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Is there a coaching shortage brewing?


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2 hours ago, Woody_Hayes said:

Some things that I think help:

1. The longer you are at a school, the easier it is to fill positions with young guys interested in coaching who played in your system and live in the community. These guys are usually in for the long term. Bonus is they already know and believe in the culture.

2. Don’t micro-manage your coaches. If you give them a job, let them do their thing. 

3. Take responsibility when you screw up, and apologize when you do (this goes a long way with players too)

4. Give credit when and where it’s due. 
 

5. Don’t waste their time. Don’t have meetings when phone calls, texts, emails will do.

6. As a head coach, don’t take your too seriously. You hear horror stories about certain HCs and their egos. I couldn’t coach for someone like that.

7. Take over for some of the crappy tasks that no one wants to do.

Hope this is helpful.

 

A LOT of great material right there.

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49 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:

haha  ok pal 

Not what I was doing, but ok   

 

MOST SPECIFICALLY ^^^^^^^^^

that is what I was responding to.   

Ok. Hamilton Heights DID NOT have any sessions in any sport in June. Unless you're counting ZOOM sessions.

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To add to my list from earlier today....

#4.  Let respected head coaches and/or those in sports that NEED multiple quality coaches to function present quality candidates for hire.  (Administration is fearful to do this because they don't want to be accused of playing favorites, kids and programs suffer when lesser hires are made as a result). 

#5.  Superintendents need to craft a list of "district needs" to hand to their principals before hiring season begins. Coaching positions, club sponsors, band and choir directors, etc.   With instructions that you need to hire people that check off as many of these needs boxes as possible with each hire because they are all value adds to the school district. 

#6.  Make sure people follow through on what they say in their interview.  I've taught with to many people that got hired with the idea they would coach and either never followed through or did so for a year or two and then stepped aside but kept the teaching spot.  Not a lot of other professions would allow someone to misrepresent their intentions in an interview and not have any kind of penalty for that later on.   

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5 hours ago, gonzoron said:

Ok. Hamilton Heights DID NOT have any sessions in any sport in June. Unless you're counting ZOOM sessions.

I guess I assumed that when I was speaking on it, was in a typical year, not a let's hope once in a generation pandemic summer of June July 2020 

 

Carry On 

@Woody_Hayes   SPOT ON   

Love that my experiences in my career have aligned with many of your bullet points, if not all of them.   We have had the same 4 guys for 17 years and a volunteer for 25+ (he was my middle school coach in early mid 90s, and 3 younger guys, 2 former players and 1 former local player who went and played at SJC.     Cannot tell you how important that has been for our program.   

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55 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:

I guess I assumed that when I was speaking on it, was in a typical year, not a let's hope once in a generation pandemic summer of June July 2020 

 

Carry On 

@Woody_Hayes   SPOT ON   

Love that my experiences in my career have aligned with many of your bullet points, if not all of them.   We have had the same 4 guys for 17 years and a volunteer for 25+ (he was my middle school coach in early mid 90s, and 3 younger guys, 2 former players and 1 former local player who went and played at SJC.     Cannot tell you how important that has been for our program.   

We kept up with our youth players who then played high school and then hit them up when they attended college in town ... either at Purdue or Ivy Tech and got them to come back and help out with the youth program.  Some of them came back to the city afterward and stayed on coaching; moving up to the junior high and now a couple help out at the high school level too.

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9 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

I guess I assumed that when I was speaking on it, was in a typical year, not a let's hope once in a generation pandemic summer of June July 2020 

 

Carry On 

@Woody_Hayes   SPOT ON   

Love that my experiences in my career have aligned with many of your bullet points, if not all of them.   We have had the same 4 guys for 17 years and a volunteer for 25+ (he was my middle school coach in early mid 90s, and 3 younger guys, 2 former players and 1 former local player who went and played at SJC.     Cannot tell you how important that has been for our program.   

How many of those guys have a full class load? Subjects taught? 

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HC Chris Meeks:  PE Chair, HS, a couple Freshman PE and couple of APE, and 1 or 2 Health classes now this year 

DC Brian Zacher:  PE teacher Middle school, has been running our middle school off season weight program since we have to have it split with Covid

I am our school's Alternative school director running the computer lab 8 hours a day 5 days a week in a lab at the Elementary school 

Freshman Coach:  Math Teacher HS, was on staff when I played in the Later 90s high school.   

 

1 former player is English 9 teacher and also Head Wrestling coach 

1 former player works in the county surveyor's office, graduated in 04 I believe 

THose are all BOMBER Grad's minus the Math teacher, who MARRIED a Bomber gal MANY MOONS ago.  

The 1 Former local player played at West Central, then SJC and is currently in our HS Math Department 

That leaves the volunteer/paid coach,  ole Chief, he has been around like I said when he was my middle school coach, he volunteer this past year, but was Paid staff many times over, he was our town's Cheif of Police for a very long time, retired and is now in the private sector working .    Retired Naval Master Cheif as well along with his chief of Police duties in his life.   

