Meet Ted Lasso's biggest inspiration: Jason Sudeikis' high school basketball coach

The Athletic

Sudeikis has mentioned a number of inspirations for his Apple TV+ character -- from Roy Williams to Pete Carroll to Steve Kerr and John Wooden. But one name keeps coming up: Donnie Campbell, head basketball coach of Shawnee Mission West High School in Overland Park, Kansas. “Sometimes you don’t realize how you impact kids,” says Campbell. “But sometimes that’s because the words don’t impact them until they get older.” Campbell is described as a character, like his Apple TV+ counterpart. "A little folksy. The kind of coach who sounded like he grew up in rural Kansas," The Athletic's Rustin Dodd says in a profile of Campbell. "If a player looked too relaxed at practice, he’d offer a coke or a bag of chips. In the days before big games, he reminded players to get enough sleep." As Sudeikis recalled to The Kansas City Star last summer: “He’d always say. You guys look more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”