Coach

"My friends call me Coach. I guess y'all can do the same."

- Coach

Coach is one of the four playable survivors in Left 4 Dead 2.

Official Description
Age: 44

Hometown: Savannah, GA

Coach has a big heart and a healthy appetite, and a wicked swing with a chainsaw. After a knee injury ended his career as a defensive lineman in college, Coach salvaged his Physical Education degree (barely) and landed a job teaching health at the local high school in his hometown of Savannah.

Working as a defensive coordinator for the freshmen team might not have been the best path to a pro coaching career; but it’s come in pretty handy in guiding a group of Survivors to safety. Coach has watched his beloved hometown get ravaged by infected—now it’s time to deliver his own brand of Southern hospitality.

Relationships with other Survivors
Coach is the voice of reason and authority of the team in a similar way to Bill, and often retains an optimistic attitude that is hard to disagree with. Despite his friendly demeanour, his experience as an actual coach makes him demand things of the other survivors in a positive way, for example, shouting them to get on their feet.


 * Ellis: Despite their age gap, Coach and Ellis have several shared interests, both like the Midnight Riders, Jimmy Gibbs Jr. (Although Coach may be familiar with Jimmy Gibbs Sr. as he excitedly says "Jimmy Gibbs!") and both have a fondness of Whispering Oaks amusement park. Coach is surprisingly patient of Ellis' naive ways and defends him whenever Nick is negative or sarcastic toward him. Both are also native Georgians, which could contribute to their friendliness.


 * Nick: Nick and Coach appear to have a "love-hate" relationship, similar to what Francis and Bill have. They often make fun of each other, and it is apparent that Coach dislikes Nick's attitude, but both seem unhappy to see the other die. Over the course of the events, they are both less hateful towards each other. Coach also seems to hold an authority over Nick, saying "you can make yourself a life right here" if Nick's negativity annoys Coach, to which Nick quickly recoils and follows Coach.


 * Rochelle: Rochelle appears to like Coach in a way that somewhat resembles Zoey's and Bill's relationship. They act friendly to each other, but not in a romantic way. They compliment each other, and are quite unhappy to see the other die. Coach often refers to Rochelle as little sister meaning he feels protective of her.  Rochelle feels for Coach sometimes, as shown when Coach was praying that the food court be safe by God, Rochelle tells God to make the food court safe for him.

Quotes
"See: Coach/Quotes"

Trivia

 * Coach seems to despise Witches to the point that he refers to them as "Bitches", though he refers to most of the other Infected as "bitches" as well.
 * Coach appears to have a slight west-Southeastern accent, occasionally dropping his R's and G's.
 * He may also be somewhat religious as he usually makes comments referring to the Bible and stating the last time he saw his grandmother, she asked if he was still a praying man. Also during Dead Center, he will sometimes close his eyes and pray that the team can make it through the mall alive, and that the food court is still intact
 * Bill and Coach have many things in common. According to their back-stories, both Bill and Coach have knee injuries. They also are the older, "mentor" type in their group, and have a dislike for climbing stairs. On top of that, they both have a different physical disadvantage. Bill's disadvantage is that he's older than anyone out of the two groups. On the other hand, Coach's disadvantage is that he is overweight, preventing him doing similar things to Bill. (Note how Bill is quite healthy for his age). One main difference, however, is that Bill's full name is completely known; whereas Coach's last- or even real name remains unknown.
 * "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" is a quote from the Bible, Psalm 23:4.
 * In an issue of PC Gamer, the original concepts of the Coach can be seen, including a skinny coach, a white coach, and a coach in a football helmet used as armor. He also holds a bow and arrows (depicted in the gallery below).
 * Coach appears to hold a pistol or Magnum with only one hand when his health is lower than 40 HP.
 * In this same scene Coach asks "Who the hell puts an evac station up thirty flights of goddamn stairs?". This is a possible reference to Mercy Hospital which had an evacuation station on the roof and had thirty floors as well.
 * Coach is called by a nickname instead of a real name.
 * Coach's shirt has the abbreviation "FHS," which implies that the school at which he coached has a name that starts with an 'F' (F... High School). His shirt is also purple and yellow where it says FHS, which implies that his school colors are purple and yellow.
 * When Ellis says he would take a bullet for Jimmy Gibbs Jr., Coach says "Amen", suggesting that he too would do the same.
 * Much like Ellis, he too is a fan of the Midnight Riders even claiming to have all of their albums, "even their new stuff that ain't no good".
 * Coach has a habit of reading signs throughout the campaigns.
 * During the campaigns, Coach talks about different foods he likes, which include cheeseburgers, cotton candy, steaks, corn dogs, fried dough, and peach cobblers.
 * When entering the swamp Coach mentions a golf movie where a man had his hand bitten off by an alligator. He is referring to the film Happy Gilmore.
 * Sometimes, when he sees a Riot Infected he may say, "Them zombies got armor. I want armor!" which could be a reference to one of his beta stages were he was supposed to wear a football helmet and pads.
 * If you reach the Dark Carnival finale and bring Coach up to the microphone as someone starts the finale, he will start singing and it can be echoed throughout a small part of the map
 * Coach may be a reference to Doc Louis from the Nintendo series Punch-Out!! Both were all-stars in their respective fields before they retired and became coaches. Both are also overweight and share a liking of chocolate (which Nick teased Coach about when they were climbing the stairs to the evac point)..