You may have a valid complaint. Here are the USCF guidelines:
Boards for standard sets should have squares of approximately 2 to 21⁄2 inches (5.08 to 6.35 cm). The guideline for determining the proper square size for a Staunton chess set is that the king should occupy around 78 percent of the square. (Dividing the base diameter of the king by 0.78 will yield the proper square size).
Next time, bring a tape measure and rulebook!
I'd suggest to my coach that you be allowed to bring your own equipment next time. No one enjoys a cramped board and every association has standards to prevent just that. The problem is that a lot of the catalog photos show pieces all jammed together on a board because that's what the photographer wants. So if you don't know what you're doing you end up trying to get a set like the catalog picture and it's too damn cramped. The ideal ratio between K and square size is .75. So a K with a 1.5" diameter ideally fits on a 2" square. There are other factors of course and since a 2.25" board is most common you see lots of slightly undersized sets with 1.5" kings. Mildly annoying, but far better than too cramped.
The overstuffed Teddy Bear is right.!
Also most people teaching Chess in High School have no clue on equipment much less the game IMO.
I actually prefer smaller than 75% (and would absolutely despise 85%). My personal taste is between 67 and 72%. 75% is starting to feel too cramped to me, but it is playable for sure.
I realize what the regulations say about the topic, I'm just mentioning my preference. I'm quite sure my preference originates from being used to using 1.5" king tournament sets on 2.25" square boards commonly used in tournaments.
I wish I could find the picture someone posted on this forum a couple of years ago. It was the most abominable setup I'd ever seen. It ticked all the boxes of things I hate: vinyl board curling up all over so the pieces are riding waves, totally black and totally white pieces on totally black and totally white squares, and pieces way too big for the squares. My skin was crawling. I might just withdraw from any tournament where I was forced to use that nonsense.
I was playing for my school at an Inter-school chess tournament so we travelled to my opponent's school and found that they have a very bad chess board. Their board was smaller than average and all the pieces are cramped together. I cant play well when the pieces are cramped together and I was just wondering if anyone else have the same problem