Definition of bench coach
1
sports
: a coach (as in basketball or hockey) who actively manages the game and the players (as by directing strategy and making substitutions) from the bench area
- And Bowman, who got nearly $2 million to coach the next two years, is arguably the greatest bench coach ever.
- —Jeff Gordon, Hockey Digest, November 1993
- Calipari has a track record as a bench coach and recruiter, making his reputation by lifting UMass out of the abyss to a Final Four in 1996 before becoming the coach of the New Jersey Nets in 1996.
- —Dick Weiss, Daily News (New York), 31 Mar. 2009
2
baseball
: a coach who functions as the manager's primary assistant and who advises the manager on strategy and tactics during games
- Currently he is the Yankees' bench coach, whose job during games consists of sitting next to manager Joe Torre and dispensing advice based on intuition—intuition that distills more than half a century of experience.
- —George F. Will, Newsweek, 3 Apr. 2000
