By Jessica Stopper
Is coach Carter too legit to quit?
San Jose State’s newly appointed running backs coach Alonzo Carter has been coaching a large part of his life from the high school to college level. His career did not start with football, however, it began with dance.
Born and raised in West Oakland by his mother Mary Abraham and alongside his three siblings, Carter was surrounded by a family that loved music and dance. Growing up, Carter and his siblings spent much of their time at their grandparents house.
“Everytime she would have friends over to play cards, they would call me over and my brothers and we would dance,” Carter said. “That’s how we earned our extra little money.”
Carter attended McClymonds high school and furthered his education at Cal State Hayward University. At the same time, Stanley Burrell — most famously known as MC Hammer — began his journey to fame as a local rapper.
Carter found out that MC Hammer was not only from Oakland as well, but coincidentally attended McClymonds High School.
MC Hammer held dance auditions for his first music video “Let’s Get It Started” at Sweet Jimmy’s in downtown Oakland.
“We decided that we wanted to be a part of the video because we would always hear Hammer’s songs in the local clubs,” Carter said.
Dressed up in their biker tight attire, Carter and his group named “New Ho” showed up at Sweet Jimmy’s to show off their fresh moves.
“We wanted to create a fraternity, but we created what we called a social club,” Carter said.
The up-and-coming rapper approached one of Carter’s crew members asking who the group was and what they could do. After Carter and his friend danced in the middle of the circle, MC Hammer stopped the music and told the two that he wanted them in his video.
Carter was featured in the original video and performed at local shows held at McClymonds as well as Richmond Auditorium.
After positive feedback, Hammer had Carter and his friend Mighty Ho dance as extras in two videos that he was making in Los Angeles.
While in Los Angeles, Carter met two locals that Hammer also invited to be a part of the video.
“Rather than dance against each other, we made a business decision to form a group right there on the spot,” Carter said.
The newly-formed group, known as “Ho Frat Ho” waited four hours for Hammer to shine and ended up dancing in that night’s show.
In the summer of 1989, Hammer went on tour and brought along the group to be his backup dancers.
“I was just a young kid from West Oakland chasing a dream,” Carter said.
MC Hammer had another tour set after the initial summer tour and invited back Carter and the squad. That was when Carter knew he was “officially in.”
Carter was given the roll as the lead trainer — choreographing the routines, workouts and dietary needs, consuming a substantial amount of Carter’s time.
The “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Him” tour in 1990 was a big deal to Carter because it was planned to be more substantial than the last tour.
It was then Carter decided to take a break from school and embrace his job as a professional dancer.
“My coaching bug started then,” Carter said.
Carter was part of the peak in Hammer’s career.
The most well known MC Hammer song “You Can’t Touch This” was choreographed by Carter.
Following the hit, Carter was a part of the “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Him” nine-month-long tour and was responsible for supervising over 30 members of the team, all of whom had to report directly to him who would then report back to Hammer.
“1990 changed my life,” Carter said.
In that year, Carter had the chance to dance with Oprah Winfrey on her show and performed at the Grammy’s and the MTV Awards.
“I’m blessed to say that I’m able to talk about it and stay true to myself,” Carter said. “Some people when they get into the music business, they lose themselves and I didn’t want to be one of those people.”
After three years of school and four years of dancing, Carter re-enrolled in 1992 and planned to play football with his last year of eligibility.
He wound up one unit short of eligibility.
“It was a very dark point in my life,” Carter said. “I didn’t know what to do or what I was going to do.”
Instead of finishing college, Carter accepted a job as the track coach of McClymonds, his first time coaching sports.
“If I’m going to coach, I want to be the best coach,” Carter said. “I don’t want to be the guy that used to dance for Hammer.”
Coaching offers continued to come to Carter’s way after his track gig.
“I got the bug to want to help people and change lives,” Carter said.
After winning several track championships, Carter became the head football coach at McClymonds in 2000 and won his first championship just three years later.
Through his eight years of coaching football, Carter helped nearly 100 students move on to play for a Division 1 college as well as receiving many prestigious awards.
He coached McClymonds High School football for eight years and track for 14 before moving to Berkeley High School for three years where he led the team to win three consecutive state championships.
Contra Costa Junior College offered Carter a position to coach the football team where he continued to work his magic.
“I took a last place Contra Costa football team to four championships after being told I couldn’t win there and what I couldn’t do,” Carter said.
Now, as a member of a brand new coaching staff at SJSU, Carter’s vision has stayed the same: To help people.
“I was a head coach for the past 16 years and if I were to work with somebody, this would be the person I would want to work for [Coach Brennan,]” Carter said. “I’d still treat it for what it is — helping people.”
The most significant role Carter enjoys is that of selecting and recruiting student athletes from the inner city and East Bay and bringing them into the Spartan Family.
Although it wasn’t foreseen by Carter, his dancing roots made him the coach he is now.
“He’s [Hammer] the reason I’m here today,” Carter said. “My coaching seed got planted back then — I just didn’t know it.”