Recruiting and Retaining Coaches

By Michael Williams, CMAA

Our school systems are constantly recruiting new coaches. While turnover rates for coaches vary from school to school and from system to system, it is not uncommon for a school system to lose 25 percent of its coaches annually. At times, paid coaching positions go unfilled, forcing one coach to directly supervise two teams or forcing the school to drop the sport. As a result, many schools have to increasingly rely on emergency coaches from the community.
 
None of these scenarios benefit students. No student and school community likes to adjust to a new coach year after year. Nor do they like to drop teams and/or programs that engage students and keep them connected to the school. Coaches, at worst, resent coaching double the number of students, become discouraged and soon resign. At best, they are frustrated by the lack of attention they can give each athlete. Imagine doubling the number of students in a typical English or math class. Then imagine teaching many different ability levels at once. This is not an ideal situation for students or teachers-coaches.

The benefits of participation in interscholastic athletics are indisputable. Student-athletes usually earn better grades, attend school and class more consistently, and are more likely to graduate. In addition, athletes are better behaved, and they are more likely to be future leaders in society. In short, athletic programs are charged not with winning contests, but rather with enriching the educational experience of students while in school. The intent is to help students become productive citizens in our communities. Coaches whose primary goal is "winning at all costs" not only impede the development of students as citizens, they often quit coaching, compounding the outcome.

Principals who recognize the value of "in-house" teacher-coaches have the greatest impact on the hiring and retention process. They simplify an athletic administrator's life and ensure that the coaching staff is stable and long-serving. Experienced, trained, education-based coaches become the backbone of a successful athletic program.

Recruiting coaches

Athletic administrators need to educate their high school principals, providing data that encourages them to recruit and hire teachers who are willing to coach or sponsor student activities. In turn, principals should educate superintendents, who are under the gun to hire highly qualified teachers in an era of assessments and "No Child Left Behind," and they sometimes miss the real value of athletics and activities programs. Principals and athletic administrators should be constantly developing strategies, including regular communication with the superintendent who assists them when recruiting coaches.

- When interviewing prospective teachers, ask them if they have an interest in coaching. If they are interested, pursue the conversation. Share your philosophy and the benefits for them and your students.

- Develop master coaches who are willing and able to mentor new and less-experienced coaches. Involve them at some stage in the recruiting process. Head coaches should be encouraged to recruit, supervise and evaluate their assistant coaches within the policies and procedures of the school system.

- Work with the school system to negotiate fair compensation (pay) for coaching. Show the teachers that the system values their time and effort by providing better coaching stipends. Better stipends may attract more candidates from your teaching staffs.

- Attend new teacher orientations. Set up a booth and provide literature about the benefits of coaching. Talk with the new hires as they arrive and depart for their orientation meetings.

- In short, advertise and sell your program.

Retaining Coaches

Veteran coaches give athletic programs leadership, stability and vision. While some turnover on a coaching staff is normal and expected due to retirements, relocations and childbearing, athletes and communities are quickly discouraged by excessive turnover. Your veterans can become recruiters by looking for capable assistants whom they will mentor and ultimately train.
  
- Provide support, mentoring and guidance for new teachers in the classroom. If they are good teachers, it is highly likely they will be good coaches.

- Give professional development opportunities for your coaches by helping defray the cost of attending a clinic or conference. Attending these training sessions provides coaches with the opportunity to incorporate new ideas and best practices while rekindling the passion for their sport.  

- Support your coaches by defining the appropriate lines of communication with parents. Unreasonable and overbearing parents are all too often a major cause of coaching burnout and why coaches leave the profession.

- Back up your coaches by refusing to discuss with parents team selections (cuts), playing time, position(s) played, tactics and strategies. These are coaching decisions. 

- Maintain and upgrade your athletic facilities, equipment and uniforms as often as is practical and financially possible. No coach wants to work in a shabby environment.

- Encourage your coaches to incorporate a philosophy that keeps the game fun and develops solid citizens through sportsmanship. If they take on this philosophy, winning becomes only one outcome in an education-based athletic program. If the students are having fun and learning, the coaches will also be having fun.

Many of us are acutely aware of the increased litigation surrounding and involving interscholastic athletics. Parent management, risk management, Title IX, ADA, event security, employment law, participant safety, sexual harassment and hazing all require coaches to know the current standards of care and to be trained professionals who are recognized as such in courts of law. All too often the compensation we offer is not a professional wage, rather a minimum wage. Nothing, combined with a love of young people and sport, goes further in attracting and retaining acceptable and qualified coaches than fair compensation. All administrators need to fight for a fair wage that compensates coaches for the countless hours they devote to the care of students after school and being away from their families.

Recruiting and retaining coaches is a difficult, ongoing task for most administrators. Through communication, educational efforts and hard work, athletic administrators can enlist the help of principals and superintendents in meeting the challenge of providing qualified coaches for their programs. After all, student-athletes and programs depend on the leadership of highly qualified, educationally based coaches.

Michael L. Williams, CMAA, is coordinator of athletics of the Howard County Public School System in Ellicott City, Maryland.