Ben Fredricks
Ben Fredricks, or Coach Fredricks, is the physical education teacher. He is also the coach of the boys' basketball team at William McKinley High School. He is currently dating Gloria Haverchuck, who happens to be Bill Haverchuck's mother. He is portrayed by Thomas Francis Wilson Jr.
Character[]
Ben Fredricks can be a bit of a jerk at times. However, he is always there to be helpful, such as when he literally risks his job to tell Sam Weir the truth about sex.
Biography[]
In the episode "Pilot", in gym class, Coach Fredricks hosts a dodgeball game for his students to participate in. The gym students play dodgeball, which Alan and his friends are happy about as they can attack Sam and Bill. Alan aims for Sam the whole game. Once Alan has him isolated, he throws his ball, but Sam catches it, eliminating Alan from the game, much to everyone's surprise. Nevertheless, Sam gets bombarded by a bunch of dodgeballs from the other bullies on Alan's team, eliminating Sam from the game.
In the episode "Tests and Breasts", Coach Fredricks educates his students on the illustration of the fetus and the female human body in health class. While Sam disrupts the class by talking to his Geek friends about the porn video that Daniel gave him from earlier, Sam's coach interrupts Sam by telling him to get up and identify the female body's vulva area to the students. Sam nervously gets up to misidentify the female body's vulva area, and Alan and the other bullies make fun of him. Sam's coach tells Sam to return to his seat, and that he and his friends will serve a few hours of detention after school for disrupting the class.
In a dark room, Sam watches the porn video with his friends for about an hour or more. After watching the video, Sam and his friends become very confused and anxious about sex.
Sam's odd behavior concerns Coach Fredricks greatly. Because of this, Sam's coach orders Sam to meet him in his office. Sam's coach asks Sam about his problems. Sam complies by saying that sex is too traumatizing for him to initiate with someone. However, in a muted conversation, Sam's coach explains to Sam that there is nothing wrong with sex, and as long as he uses safe sex with the right person, then sex is enjoyable as much as other activities. Sam is happy to hear that he was given wonderful advice from his coach, and exits his office.
In the episode "I'm with the Band", Coach Fredricks makes an announcement to his students that the next time they are in gym class, they will have to take a shower in a public bathroom after gym class is over, due to the physical education department requiring them to do so to improve the body hygiene of the students at school. Feeling uncomfortable with this announcement that the boys need to get nude in the locker room before showering, Sam tries to make excuses to the coach that he is sick, and that he needs to go to the nurse. This worked in Sam's favor several times until Sam's coach has had enough with Sam's misleading excuses and that every boys need to shower eventually. Although, Sam's coach tells him that he got naked before in his high school years, as well as not being ashamed of doing it in front of other boys in the locker room. Sam is encouraged to enter the locker room, but Alan and the other bullies steal his towel from him and they unintentionally kick him out from the locker room to the school hallway. Hilariously, Sam sprints without any clothes on from the school hallway to the outside of the school, while random students are witnessing him and they cheer him on, instead of laughing at him. Sam manages to get back inside of the school's gym, but not before he landed on a giant soft ball, gaining attention from his coach and another teacher.
In the episode "The Diary", at the baseball field, Coach Fredricks picks all of his students, except for Bill, to be the catcher. Bill is frustrated with him being picked last. Due to this, on the phone at Bill's house, Bill insults his coach via prank calls by calling him. Bill hangs up on the phone, but while the coach's girlfriend tells him who was that, the coach simply states that it's just an old friend.
In Coach Fredricks' office, the coach is furious at his students for pulling off prank calls on him. The coach forces the Geeks, Alan, and a random student to get each turns to read the script with Bill's insults on it, which was written by the coach himself, to determine who prank-called him on the hotline. Eventually, when the coach recognizes Bill's voice, the coach catches him and he hears enough of it. The coach asks Bill why he did it. Bill explains that he is sick of being picked last and he is treated unfairly than the other students. Rather than the coach suspending Bill for his misbehavior, the coach allows Bill to not only become the shortstop, but also pick a team.
Back at the baseball field, the coach is proud of Bill getting to pick his team and Bill later catches the ball in baseball, but he is so busy celebrating he forgot to get the stealer out.
In the episode "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers", Coach Fredricks is dating Bill's mother, and he is on the road to being Bill's stepfather. Bill is shocked and disappointed by this. As a result, the relationship between the coach and Bill starts out as being complicated. Despite that, the coach tries to spend time with Bill by watching sports on TV with him. Also, the coach invites Bill, Sam, and Neal to the go-kart track to compete with each other for fun. Unfortunately, Bill becomes mad that he claims that the coach cheated by bumping him and his kart out of the race to win and he leaves the scene, making the coach feel guilty of what he did.
Coach Fredricks' last scene is when he apologizes to Bill for the cheating incident inside of his car. Luckily, Bill forgives the coach, and their relationship strengthens from teacher-student relationship to father-son relationship.
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