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Shortage of Coaches


Ijustwatch

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22 hours ago, DB2point0 said:

3:30 to midnight on Monday through Friday gets you to 40 hours after school.  

I hear ya. Don't forget about the weekend and before school. Some kids can't lift after school because of work so some coaches show up at 6:00 AM to open the weight room for those kids to have an opportunity to get extra work in. I will say...not all coaches do that. But if you care about kids you are going to make it work for them. 

You're trying to make it seem as if we are blowing it out of proportion...I would love to hear your opinion if you were able to shadow a football coach for one week during the season...

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2 minutes ago, GoodOleBoy73 said:

I hear ya. Don't forget about the weekend and before school. Some kids can't lift after school because of work so some coaches show up at 6:00 AM to open the weight room for those kids to have an opportunity to get extra work in. I will say...not all coaches do that. But if you care about kids you are going to make it work for them. 

You're trying to make it seem as if we are blowing it out of proportion...I would love to hear your opinion if you were able to shadow a football coach for one week during the season...

I forget how many smaller schools are in ETX... I am at a school where we have 22 coaches on staff.  Do we need that many?  Probably not.  But it helps spread some of that out.

I remember when I worked for the hospital in Linden, I used to go out to LK and their coaching staff was essentially the maintenance staff for the entire school.  It was wild.

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Some places are better than others when it comes to the hours. I have worked 90 hour weeks. I have worked 60 hour weeks. I have been a part of bad teams. I have been a part of good teams. 

The fact is this...80-100 hours in a week is not something that is just made up. You can think we are lying if you want...that is your choice. However, if your kid is ever a part of a program that has good coaches who are doing everything they can to help your kid have success then I hope you appreciate them. I hope you don't take for granted all that they do, despite the fact that some of you guys think we are just making stuff up.

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7 minutes ago, GoodOleBoy73 said:

Some places are better than others when it comes to the hours. I have worked 90 hour weeks. I have worked 60 hour weeks. I have been a part of bad teams. I have been a part of good teams. 

The fact is this...80-100 hours in a week is not something that is just made up. You can think we are lying if you want...that is your choice. However, if your kid is ever a part of a program that has good coaches who are doing everything they can to help your kid have success then I hope you appreciate them. I hope you don't take for granted all that they do, despite the fact that some of you guys think we are just making stuff up.

100% accurate. The lack of appreciation is what is driving good or young coaches out. Tons of good coaches are staying too. To each their own. Please appreciate success that your athletic program is having. There's not many jobs that pay out less than $10/hr for people that rack their brains and lose sleep over the performance of 14-18 yr olds.

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6:00 am-8pm monday-wednesday - 42 hrs

6:am-10 Pm (quick home game) Thursday-16 hrs

6:am-12am Away game- 18 hrs

That Alone is 76 hours Then weekends lets say quick and do 12 hrs total for the weekend that's 88 hours. Its real, Outsiders wont get it. 

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I am at a small 2A. Coach four sports (2 at one time in the fall) Teach 3 grade levels. Senior sponsor. Haven’t coached football in awhile but I literally have coached XC at the same time as football or volleyball for almost my entire career at more than one school. It can be rough but I need to hang in 3 more years till my youngest graduates. I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for the big school guys doing 1 or 2 sports and maybe teaching 1 subject. In the fall my day starts before 6 and I leave school whenever my kid gets out of football so probably 8:00 pm. I encourage people to take it easy and understand that different jobs require different hours/commitments. With that said, you can never convince me that hiring part time contract guys will work here in Texas. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from every other state. 

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12 hours ago, Footballalltheway said:

Sounds like to me many have forgotten that it’s just a silly game.  There is no correlation between playing football (sports in general) and success in life after football.  If coaches love it then it doesn’t feel like a job, if you don’t like the hours then just teach.  If it effects your family life then quit because you never get that family time back.  

Can we change the title of this thread to this statement?

 

This statement may be the number one reason for the coaching shortage.

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I've been on both sides of the "grind"

Working for a school in the metroplex as a JH coach was 6:30 in the morning to 6:00 at night during the week.  Thursdays extend that to 9.  Fridays extend it to when film and laundry was done which could be anywhere from 1 to 3.  Get back up there at 8 for film til 12 and again on sunday from 3 to around 8.  Brutal but learned a lot from a top quality program.