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2 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

HC Chris Meeks:  PE Chair, HS, a couple Freshman PE and couple of APE, and 1 or 2 Health classes now this year 

DC Brian Zacher:  PE teacher Middle school, has been running our middle school off season weight program since we have to have it split with Covid

I am our school's Alternative school director running the computer lab 8 hours a day 5 days a week in a lab at the Elementary school 

Freshman Coach:  Math Teacher HS, was on staff when I played in the Later 90s high school.   

 

1 former player is English 9 teacher and also Head Wrestling coach 

1 former player works in the county surveyor's office, graduated in 04 I believe 

THose are all BOMBER Grad's minus the Math teacher, who MARRIED a Bomber gal MANY MOONS ago.  

The 1 Former local player played at West Central, then SJC and is currently in our HS Math Department 

That leaves the volunteer/paid coach,  ole Chief, he has been around like I said when he was my middle school coach, he volunteer this past year, but was Paid staff many times over, he was our town's Cheif of Police for a very long time, retired and is now in the private sector working .    Retired Naval Master Cheif as well along with his chief of Police duties in his life.   

Old Chief sounds a square guy, too bad other communities don't have more Chiefs on their staffs.

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2 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

HC Chris Meeks:  PE Chair, HS, a couple Freshman PE and couple of APE, and 1 or 2 Health classes now this year 

DC Brian Zacher:  PE teacher Middle school, has been running our middle school off season weight program since we have to have it split with Covid

I am our school's Alternative school director running the computer lab 8 hours a day 5 days a week in a lab at the Elementary school 

Freshman Coach:  Math Teacher HS, was on staff when I played in the Later 90s high school.   

 

1 former player is English 9 teacher and also Head Wrestling coach 

1 former player works in the county surveyor's office, graduated in 04 I believe 

THose are all BOMBER Grad's minus the Math teacher, who MARRIED a Bomber gal MANY MOONS ago.  

The 1 Former local player played at West Central, then SJC and is currently in our HS Math Department 

That leaves the volunteer/paid coach,  ole Chief, he has been around like I said when he was my middle school coach, he volunteer this past year, but was Paid staff many times over, he was our town's Cheif of Police for a very long time, retired and is now in the private sector working .    Retired Naval Master Cheif as well along with his chief of Police duties in his life.   

Good deal. Thanks for the info. 

Looks/sounds like a pretty good set-up for you all. As I have been saying throughout this thread (and some others) - it is becoming increasing difficult to be in a "major role" on staff (HC, OC, DC) and also try and balance the demands of a CORE subject in school. (Not knocking PE, I know it has its own challenges, but you know what I mean) 

- The demands and hours it takes to be successful (breaking down film, practice schedule, etc...) plus what is being asked in the classroom - I'm not sure how much longer I'll make it to be honest. 

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In truth I think a factor of lack of coach’s is more factor teams have more coaches then a lack of people wanting to coach.  When I was in high school the freshmen team had 3 coach’s maybe 4 now I seen 6 to 7 just for the freshman, and for varsity and JV I will CG for any example because it where I went and I know how many I had when I played 25 years ago  we had 6 to 8 coach’s total it depended on the year and now  you might find that many coach’s just on one side of the ball.  I truly believe their people out their the want to coach and are teachers,

If add up all the sports in the fall and band, with other clubs and extracurricular activities you are to find they theirs is a lot teachers coaching just not in football then add the Winter sports coach’s  that are working on stuff for thier teams that is a good chuck of teachers coaching or doing other activities in the school.  
 

football 20

Vollyball 4

cross country  4 

soccer 8

golf 2 

tennins 3

band  4

That is a lot of positions to fill,  I also think a factor is coach only coach 1 sports now where years ago the head football would also be the head wrestling coach and head track coach.  With sports become more year round coach’s are also becoming more specialist in one sport

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32 minutes ago, Trojanmp52 said:

In truth I think a factor of lack of coach’s is more factor teams have more coaches then a lack of people wanting to coach.  When I was in high school the freshmen team had 3 coach’s maybe 4 now I seen 6 to 7 just for the freshman, and for varsity and JV I will CG for any example because it where I went and I know how many I had when I played 25 years ago  we had 6 to 8 coach’s total it depended on the year and now  you might find that many coach’s just on one side of the ball.  I truly believe their people out their the want to coach and are teachers,

If add up all the sports in the fall and band, with other clubs and extracurricular activities you are to find they theirs is a lot teachers coaching just not in football then add the Winter sports coach’s  that are working on stuff for thier teams that is a good chuck of teachers coaching or doing other activities in the school.  
 

football 20

Vollyball 4

cross country  4 

soccer 8

golf 2 

tennins 3

band  4

That is a lot of positions to fill,  I also think a factor is coach only coach 1 sports now where years ago the head football would also be the head wrestling coach and head track coach.  With sports become more year round coach’s are also becoming more specialist in one sport

Great points

I think during their heyday from 2004 to 2010 Warren Central had 20 coaches on the varsity staff alone.

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10 hours ago, Trojanmp52 said:

In truth I think a factor of lack of coach’s is more factor teams have more coaches then a lack of people wanting to coach.  When I was in high school the freshmen team had 3 coach’s maybe 4 now I seen 6 to 7 just for the freshman, and for varsity and JV

Heh heh,  back in the early 1980's the freshman football team I was on had ONE coach, although sometimes an assistant coach from the JV/Varsity squad would wander over and help a little bit during practices.    And this coach drove the school bus to away games.

