Sports movies often have inspirational coaches who lead their teams to victory, but there are also some terrible coaches which span from irresponsible and boorish to homicidal. The best sports movie coaches can be just as inspiring as the athletes, and some movies focus on them rather than the characters on the field. However, some movies, especially sports comedies, have laughably bad coaches instead.
Bad coaches in sports movies are often the villains, like Kreese in The Karate Kid or Hung in Shaolin Soccer. They aren’t just bad because they’re ineffective; they also knowingly endanger the athletes due to their obsessions with winning. Whether they should be fired or arrested, bad coaches can make sports movies much more interesting by raising the stakes and providing compelling villains.
Related 10 Most Inspiring Sports Movie Speeches
Some of the most motivational speeches in film history come from iconic sports movies that instill crucial lessons in life both on and off the field.
10 Jimmy Dugan
A League of Their Own (1992)
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Director Penny Marshall Release Date July 1, 1992 Cast Tom Hanks , Geena Davis , Madonna , Lori Petty , Rosie O’Donnell , Megan Cavanagh , Ann Cusack , Anne Ramsay
Jimmy Dugan does eventually chart a path toward redemption, but his initial attitude leaves a lot to be desired. As a retired pro, Jimmy holds a sense of superiority over his players. He reluctantly takes on the job out of desperation, but he doesn’t give it his full commitment. His abrasive personality also doesn’t help him connect with the players. He even berates one of them in public for crying.
Jimmy’s abrasive personality doesn’t help him connect with the players. He even berates one of them in public for crying.
Jimmy only becomes a serviceable coach once he starts treating his team with more respect, both as players and as people. Even then, he’s a difficult person to get along with, and he doesn’t always contribute to a positive atmosphere in the locker room. Between sneaking drinks in the dugout and neglecting half his team, Jimmy sabotages the potential that he has to be a good coach.
9 Pete Bell
Blue Chips (1994)
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Director William Friedkin Release Date February 18, 1994 Cast Nick Nolte , Shaquille O’Neal , Mary McDonnell , J.T. Walsh , Ed O’Neill
Blue Chips features the unlikely acting team-up of Nick Nolte and Shaquille O’Neal. Nolte plays a college basketball coach under increasing pressure to return the program to its glory days, while Shaq plays one of the “Blue Chip” prospects who can single-handedly win games. In order to compete with other powerhouse colleges, Coach Pete Bell allows his staff to bribe players to join the team.
Breaking recruitment rules is one thing, but Pete repeatedly lies about his cheating and manipulates others into dropping the story.
Blue Chips shows that Pete used to be a great coach, with several conference titles and national championships. However, he seems to have lost his magic touch, and he is willing to skirt the rules to regain his status and maintain his job security. Breaking recruitment rules is one thing, but Pete repeatedly lies about his cheating and manipulates others into dropping the story.
8 Tashi
Challengers (2024)
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Director Luca Guadagnino Release Date April 26, 2024 Cast Zendaya , Josh O’Connor , Mike Faist , Darnell Appling , Bryan Doo , Shane T Harris
Tashi could point to her record and claim that she’s a good coach, but this would ignore the big picture. Despite coaching Art Donaldson to several major championships, she also places undue pressure on him. Tashi exemplifies the maxim that it’s unwise to mix business with pleasure. She and Art’s tumultuous relationship isn’t the professional atmosphere that a tennis player needs.
Sleeping with Art’s opponent on the night before their big final is a bad coaching move, to say the least.
Aside from being ruthless as a coach, Tashi isn’t exactly the perfect partner either. Sleeping with Art’s opponent on the night before their big final is a bad coaching move, to say the least. Ultimately, it seems that there are more important things to Tashi than her husband’s success on the court. She enjoys being in the middle of a tussle between two men, and she plays her role to the detriment of Art’s career. The ending of Challengers proves that she is more interested in the contest than the outcome.
7 Morris Buttermaker
The Bad News Bears (1976)
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Morris Buttermaker is not equipped to be anywhere near children, but he is roped into coaching a struggling little league baseball team when he’s desperate for cash. Morris is an alcoholic who shows very little interest in teaching any of his players about baseball. He’s irresponsible and confrontational, two qualities which make him a poor choice to look after a group of misfits in need of some guidance.
Morris celebrates with his team by giving them all beer, which is as intelligent as it is legal.
Morris is rivaled by an equally terrible coach in the championship game. Morris’ opponent strikes his own son, which is the one moment in The Bad News Bears which makes Morris look like a good coach by comparison. Although he never hits any of the children, Morris does push them too hard in his pursuit of victory. Strangely, he’s just as irresponsible after his change of heart. He celebrates with his team by giving them all beer, which is as intelligent as it is legal.
6 Darren Goddard
Blades of Glory (2007)
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Director Josh Gordon , Will Speck Release Date March 30, 2007 Cast Will Ferrell , Jon Heder , Will Arnett , Amy Poehler , Jenna Fischer , William Fichtner , Craig T. Nelson , Romany Malco
Darren Goddard is a figure skating coach who thinks outside the box. When his star pupil, Jimmy MacElroy, is banned from professional skating, he concocts a plan to pair him up with the bad boy of ice skating, Chazz Michael Michaels, so that the two can compete as partners. This opens both skaters up to a lot of public scrutiny and humiliation, but it ends up working out, and they silence their critics.
