heard of the town of Marlin

Marlin, Texas

Marlin is a city in Falls County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,628 at the 2000 census, but decreased to 5,967 by 2010. It is also the county seat of Falls County, and has been so since 1851...

 before the movie Coach Carter

Coach Carter

Coach Carter is a 2005 American film directed by Thomas Carter. It is based on a true story, in which Richmond High School basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his MVP and undefeated team due to poor academic results....

(2005). While in Dallas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, Carter is said to have been tired, so he rented a car and drove south on Interstate 35

Interstate 35

Interstate 35 is a north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. I-35 stretches from Laredo, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border to Duluth, Minnesota, at Minnesota Highway 61 and 26th Avenue East. Many interstates used to have splits or spurs indicated with suffixed letters , but I-35...

 before going south on Texas State Highway 6 in Waco and drove about another 30 miles when he entered Marlin and fell in love with the town, becoming one of few.
Carter bought a mansion in town and renovated it to become a second home. In 2009, an article in the Waco Tribune-Herald

Waco Tribune-Herald

The Waco Tribune-Herald is an American daily newspaper serving Waco, Texas and vicinity.The newspaper has its roots in five different predecessors, beginning with the Waco Evening Telephone in 1892. The Tribune-Herald took its current identity when E.S...

announced that he'd be opening up a boarding school for boys, becoming the Coach Carter Impact Academy, in the fall.

Location in Marlin

The campus is located in the backstreets of Marlin, with the main office address at 317 Kendrick St. No paved roads border the campus. Kendrick and Oakes, two of the streets that border the Coach Carter Impact Academy, are mostly residential streets. Near the school, at the corner of Oakes and Capps is the Marlin Public Library.

Layout

The Coach Carter Impact Academy resides in the former home of the Marlin Middle School. There are currently sixteen dormitories with four beds in each, allowing up to 64 students to live on campus at a time. There is a kitchen, laundry, barber shop, and student store on campus. The barber shop and student store are run by students, plus the kids are responsible for their own laundry and cook their own meals. There are a few acres of flat land for athletic activities and a gym.