Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) - Friday Night Lights
Coaching high school football is usually the provence of recently fired Costco night managers with plates in the heads, except in Texas. There, he holds the entire state's fragile self-esteem in his hands—not to mention its stunted adolescence, racism, and bottled rage.



Reg Dunlop (Paul Newman) - Slap Shot
Sure, Reg understands that unleashing three possibly retarded goons onto the ice is the key to victory (and abject violence), but we give him credit for being ballsy enough to refuse to hang up his skates. The player/coach is all too rare a commodity.



Coach Turnbull (M. Emmett Walsh) - Back to School
Being a great coach means being able to make the tough calls. Like, say, you're one dive away from winning or losing the big meet and you make the decision to rest the outcome on the shoulders of a 60 year-old man and his carnival-attraction dive. Nerves. Of. Steel.



Lou Brown (James Gammon) - Major League
We're not sure why it is that gravel-voiced curmudgeons make the best coaches for rag-tag groups of misfits, but they just do. Lou is both old school enough to know the basics of the game, and new school enough to accept that his entire infield belongs in a halfway house.



Wayne Hisler (Paul Gleason) - Johnny Be Good
Some may call framing his star quarterback for rape so that he can blackmail him into signing with a specific college "wrong," but that's just because those people don't understand the depths of Coach Hisler's dedication.