My next job was the same during the week except now varsity level.  Thursdays the same.  Fridays pretty much the same, usually done by 1 at the latest though.  Saturdays 8-4 and sundays were optional which I went anyways because I'm a go getter.  10 to around 5.  Cluster most of the times.

Next job was the easiest I've done.  First period athletics so get there 7:15 and done with the day by 6:30.  Thursday is the same.  Fridays the same but usually got out around 12-1.  Didnt work from the office on Saturday at all but watched film all day and had to be ready for sunday.  Sunday came in after church and got the gameplan going.  Early in the season it would be around 6 when we left, by the end it was closer to 4 since we had a pretty good bead on what we had and wanted to do.  Also had the most success during this job as well.

Current job.  We hit it running at 7 and dont go home til 7 during the week.  Thursdays are much easier, dont have to go to JH athletics so get there around 8 and get done same as all the others.  Fridays same arrival time but tend to get out around 1.  Saturday get there at 9 out by 1.  Sunday get there at 1 leave by 7.  Lots of success here as well.

 

There are many ways to skin a cat.  All require quite a bit of time.  Depends on the staff, kids you got, and who the HC is.  My brother, who also coaches, has been under a coach who required 12 hour days....EVERYDAY!  So when you get into those thursdays and fridays you are looking at 80+ hours.  All for 3 wins a year.  This is more common than you think BUT that line of thinking is starting to fade unless you have HCs that grew up in that system.

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21 hours ago, playactionpass39 said:

I will break it down for you like this.

Monday and Tuesday - 14 hours 

In the locker room at 3:45, on the field at 4, practice starts at 4:15, off the field at 7:15. Locker room empty and all kids left the premises b by 7:45. Put in laundry and watch practice film, flip laundry, discuss personnel and scheme and plan tomorrows practice, out of the field house by 8:45.  Me personally, I go home and take care of what is left to do at home after my wife has taken care of the majority of the household chores. After everyone is in bed, I watch at least another hour of two of film.

Wednesday - 7 hours

In the locker room at 3:45, on the field at 4, practice starts at 4:15, off the field at 6:15. Locker room empty and all kids left the premises b by 6:45. Put in laundry and paint the game field. Watch practice film, flip laundry, discuss personnel and scheme. Out oft he field house at 8:45.  Me personally, I go home and take care of what is left to do at home after my wife has taken care of the majority of the household chores. After everyone is in bed, I watch at least another hour of two of film.

Thursday - Home 5 hours - Road - 6-7

Home game, in the locker room at 3:45 out of the field house after game, locker room supervision, laundry by 8:45. Road game add a minimum of an hour sometimes 2.

Friday -  9 hours - 3:45 - 1 am - after inputting film and data.

Saturday -  8-3 = 7 hours + an  hour or 2 watching film at home

Sunday - 12-6 = 6 hours + an hour or two watching film at home

So an minimum of 50 hours spent outside the regular school day in very normal for me.

Now you can remove an hour or 2 hours a day for some coaches, but you are still talking about an extra 40 hours a week on top of working a 40 hour a week job. Not many individuals going to sign up for that for a $3,000 a year stipend.

 

you can also add 2-3 hours on thursday for coaches at small schools  3 games on thursday night--lucky to get out of fieldhouse by midnight

 

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and when I was AD I was always at field house by 6am for athletes that wanted to lift and watch film prior to school. I realize Hudl has made things much easier for coaches and athletes to get a lot of this work done at home and has made game-planning much easier than doing all the work by hand but it is still hours put in ---just not at the fieldhouse

 

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Just my opinion, but there is a reason Texas has the highest quality of sports as compared to any other state. That reason isn't because we hire "part time" coaches. The quality of the sports we enjoy comes from the caliber of coaches we have here. High school sports stand on the shoulders of men and women who dedicated countless hours beyond asked of them to ensure kids are taken care of. It is very apparent that this is lost on many, who cannot appreciate what it takes to really build kids up to be the best versions of themselves, beyond just athletics.

