SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Other Prep Sports 5 of highest-paid high school coaches in Midlands (+survey)

old gal , as you stated you are "a long time Senior Women's Administrator" How can you as a professional state that winning and losing should determine pay? Really ? So your schools failure rate should determine how much each teacher is paid, regardless of education level, time commitment and the work ethic and type of students in the classroom? Your pay should only increase if your schools meet No Child left behind standards each year and show improvement? So if you AYP drops or does not improve your pay should drop too?

A couple of realities here:
1) Football rules the roost at most SC high schools.
2) To keep (overpay) football coaches, many schools routinely allowed them to double-dip as ADs. My question is: If FB coaches are putting in so many hours, how can they effectively serve all students and sports, in both genders, as ADs? Answer: They generally can't, and often don't.
3) I have been "inside" one Class AAAA athletics program where the FB coach/AD, also listed as an "Instructor", instructs exactly nothing. (But makes high $90s.)
4) Regarding WAHS, the boys' basketball and volleyball teams (among others) have been prominent statewide on and off for years. To state otherwise is ignorant.
5) The FB/soccer time comparison is irrelevant. Yes, top FB coaches give a bunch of time IN SEASON. So do top soccer coaches, by the way. But the "club" crack is ridiculous. Why do you think so many soccer coaches also work for clubs? Because it's one way to identify and develop high school players. Which is to say, there is no true off-season in soccer. Unlike FB, where many coaches collect ADDITIONAL stipends for mindlessly babysitting their schools' jayvee basketball teams, while volunteers do the real teaching and coaching.

Backscreen , I have not idea what your experiences are, I don't want to get on her an argue back and forth with you or the rest of the world. All I can tell you is that football is year round just like all sports. They have weight training, spring practice , and passing league runs all summer, as well as running the weight room thru out the entire summer.

Soccer coaches are not doing this, they send there kids off to play club, and some even work camps to make money. I don't know any that are running the weight room 5 days a week and have games every week.
So again unless you are actually coaching football or basketball or wrestling etc is hard for me to give your response credibility.
Are there things that could be better, absolutely. But that could be said for all sports and programs. We have a lot of good people who work hard at their chosen sport. I just wanted to shed some light on what football coaches are doing. That is all nothing more.
Regards,
Coach J

Coach: To me, this isn't about football vs. soccer, or any sport. It's about allocation of increasingly scarce funds to wildly overpay coaches. I appreciate as much as anyone the commitment it takes to teach and coach. I have seen the effort SOME coaches across all sports (in addition to those poor, overworked FB coaches) put into their position. And I commend them.
But the idea that you have a handful of "head" coaches making over $100k a year to drive their own personal Gators and be shadow ADs, nominal instructors, and coaches is laughable. Surrounding them with gigantic (paid) staffs compounds the felony. The idea that many of those assistants "teach" make-work classes and pass out grades like candy is incomprehensible. And defending that expenditure of money is intellectually bankrupt.
One final thought. I know a lot of people in various professions FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOTBALL COACHING, who routinely work 60-70-hour weeks, year-round, for substantially less money.

James you live out of state so your experience does not translate well to SC. Question in IL do Football coaches get fired and lose there job if they have a few losing seasons? How many people come to watch a HS football game in IL? How many Football coaches does you school have on staff? Football will not end but I think you will see club football in the near future. But we were talking about salary's. I was just shedding some light on how we are paid as teachers and coaches. When the amount of money and the difference in pay was brought up I simply again shared my experience.

Now I have been teaching for 21 years, have 21 years coaching, I get 60k a year to coach soccer , right? I mean I am the head coach and I make that amount , so by the news paper standard I am making 60k to coach soccer. Let's call the news and report that.


Don't expect a call back though, soccer is not going to sell papers, but football in the south sure does.

Coach, AGAIN you miss important points. Many FB coach/ADs in our state -- across enrollments -- DON'T teach. And many of them are nothing more than nominal ADs to supplement their salaries. (Thankfully, that is slowly changing, as more schools are separating the two positions IN RECOGNITION OF the problem.)
Your point about attendance, selling newspapers, generating revenue, etc., is relevant, as far as it goes. But isn't it amazing how so many of those football-crazy states lag behind their peers nationwide in public school student-body academic performance?
The 6-figure salary of a FB coach/AD at a mediocre academic institution is a legitimate concern for anyone who pays taxes.

BS17, I stated I would like to see all AD's positions move to administrative with no coaching at all Beaufort county has done this as well as Cane bay.

Now would you feel the same way if the Track coach or Basketball coach ETC were the AD,or does it just bother you that it is the football coach? Wando's AD does not coach or teach and has a Administrative Asst. Is that a problem? He receives a teaching salary but does not coach.

Next question,how do you feel about the teacher who gets and extra planning period each day, about 1 hour and 30 min extra free time , and they are not a coach.
What for, yearbook, teacher cadet, department head, etc

IF I am AD and head coach, How much non teaching time should I get?
How many sports does a 4A high school have and how much administrative work is required for each sport?

I am asking these questions just to play the other side, You seem very bothered by this.


Also what other teaching/coaching job can you get fired from for losing games,or losing too many games?

As long as my teams behave and I run a good program , wins and losses will not get me fired as head coach, but I can keep my teaching job regardless.

Head FB coach does not have that same job security. Not only do they lose coaching job but also lose teaching job as well.

Is that ok with you?

I would love to see this discussion moved to the 4a football board on Palmetofootballtalk and see what would be said there.

I just find this a very interesting discussion on a soccer board. So I am have fun talking about.


If we want everyone to be treated the same then that means the coaches of other sports should be fired for losing as well.

Coach: A couple of points here. 1) I absolutely WOULD feel the same way about other dual coach/AD slots, if the point of the sham was to inflate the coach's salary by giving him a job/title he/she doesn't REALLY do. 2) As far as I know, the "Wando AD" is still an assistant FB coach. He stepped back from the head FB coaching job for a number of reasons, some (but not all) of which he explained to me. 3) If a coach is a legitimate teacher, he/she may be relieved of coaching duties but retain a teaching slot. It happens all the time. 4) I'm of the opinion that ALL teachers should have at least 1 "planning" block, whether they are working an extracurricular gig or not. That MANY teachers are wildly overworked implies the need for better, more equitable allocation of resources, don't you think? Hence, the original discussion. 5) The concept of "revenue" sports and their coaches somehow justifying higher salaries may work at the college level, where TV revenue, sponsorship, and alumni giving cover a lot of the costs, but not in the public school environment. And by the way, it doesn't work particularly well at the vast majority of colleges/universities, where athletics is a money-loser, but the tail STILL wags the dog.