New Girl’s 10 Best Coach Episodes

Coach had some great moments in New Girl. Damon Wayans Jr. is currently shining with his role as Derrick in Shrinking and starring opposite his father Damon Wayans Sr. in Poppa’s House, but Coach remains one of his best characters. Coach came and went over the seasons, but when he was around, he had unique friendships with the rest of the New Girl characters. Like everyone on New Girl, Coach was figuring out how to grow up, starting the series as an aimless sports fanatic, and evolving into a driven man with a fulfilling relationship and career.

When Damon Wayans Jr.'s character reappeared in New Girl season 3 after Coach was replaced by Winston, he had to reestablish his old friendships with the guys and build new ones with Jess and Cece. In New Girl season 4, Coach meets May, and after working hard to get her, he ends the season leaving with her so she can pursue her dreams. Certain episodes of New Girl show Coach’s unique friendship style and his personal growth over the series.

10 Coach Covers Up A Broken Heart

Season 3, Episode 7, “Coach”

Coach shows up at the loft after a breakup, ready to party as usual. Coach is clearly the life of the party, with Nick, Schmidt, and Winston excited just to get the text from him. Coach shows up full of false bravado, playing off the breakup like he is excited to be single, but he breaks down crying at the strip club admitting that he "just wants to be in love.” Coach has a macho exterior, so expressing his feelings does not come naturally to him.

Nick, Schmidt, and Winston do not abandon Coach when he starts crying, but instead, they rally to help him fight the man who “stole” his girlfriend. Their friendship may seem fair-weather as they have not seen Coach in two years, but their bond proves to be as strong as ever. Coach’s nickname for Winston, “Shrimp Hands,” immediately establishes the sense of an old, familiar friendship. Coach's easy rapport with New Girl guys makes his transition back into the show smooth.

9 Jess And Coach Find Their Groove As Friends

Season 3, Episode 12, “Basketsball”

The premise of the show was built around Jess being different from the guys in the loft, but by New Girl season 3, she had found her rhythm with Nick, Schmidt, and Winston. The contrast between Coach’s "masculine energy" and Jess’s bubbly persona became a great source of comedic tension, and New Girl season 3, episode 12, “Basketsball” explores their lack of connection. Jess is so desperate to bond with Coach that she pretends to be a fan of Coach's favorite basketball team, the Detroit Pistons.

Coach pushes himself out of his comfort zone to make amends with Jess, showing that, while Coach may make mistakes—especially with women—his intentions are good.

When Coach dismissively refers to Jess as "just Nick’s girlfriend," she becomes upset, and Coach resolves to make it right. Nick helps Coach learn to connect with Jess on her level. Coach pushes himself out of his comfort zone to make amends with Jess, showing that, while Coach may make mistakes—especially with women—his intentions are good. This marks the beginning of Coach finally becoming friends with women.

8 Coach And Winston Have A Cake Bake-Off

Season 3, Episode 13, “Birthday”

Coach is old friends with Winston, and some of their unresolved issues come up in one of New Girl's best episodes. Coach is being unnecessarily competitive on whose role is more important for Jess's surprise birthday party, and Winston calls Coach out for always trying to outshine him, even recalling how Coach wouldn’t pass him the ball during their younger basketball days. Coach's stubbornness prevents him from admitting Winston is right, so he ends up in a cake bake-off with Winston.

Coach and Winston can be humorously aggressive towards each other, bragging about whose cake will be more moist, but their friendship is too deep to be truly changed. When the two cakes merge into one in the oven, Coach and Winston’s petty fight immediately ends as they see it as a metaphor for themselves growing together. Down to their secret handshake, “Birthday" solidifies Coach and Winston’s longtime friendship. The episode demonstrates Coach's fierce friendship and surprising cake-decorating skills.

7 Coach’s Friendship With Cece Unlocks A New Side Of Him

Season 3, Episode 18, “Sisters III”

After one drunken date, Coach and Cece settle into a friendship that brings out a completely new side of Coach. Introduced as the ultimate sports fan, Coach is suddenly acting like one of the girls with Cece, begging for the “tea" and supporting Cece’s mission to stalk Schmidt’s new girlfriend. This is such a different version of Coach that Schmidt remarks that their friendship is “a real bummer” to him. As Cece points out multiple times, she did not ask Coach to behave this way, he is doing it organically.

Coach confides in Winston that he has not had a lot of female friends, but since he and Cece are now fully platonic, he loves that they are “sisters.” Coach finds something freeing about this new dynamic and embraces being treated like a girlfriend by acting like a girlfriend. While Jess opened the door to female friendship for Coach, he unlocked a different side of himself through his friendship with Cece.

6 Coach Decides To Take His Teaching Job Seriously

Season 4, Episode 8, “Teachers”

New Girl is about Jess and her friends navigating the challenges of adulthood, so when Coach needs a job, Jess gets him a position as a health teacher at her school, but Coach resists emotionally investing in the role. Over the course of a weekend teaching conference, Coach’s attitude changes when a fellow teacher makes him realize that teaching health can change students' lives. Suddenly, Coach is terrified by the responsibility of being a health teacher.