 

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1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

Heh heh,  back in the early 1980's the freshman football team I was on had ONE coach, although sometimes an assistant coach from the JV/Varsity squad would wander over and help a little bit during practices.    And this coach drove the school bus to away games.

 

I went to Lake Central from 1992-1996.

Freshman had 4 coaches (2 O/2 D).  The varsity had 6, with 2 of those 6 having JV duties.

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I teach and coach of at a HS of 750.  4 JV/FR coaches (they handle both responsibilities) and 4 Varsity Coaches.  Staff has 4 "offensive coaches" and 4 "defensive coaches"  and the coaches travel between the levels at practice depending what side of the ball that level is currently on. 

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2 hours ago, Wedgebuster said:

I teach and coach of at a HS of 750.  4 JV/FR coaches (they handle both responsibilities) and 4 Varsity Coaches.  Staff has 4 "offensive coaches" and 4 "defensive coaches"  and the coaches travel between the levels at practice depending what side of the ball that level is currently on. 

So 8 total coaches at a HS practice. What are their positions/class loads within the school system?? Especially the "major" coaching roles (HC, OC, and DC?) 

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HC - Administration (full time)

Asst. HC - Physical Education (full time)

OC/JV  - English . (full time)

DC - Volunteer

Special Teams - Volunteer

Receivers Position Coach/JV - Volunteer

Secondary Position Coach - Volunteer

Linebackers Position Coach - Volunteer

OL Position Coach - Volunteer

DL Position Coach - Volunteer

Kickers/Deep Snappers Position Coach - Volunteer

Middle School HC - History (full time) .  (no MS Season ... assisted where needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Goose Liver said:

HC - Administration (full time)

Asst. HC - Physical Education (full time)

OC/JV  - English . (full time)

DC - Volunteer

Special Teams - Volunteer

Receivers Position Coach/JV - Volunteer

Secondary Position Coach - Volunteer

Linebackers Position Coach - Volunteer

OL Position Coach - Volunteer

DL Position Coach - Volunteer

Kickers/Deep Snappers Position Coach - Volunteer

Middle School HC - History (full time) .  (no MS Season ... assisted where needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That coach right there sounds like a guy/gal every program needs.  

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17 hours ago, jets said:

So 8 total coaches at a HS practice. What are their positions/class loads within the school system?? Especially the "major" coaching roles (HC, OC, and DC?) 

 HC/OC is PE Teacher, DC is Special Education, One Business Teacher , One English Teacher, One Alternative School Teacher, One Police Officer, 2 local business owners. 

The issue will be that our staff is aging and finding replacements for some of these guys as they retire is going to be really difficult. Our MS staff is all Non-Teachers, where maybe 20 years ago those were young teachers waiting in the wings to move up to the HS level, that is no longer the case. 

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This is a fascinating topic!

I absolutely believe there is a shortage of coaches out there. I have been coaching for 10 years. When I started, I had no kids just a girlfriend. I went from jv/varsity football straight into junior high basketball and back to varsity track. Now, I have a wife and 2 kids and only coach football. 
The number of guys you see come and go is crazy. From the first staff (8 total coaches) I ever worked on only 1 of those guys is still coaching. None of which retired from teaching yet.

My personal experience with schools hiring practices is mixed. When I was a tiny Jr./Sr. High they only cared about hiring a teacher not a coach. Now I’m at a slightly bigger school and hiring head coaches is important for the school.

I remember being interviewed at numerous schools in central and northern Indiana for coaching and/or teaching positions and the administration was concerned because I am from southern Indiana and went to college in southern Indiana so would I stay long term. Those schools went in other directions and many of them have hired the same position numerous times including one school which is on its 3rd head coach since I interviewed only a few years back.

Then of course there is the financial situation many young people run into. The assistant coaches don’t get paid enough.  The time commitment can be daunting for some people, especially with young families. And one of the biggest factors is the parents. Some parents are crazy!

There are so many factors. These are just the few I think are the biggest.

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same here, first 7 years of my career, was 3 sports a year coach, then child came, and did 2 for 2 more years, before dropping to just football, last several years, now that kid is in middle school, I have added another sport back in.   Timing is important with many coaches to try to find those balances 

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While jogging this morning I thought about another factor...

Many young guys think they know it all, and don’t want to or are unwilling to learn how to coach and adapt to their players. I remember designing a play and the OC said this won’t work, and explained coverages to me. Being a former lineman understood blocking concepts but had little understanding of coverages. Greatest coaching conversation I had.

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48 minutes ago, Coach_K said:

While jogging this morning I thought about another factor...

Many young guys think they know it all, and don’t want to or are unwilling to learn how to coach and adapt to their players. I remember designing a play and the OC said this won’t work, and explained coverages to me. Being a former lineman understood blocking concepts but had little understanding of coverages. Greatest coaching conversation I had.

Excellent observation.

Being told no and having things explained is great experience that many have not had to endure.

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