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3 minutes ago, LOL said:

I'll just say that I'm not a coach, just a lowly admin.

I average between 55-65 hours per week. 

The coaches and trainers work way more than I do. 

when I moved from coaching to principal I was amazed at how much free time I had--- I didn't know that the sun actually could be shining when I went home or that there was such a thing as off days on the weekends. I have actually got to go to birthday parties for my grandkids, class parties, ball games, take them fishing, and see them take their first steps etc...

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27 minutes ago, PeanutKing74 said:

Just my opinion, but there is a reason Texas has the highest quality of sports as compared to any other state. That reason isn't because we hire "part time" coaches. The quality of the sports we enjoy comes from the caliber of coaches we have here. High school sports stand on the shoulders of men and women who dedicated countless hours beyond asked of them to ensure kids are taken care of. It is very apparent that this is lost on many, who cannot appreciate what it takes to really build kids up to be the best versions of themselves, beyond just athletics.

Excellent post........

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1 hour ago, darktower said:

you can also add 2-3 hours on thursday for coaches at small schools  3 games on thursday night--lucky to get out of fieldhouse by midnight

 

Good point, I was working off the notion that Junior High and JV would play at opposite sites, but when you coach them all and they all play at the same site then yes, makes for as long a night as Friday.

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10 hours ago, GoodOleBoy73 said:

I hear ya. Don't forget about the weekend and before school. Some kids can't lift after school because of work so some coaches show up at 6:00 AM to open the weight room for those kids to have an opportunity to get extra work in. I will say...not all coaches do that. But if you care about kids you are going to make it work for them. 

You're trying to make it seem as if we are blowing it out of proportion...I would love to hear your opinion if you were able to shadow a football coach for one week during the season...

It’s being portrayed as all of them do this, which you and I know isn’t the case.  This got started by me throwing out the idea of hiring contract coaches that have day jobs like is done in Georgia.  Each sport has its own HC, I’m sure which help out with other sports.  In this scenario there’s 6-8 coaches on campus during school.  The contract coaches are not that many and come in after school for the current season’s after school practices.  I think some missed that. Some (I assume are coaches) went on the defensive saying it’s no way possible people with other jobs could even come close to doing what the Educator/teacher coaches can/will do.    I also assume they live in bigger cities and don’t understand small town living where some business owners can work flexible hours.  Then they went to spouting off to working 60 hours outside of school hours.  I can agree that lots of young coaches aren’t interested in long hours and low pay, but I really don’t believe that working til midnight is the norm like some are trying to push.  That’s all I’ve tried to say, but it got lost

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2 hours ago, DB2point0 said:

It’s being portrayed as all of them do this, which you and I know isn’t the case.  This got started by me throwing out the idea of hiring contract coaches that have day jobs like is done in Georgia.  Each sport has its own HC, I’m sure which help out with other sports.  In this scenario there’s 6-8 coaches on campus during school.  The contract coaches are not that many and come in after school for the current season’s after school practices.  I think some missed that. Some (I assume are coaches) went on the defensive saying it’s no way possible people with other jobs could even come close to doing what the Educator/teacher coaches can/will do.    I also assume they live in bigger cities and don’t understand small town living where some business owners can work flexible hours.  Then they went to spouting off to working 60 hours outside of school hours.  I can agree that lots of young coaches aren’t interested in long hours and low pay, but I really don’t believe that working til midnight is the norm like some are trying to push.  That’s all I’ve tried to say, but it got lost

1. You said you were "out". Now you are back for more.

2. Your comments have repeatedly revealed your ignorance (not a derogatory attack on you) on coaching and the business world.

3. Working till midnight and excessive hours is very common/norm depending on the sport/season. There is virtually no chance for a life away from the job for an engaged coach (regardless of the official hour count). 

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8 hours ago, 89Falcon said:

1. You said you were "out". Now you are back for more.

2. Your comments have repeatedly revealed your ignorance (not a derogatory attack on you) on coaching and the business world.

3. Working till midnight and excessive hours is very common/norm depending on the sport/season. There is virtually no chance for a life away from the job for an engaged coach (regardless of the official hour count). 

