Coach Armstrong

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Darryl Armstrong
First appearance The Mating Game
(episode 1.06)
Statistics
Occupation Mathematics Teacher + Gym Teacher at Degrassi Community School.
Episode Count 31

Coach Darryl Armstrong is a fictional school teacher and coach on Degrassi: The Next Generation television series. He is portrayed by Michael Kinney.

[edit] Biography

Mr. Armstrong is the math and gym teacher at the Degrassi Community School, seen occasionally coordinating the various school teams. A strong and dedicated teacher, he is willing to tutor his students, sacrificing his time for them. As a coach and gym teacher, he emphasizes teamwork and good sportsmanship rather than victory and scores (as seen when Jimmy, one of the best players, did not make the final cut due to his poor teamworking performance).

[edit] Character History

First seen in the episode "The Mating Game", he is the teacher of a health class, to which Dr. Sally (the sexual education expert) was a guest speaker. Despite the eight grade's immaturity and tendency to break into laughter during the lecture, they did however (especially Ashley Kerwin), learn from it and let it influence their decisions[1]

When Degrassi's basketball team started their season in 2001, Armstrong had to make the difficult decision of who made it on the team. Approached with 15 hopefuls but only 12 slots, he based his team choices off the players' performances during their exhibition match against Earl Grey. With this placing more pressure on the players, Jimmy Brooks would eventually be unable to cope with juggling basketball and Ms. Kwan's English assignments.[2] This would later cause Jimmy to take Spinner's ritalin for the exhibition game, and thus, cause irrational and erratic behaviour in the two (as Jimmy experienced the reverse affects of ritalin on a "normal" brain, and Spinner was left without his medication). During the game, Jimmy pushes Sean (his own teammate) to take the ball from him, and score the winning goal. It is this which causes Armstrong to cut Jimmy from the team, saying that though Jimmy did achieve accomplishments in terms of scoring, he "show-boated, ball-hogged, blew plays, and wasn't a team player". However, the factor that worried him the most would have been Jimmy hurting Sean, almost breaking his ankle.[2] Despite Jimmy's protests that it was an accident, Armstrong remained committed that Jimmy had fouled Sean deliberately and that he couldn't take that risk again. He subsequently cut Jimmy Brooks, one of the best basketball players Degrassi would ever see,[3] from his team to stay true to his morals and ethics.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Degrassi: The Next Generation Episode, "The Mating Game", Episode Six, Season One. (aired 2001)
  2. ^ a b Degrassi: The Next Generation Episode, "Basketball Diaries", Episode Seven, Season One. (aired 2001)
  3. ^ Jimmy: "I've played for this team three years in a row. Team captain each one". Degrassi: The Next Generation Episode, "Death of a Disco Dancer", Episode Three, Season Five. (aired 2005)