Coach helping during a physical?

At middle school health checks, I remember the coaches would man certain stations - I think the school nurse did the scoliosis checks, and can't remember exactly what the coaches helped with - maybe lice checks? - but eventually we ended in a dental chair where a local dentist would pitch in.

It was a very poor school district and I'm sure the coaches would have loaned a helping hand if they'd been asked.

I always dreamed my coach would have been in that stool near the dental chair. Too bad that never came to pass.

I bet plenty of you have memories of coaches helping during physicals, though. Any interesting stories?

Bonus: the Friday Night Lights TV series scene where the coach checks Landry's mouth at halftime! ?

During our group physicals during junior high and high school, all the coaches for that school were present for our sports physicals. They didn't handle any of the exams. They were there to maintain order among us unruly boys and to keep us moving. One coach would be outside the gym at the check-in table and to answer parent questions such as "how long is this going to take"? Another coach was usually just inside the gym as we walked in to tell us to find a spot along one of the walls and to undress to our underpants. Other coaches would be standing or walking around to make sure that we didn't screw around too much and that we got in and stayed in the right lines for each exam stations. In junior high, one coach stood there with a wooden paddle to make sure that we knew that screwing around would mean a paddling right then and there. It was kind of scary when we were 7th graders and going through a group exam for the first time to think that he might just bend us over in the gym and paddle our nearly bare butts if we got out of line. There was also one coach in junior high and maybe in high school who handled our weigh-ins during our physicals. He would have us get on the scale and then write down our height and weights on the paper that we carried from station to station. It might seem strange now for coaches to be at a sports physicals but in the 70s and 80s they saw us all the time in PE and playing team sports in our underwear or nude in the lockerrooms and showers and I never thought that was weird. Heck, in junior high, they even supervised our showering to make sure that we showered after PE.

The high school head coach was kind of scary because he was a yeller and we were afraid of him when we were freshmen in high school. He had a reputation for yelling at kids and paddling boys hard. We all knew who he was because he was the head football coach too so we saw him at games before we were in high school. He seemed to be yelling and screaming at players and no one wanted to cross him. I walked into the high school gym for my first sports physical there as a freshman and almost ran into him as I was looking the wrong way. I got an ass chewing from him about watching where I was going and to find a spot along the wall and strip down but that was it. I scrambled out of his way, found a spot against a wall, and stripped down as quick as I could to avoid pissing him off more.

During our group physicals during junior high and high school, all the coaches for that school were present for our sports physicals. They didn't handle any of the exams. They were there to maintain order among us unruly boys and to keep us moving.

That's almost exactly as I remember my HS sports physicals. Just about every coach for a male team was there helping to maintain order in some way. None of them actually assisted with the exams. We didn't have anyone walking around with a paddle, at least none that I ever saw. It was just understood that no horse-play was allowed or there would be consequences. I also remember a coach being in the locker room to make sure we removed all of our outer clothing before we headed out into the gym for the exams. It seemed there were always a few boys that conveniently "forgot" to wear a jockstrap to the exam as we were all instructed to do. When that happened the coach stopped them and made them put on a "loaner" jock from a supply that he had before entering the gym.