Coach or business owner?  Tell us your area of expertise on the matter then.  also where do you live?  I live in rural East Texas.  I know lots of folks that work for themselves.  They have pretty flexible lives.  They can do lots of stuff.  They set their own schedule and have workers they trust.  My guess is you’ll avoid the answer.  It’s prolly Houston area or DFW where everything is wide open all day every day

 

Working til midnight EVERY night is not the norm for coaches.  That’s how you get to an extra 60 hours a week.  I can see being there til midnight on game days, but not every other one.  
 

 

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13 hours ago, DB2point0 said:

It’s being portrayed as all of them do this, which you and I know isn’t the case.  This got started by me throwing out the idea of hiring contract coaches that have day jobs like is done in Georgia.  Each sport has its own HC, I’m sure which help out with other sports.  In this scenario there’s 6-8 coaches on campus during school.  The contract coaches are not that many and come in after school for the current season’s after school practices.  I think some missed that. Some (I assume are coaches) went on the defensive saying it’s no way possible people with other jobs could even come close to doing what the Educator/teacher coaches can/will do.    I also assume they live in bigger cities and don’t understand small town living where some business owners can work flexible hours.  Then they went to spouting off to working 60 hours outside of school hours.  I can agree that lots of young coaches aren’t interested in long hours and low pay, but I really don’t believe that working til midnight is the norm like some are trying to push.  That’s all I’ve tried to say, but it got lost

I understand what you are saying and honestly think you were just trying to come out with a suggesting of how to help out a problem. In a very around about way what people are trying to say is that in the long run if we go to what a lot of other states are doing, before long athletics will not be coached by professionals as we know it. I realize the Head Coach as you said is a educator and coach but where will the next Head Coaches come from if all the other coaches work in another profession. Sooner or later in years to come after all the Head Coaches that were educators retire there is going to be a problem. You learn how to be a head coach by putting in your time and lots of clinics and education. It may ended up coming to this and if it does we may end up having the same problems every little league system in America has. I am not going to list all of them. 

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2 hours ago, DB2point0 said:

Coach or business owner?  Tell us your area of expertise on the matter then.  also where do you live?  I live in rural East Texas.  I know lots of folks that work for themselves.  They have pretty flexible lives.  They can do lots of stuff.  They set their own schedule and have workers they trust.  My guess is you’ll avoid the answer.  It’s prolly Houston area or DFW where everything is wide open all day every day

 

Working til midnight EVERY night is not the norm for coaches.  That’s how you get to an extra 60 hours a week.  I can see being there til midnight on game days, but not every other one.  
 

 

I have split my career with coaching and management with 2/3 being in management. I have lived all over Texas and currently reside in rural East Texas. I have had carpenters, plumbers, drivers, managers, warehouse workers, plant operators, admin clerks, dock supervisors, maintenance techs, etc work for me for the majority of my adult life. 

Every comment you make reveals more "ignorance". You state that you can see coaches working late on "game days" but "not every one". My question is this:

1. How frequently is "game day" for coaches who "coach 3 sports"?

2. For coaches that coach in a "rural East Texas school" like "where you live", that coach sports in the Spring and share kids with other sports, when do they get to have practice? If a coach coaches baseball, when does he get the kids from track? Is he able to have practice during or after track? If track practice ends at 5:30 when does baseball practice begin/end? What time does the day start with am athletics? When does the coach get to leave when practice is over? When does a day with am athletics and JV and Varsity baseball game/practice end? When is field maintenance done? 

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23 hours ago, Slickarick said:

6:00 am-8pm monday-wednesday - 42 hrs

6:am-10 Pm (quick home game) Thursday-16 hrs

6:am-12am Away game- 18 hrs

That Alone is 76 hours Then weekends lets say quick and do 12 hrs total for the weekend that's 88 hours. Its real, Outsiders wont get it. 

That quick home game may not include the guy staying to do the laundry or wait for parents to come pick their child up after the game...sometimes the wait can be significant.

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18 minutes ago, neveragain said:

That quick home game may not include the guy staying to do the laundry or wait for parents to come pick their child up after the game...sometimes the wait can be significant.

If you had the old school hudl upload Mercury or before after the away game could be up there till 2 or 3 doing intercuts as well.. Freaking scoreboard shots!

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