Coach T

**Daryl "Coach T" Tingman** is the main antagonist of Season 1 of *The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers*, and a minor antagonist in Season 2. A hot headed ice hockey coach, he is a former hockey player who puts his ego over the Mighty Ducks team he coaches and believes winning is the only path to success.

## Biography

Daryl Tingman was a young junior hockey player in his youth. Before reaching his twenties, he was a three-time champion with the Mighty Ducks, who by that time, were a completely different team than during the days of "Minnesota Miracle Man" Gordon Bombay coaching them. Tingman had a win-only mindset when it came to playing the sport, similar to the Hawks of the early 1990s. This carried on when he became a head coach.

### Game On

"Coach T" is the new head coach of the Mighty Duck, and is first seen instructing Evan Morrow and the current Ducks that they need to choose a new roster of players for the upcoming hockey season. When Evan doesn't impress Coach T with his playing, he decides to cut him from the team. Coach T said that if Evan was not good at hockey, then "Don't bother".

Alex defends her son in front of the Ducks and the other parents telling Coach T that he shouldn't bother and leaves the arena to form her own team for her son.

Coach T is seen days later announcing the upcoming teams for the season. Before he could finish the announcing ceremony, Alex Morrow came onto the ice and had Coach T announce her new team, the "Don't Bothers", much to his annoyance.

The Don't Bothers second match of the season would be against the Ducks. Thanks to Sofi, the Ducks manage to score 17 goals over the Don't Bothers, however, thanks to Gordon Bombay's written play, they manage to score one goal before the game is over, breaking the Ducks streak of straight victories over other teams. This lead Coach T to get angry at the Ducks for letting the opposing team score at least one goal over them and he reprimanded Sofi for letting it happen. This lead to Sofi leaving the Ducks to join the Don't Bothers.

Coach T drove the Ducks harder in practice after the game. Unbeknownst to anyone, Sofi was practicing with both the Ducks and Don't Bothers. Her ruse was discovered when she arrived at the Ducks practice wearing her Don't Bothers jersey.

During the Hockey Moms Skill Challenges, the Ducks went up against the Don't Bothers. With each team winning some challenges, it came down to the slap shot challenge between Alex and Stephanie. On her last shot, Alex managed to beat Stephanie's record of 40 mph by 1, but Coach T disqualified her when Stephanie's husband Clark showed him video that Alex's skate was over the line.

Coach T attended the Don't Bothers game against the Hawks at the Ice Palace. Impressed by Evan's performance, he gave him the offer to rejoin the Ducks given that there were roster openings due to injuries and Sofi leaving the team. Evan impressed him at a practice but was still unsure about the offer. Coach T invited Evan to the Spirit of the Ducks gala. There, Evan turned down his offer and remained on the Don't Bothers.

### Spirit of the Ducks

Coach T invited Evan Morrow to the Hendrix Pavilion to talk about his play. He says he regrets cutting him, and hopes he will take his offer to come back to the Ducks, especially after Sofi quit and one of his players got injured. While Evan was hesitant to answer, Coach T overconfidently believed he knew what choice to make, and told him to come practice with the Ducks before he made up his mind.

When he watches Evan on the ice, he is impressed with his skills

Later that evening, Coach T was set to be honored with the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award, but before he could accept the award, some of the original Mighty Ducks interrupted the ceremony and said that the true recipient should be Gordon Bombay.

### Head Games

At states, Coach T kept the Ducks on a tight schedule, saying that they would only have a hour to spend at a party later that night due to an early morning workout the next day. When Ruby Reddick protested, Coach T said that they had to stay focused. He then tried to get in Bombay's head, but failed.

Later that night, Coach T ran into Bombay at the bar. Bombay told Coach T about how he got banned from coaching in college. Sensing that the Don't Bothers were a threat to the Ducks, Coach T told a board member of the league. The board said that Bombay's ban applied to the league since it was NCAA certified. However, Alex stepped in and found a loophole, stating that the Don't Bothers did not meet the requirements as scouts did not come their games. This allowed Bombay to coach, much to Coach T's disappointment.

### State of Play

The Ducks and the Don't Bothers made it to the finals. Before the game, Coach T tried to get in a stare down with Bombay. The game would not be played, as Sofi had a serious knee sprain that put the Don't Bothers below the minimum active roster requirement, thus forcing them to forfeit the final to the Ducks.

After the trophy ceremony, Coach T began gloating in the hallway. When Alex and Gordon mentioned that no game was actually played, he said the Ducks would have dominated the Don't Bothers. At this, Alex challenged them to a game at the Ice Palace the next day. If the Ducks won, the Don't Bothers would drop out of the league. If the Don't Bothers won, they would become the Ducks. When Coach T protested, Gordon told him that he had no idea what it meant to be a real Duck. Coach T agreed to the terms.

The Don't Bothers scored first to take an early lead. In between the first and second period, Coach T came down on the Ducks. He then encouraged them to take advantage of only one referee being present and to use their size advantage. The Ducks roughed up the Don't Bothers and took the lead going into the third period.

However, the Don't Bothers came out rejuvenated and wearing the jerseys of the original Mighty Ducks. Bombay looked over at Coach T and challenged him to see who wore the logo better. The Don't Bothers tied the game and won it in the final seconds. While both teams began to congratulate each other, Coach T screamed for them to stop, saying that the deal was not official. At this, Stephanie stepped in and said that as the head of the Ducks board, she had the final say. With that, Stephanie said that "a deal's a deal", thus giving the Ducks name to the Don't Bothers. Defeated, Coach T stormed off.

### Summer Breezers/Lights Out

In the aftermath of the hockey game at the Ice Palace, Coach T lost his cool and as a result of his behavior, was suspended from all state competitions in Minnesota. He was thus forced to carry his talents across the border, to Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. He would become the head coach of Team Canada for the junior championship tournament to be held at the Anaheim Ducks practice facility. When he was presented the roster of the EPIC team he would be facing at the building, he showed disgust when he saw Evan Morrow's name on the list.

Coach T was bitterly reunited with Evan and Alex Morrow,

## Trivia

* Dylan Playfair, who portrays Coach T, is the son of former Calgary Flames real-life head coach Jim Playfair.
* It is unknown if Coach T ever met Gordon Bombay before the events of *The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers*.
* In *Spirit of the Ducks*, his name is revealed to be Daryl Tingman.
	+ It was also revealed that he played for the Ducks when he was younger, winning 3 of 10 state titles and being captain on two of them.
* Like with Jack Reilly, he also is similar to John Kreese from the Karate Kid and willing to turn to cheating to win.