The only previously recorded attempt at the Iron Lotus ended in a decapitation, and this is the move that Darren thinks is a good idea.
The real reason that Darren is such a bad coach isn’t his idea of making a same-sex figure skating couple. It’s his obsession with making his skaters perform a move that could kill them. The “Iron Lotus” requires one skater to hurl the other into the air and perform a spinning kick that brings their skates to within inches of their partner’s throat. The only previously recorded attempt ended in a decapitation, and this is the move that Darren thinks is a good idea.
5 Patches O’Houlihan
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
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Director Rawson Marshall Thurber Release Date June 18, 2004 Cast Vince Vaughn , Christine Taylor , Ben Stiller , Rip Torn , Justin Long , Stephen Root
Patches O’Houlihan may be a legendary dodgeball athlete, but his coaching philosophy leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the drills he puts his players through resemble violent hazing, whether he is pushing them into a busy street or throwing wrenches at them. Patches should count himself lucky that none of his players died before making it out onto the court. It’s debatable how much of their success should be attributed to him.
Dying may be the biggest contribution that Patches gives to the team, as his death galvanizes them to an upset victory over Globo Gym.
It’s true that Average Joe’s look like a sorry bunch before Patches comes on board. However, his positive impact may be as simple as giving the team a common enemy. With a confidence-boosting match-up against a girl scout troop and some horrific bullying from Patches, the team start to unify. Dying may be the biggest contribution that Patches gives to the team, as his death galvanizes them to an upset victory over Globo Gym.
4 John Kreese
The Karate Kid (1984)
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Director John G. Avildsen Release Date June 22, 1984 Cast Ralph Macchio , Pat Morita , Elisabeth Shue , William Zabka , Martin Kove , Yuji Okumoto
John Kreese is the sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, and he represents the complete antithesis to Mr. Miyagi’s philosophy of karate. Kreese believes in winning at all costs. He even encourages his students to bully and intimidate others on their path to victory. When it comes to the big karate championship, Kreese orders his students to injure Daniel’s knee, first with an illegal move and secondly by sweeping the leg.
It’s unclear why he takes the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship so seriously, but clearly it’s important enough to him to potentially disable a child.
Kreese lacks morals, and he is a terrible role model for his students at Cobra Kai. It’s unclear why he takes the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship so seriously, but clearly it’s important enough to him to potentially disable a child. As well as being deeply evil, Kreese also fails to win the championship. With a new Karate Kid movie in the works, the story of Cobra Kai could be revived once more.
3 Hung
Shaolin Soccer (2001)
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Despite having access to the best players and state-of-the-art training facilities, Hung must resort to cheating and brutal violence to ensure victory. Coach of the appropriately-named Team Evil, Hung bribes or intimidates the referees in the competition. He also injects his players with performance-enhancing drugs, ignoring the ethical implications and the potential health side effects of his actions.
Despite having access to the best players and state-of-the-art training facilities, Hung must resort to cheating and brutal violence to ensure victory.
Shaolin Soccer is a bizarre sports comedy that mixes soccer with elements of wire fu. The conflict is exaggerated, so it makes sense that Hung is as evil as sports movie villains come. After breaking a few legs on his way to the cup final, Hung is eventually defeated by an unemployed baker with no previous soccer experience. This is the ultimate ignominy for Hung, and further proof that he is a lousy coach.
2 Coach Klein
The Waterboy (1998)
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Director Frank Coraci Release Date November 6, 1998 Cast Adam Sandler , Kathy Bates , Henry Winkler , Fairuza Balk , Jerry Reed
Adam Sandler’s sports movies let the actor combine his irreverent sense of humor with some great physical comedy, especially The Waterboy. Sandler plays one of his typical moronic manchild characters, and Henry Winkler’s Coach Klein is the perfect foil. Klein is just as inept in his own way, but he also knows just how to rile up his new star player. His antagonistic coaching style may be effective in short bursts, but the long-term effects are questionable at best.
It’s a miracle that Klein remains a coach for so long, since his team is on a 40-game losing streak before he adds Bobby to the roster.
It’s a miracle that Klein remains a coach for so long, since his team is on a 40-game losing streak before he adds Bobby to the roster. This ends up being the one fluke of his otherwise woeful talent ID, since the rest of the squad is made up of incompetent players. Klein is incapable of winning the right way, so he has to rely on the base violent instincts of a water carrier. The fact that he also has to torment Bobby doesn’t seem to weigh on his conscience.
1 Jackie Moon
Semi-Pro (2008)
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Semi-Pro isn’t one of Will Ferrell’s best movies, but his lively performance still gets a lot of laughs. Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder as a musician who buys his own basketball team because he sees a couple of games on TV and decides to give it a go. He quickly installs himself as the team’s coach, pre-game announcer and power forward. Jackie Moon is as ignorant as Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights, but his role as coach means that he can impose his arrogant foolishness on an entire squad.
The only way that his team finds some success is through moments of individual brilliance – not his own – and another player doing his coaching work.
Jackie is a terrible basketball player and a clueless coach. The only way that his team finds some success is through moments of individual brilliance – not his own – and another player doing his coaching work. Jackie mostly concerns himself with increasingly ludicrous stunts in an attempt to boost attendance. He eventually fights a bear in the middle of the arena, proving that his attempts at marketing are as misguided as his attempts at coaching.