*IMDB's Highest Rated Episodes of New Girl* (2011-2018)**
Episode Number	Title	IMDB Score
S2.E15	Cooler	9.1
S6.E22	Five Stars for Beezus	9.1
S4.E22	Clean Break	9.0
S5.E22	Landing Gear	8.8
S4.E6	Background Check	8.7

Although New Girl plays Coach’s journey for laughs, as he is drunk for most of it, his arc serves as a microcosm of his growth throughout the series, evolving from aimless to determined. In this episode, Coach buckles down at his job, and this development sets him up to find love later in New Girl season 4. Jess’s belief in Coach shows how far their friendship has come since struggling to bond in “Basketsball."

5 Coach Stresses About Sending An Email To A Girl He Likes

Season 4, Episode 17, “Spiderhunt”

In one of New Girl's holiday episodes, Coach meets May, a cellist who declines to give him her number and instead challenges him to write her an email that will change her mind about him. Coach is introduced in season 3 as a player, so seeing him stressed about what to write May shows how much Coach already likes her. Coach seeks out everyone’s advice and drafts multiple emails, an uncharacteristically anxious move for a typically relaxed character.

Schmidt decides which email to send out of Coach’s hands when he accidentally sends them all, which turns out to be the key, as May is impressed by the sheer number of attempts. Coach's willingness to seek the opinions of everyone in his circle shows that he is finally mature enough to pursue a real relationship. Most of the New Girl characters end up dating within the friend group, so May’s introduction brings a refreshing new dynamic.

4 Coach Lies To Hang Out With JJ Watt

Season 4, Episode 18, "The Right Thing”

Coach's love of sports is such a defining tenet of his personality that he is known simply as Coach, and even as he matured through New Girl season 4, he never lost his love of football. When Jess finds herself constructing an increasingly elaborate lie at the funeral of a man she barely knew, Coach tells her to cut and run until one of New Girl's guest stars, NFL defensive end J.J. Watt, playing a version of himself, walks into the funeral. Coach is uncharacteristically star-struck and joins Jess’s lie to spend time with Watt.

When Jess, Coach, and Watt are caught in the lie, Coach offers the surprisingly wise insight that Jess and Coach both tried to make the funeral of a man they did not know about themselves. Coach’s growth is evident in how he initially tried to talk Jess out of her fib, but Coach could not help but slip morally when he had the chance to hang out with one of his heroes. This is a full-circle moment, as Jess's friendship with Coach began with a lie about Jess liking basketball.

3 Coach Is Ruthless In Throwing Out Mementos

Season 4, Episode 22, “Clean Break”

Coach is moving across the country with his girlfriend May, and coming from a military family, Coach has a "clean break” policy, getting rid of everything that he does not deem essential. This aligns with Coach in season 3 who pretended to celebrate a breakup he was mourning, the old Coach who wanted to close out any vulnerability. Winston, his oldest friend in New Girl, feels hurt that he does not plan to bring any token of their friendship.

Ultimately, Coach decides he does not want a clean break from his loft family and brings a bigger bag as an excuse to pack mementos that will remind him of his friends. Coach's newfound love and his sadness about leaving his friends are emotions he could never have expressed in the earlier seasons of New Girl.

2 Coach Helps Winston Get The Girl

Season 5, Episode 21, “Wedding Eve”

Coach arrives at the loft the night before Cece and Schmidt’s wedding in the middle of a game of New Girl's True American and still manages to win, proving that even after moving to New York, he has not missed a beat in their friendship and all the entailing rituals. Coach’s excitement to see everyone, especially Cece, shows that distance has not diminished their bonds. Coach's return for the wedding makes the New Girl episode feel like even more of an event.

Coach proves he is a real friend because he gives Winston the advice he needs to hear instead of what he wants to hear.

Even while very drunk after playing True American, Coach offers Winston the advice he needs to hear. Winston asks Coach to teach him how to play games to win a girl, but Coach knows that is not Winston's style. Winston thinks he needs to be a player, but on Coach’s advice, instead tells his police partner Aly that he loves her, which is how they finally get together. Coach proves he is a real friend because he gives Winston the advice he needs to hear instead of what he wants to hear.

1 Coach Loses A Financial Investment From Nick

Season 7, Episode 4, “Where The Road Goes”

Even the closest friendships in New Girl are tested, and Coach and Nick have a falling out in season 7 after Nick invests $71,000 in Coach’s place called “Coach’s Jim” which was confusingly a restaurant and not a gym. After Jess forces Coach and Nick to talk, Coach confesses he stopped reaching out because of embarrassment, and the two can admit they just miss each other and forgive everything else.

Nick believed in Coach’s vision enough to invest in his business, and Coach cared enough about Nick to be anxious when he lost the money, although they could have solved the problem sooner if they communicated properly. Nick and Coach are two of the most traditionally masculine characters in New Girl, so showing emotions does not come naturally, but through Jess’s prodding, they are able to repair their friendship. Even though Coach moved across the country, he still loves his friends enough to return for a cat’s memorial.