Head Coach Openings

C

cjb5656

Well-known member
It’s disheartening to see so many open head coaching positions…many at very good places…this year and in years in the recent past.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, high school football has been blown way out of proportion. The time and financial demands of high school football on coaches and players is ridiculous. It’s become a year round commitment, a way of life, that’s akin to college or professional football.

It’s very rare to see a head coach stay at a program for more than a few years for many reasons, but a big one is the crazy time commitment. It’s simply not feasible for many of these coaches to maintain a proper work/life balance, especially those with families. I’m seeing too many of these coaches in failed marriages and I can only hope they don’t have strained relations with their own kids due to the extraordinary demands of high school football these days.

I don’t know that the genie can be put back into the bottle, but I would like to see high school sports, especially football, scaled back to when they used to be activities and not lifestyles.
 
 
I did see a cool post from someone who won 4 national championships at Mount Union. At this point they had no spring ball. Everyone showed up from all over the country August 1st and they were ready physically and mentally to go win a National Championship. They didn’t have endless summer team activities.
 
cjb5656 said:
It’s disheartening to see so many open head coaching positions…many at very good places…this year and in years in the recent past.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, high school football has been blown way out of proportion. The time and financial demands of high school football on coaches and players is ridiculous. It’s become a year round commitment, a way of life, that’s akin to college or professional football.

It’s very rare to see a head coach stay at a program for more than a few years for many reasons, but a big one is the crazy time commitment. It’s simply not feasible for many of these coaches to maintain a proper work/life balance, especially those with families. I’m seeing too many of these coaches in failed marriages and I can only hope they don’t have strained relations with their own kids due to the extraordinary demands of high school football these days.

I don’t know that the genie can be put back into the bottle, but I would like to see high school sports, especially football, scaled back to when they used to be activities and not lifestyles.
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this could be easily fixed by the state and the coaches association. All thats needed is rules restricting these so called needed commitments would be eliminated and the game back to the appropriate amount of time like in the 90's.
 
lightspeed84 said:
this could be easily fixed by the state and the coaches association. All thats needed is rules restricting these so called needed commitments would be eliminated and the game back to the appropriate amount of time like in the 90's.
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Do we also get to limit AAU basketball, JO volleyball, travel soccer, fall baseball, indoor track? Or is it just big bad football that is evil?
 
dograt said:
Do we also get to limit AAU basketball, JO volleyball, travel soccer, fall baseball, indoor track? Or is it just big bad football that is evil?
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Those are not state or high school sponsored sports, once football becomes privatized or club, then we will talk. Again high school sports are supposed to enhance a student's learning and high school experience, not dominate it, some people still treat it as this.
 
lightspeed84 said:
Those are not state or high school sponsored sports, once football becomes privatized or club, then we will talk. Again high school sports are supposed to enhance a student's learning and high school experience, not dominate it, some people still treat it as this.
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Don't kid yourself. those sports affect other sports.
 
HSFB said:
Don't kid yourself. those sports affect other sports.
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I would make the argument that club sports have led to the decline in participation, what makes football unique is there is no club. I would also make the argument that competitive high school football head coaches probably put in twice as much time in preparation alone than any of the club sports.
 
Crazy part is the college coaches are still pushing for Ohio to have spring football so they can better evaluate players. So they will be passing a ruling on aau style 7 on 7 like other state where kids can go compete in other states
 
Coaches, in general, have a passion for football. Some eat, drink, and sleep football. That's where the problem is. The majority of kids don't. And the very few eventually, get into coaching in the future. Coaches...cut the time on the field(you don't need it) and make it fun for the kids to play. So my point is that coaches are "burning themselves out" is self inflicted.
 
lightspeed84 said:
Those are not state or high school sponsored sports, once football becomes privatized or club, then we will talk. Again high school sports are supposed to enhance a student's learning and high school experience, not dominate it, some people still treat it as this.
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Football getting privatized like other sports is happening at the youth level. You now have ridiculous weekend tournaments where teams can play over 6 games in a weekend! You have travel football teams and select football teams. It's starting to look an awful like basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. All the select teams have completed ruined youth sports. It is impossible to find true "rec" leagues any more for my boys who just want to play (they aren't select level talented, but aren't terrible either). They just enjoy playing different sports which is great. But every year there's clearly a select team playing in the rec league and they run up the score on everyone. Or you are told it's a rec team but first day of baseball practice you have 10 year olds hitting dingers left and right and throwing curve balls and crazy heat for their age..... Not what we signed up for.

Seriously lookup "Battle in Rocky Top"..... "National Championship weekend tournament in Knoxville, TN. It's so irresponsible it should be considered abuse to have football players playing that many games in a weekend.
 
scoop32 said:
Crazy part is the college coaches are still pushing for Ohio to have spring football so they can better evaluate players. So they will be passing a ruling on aau style 7 on 7 like other state where kids can go compete in other states
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Which is stupid that it's even being considered in Ohio. What an easy way to kill spring sports.
 
I went to rocky top and won it you have to know what your doing to be in that tournament. You can’t go there with 13 kids or 20 which in Ohio I have learned parents want small teams so there kids really don’t have to compete for play time. In Florida we keep 30 to 45 kids on a team. I went to rocky top with 40 kids and 2 nurses. I sat kids because they kids was unfit to play needed a break or whatever. I think the real issue is everyone wants a trophy but don’t want to compete. Compete for time come with there buddies love to compete. And no I didn’t go with a all star team I went with my team I had that whole season
 
scoop32 said:
I went to rocky top and won it you have to know what your doing to be in that tournament. You can’t go there with 13 kids or 20 which in Ohio I have learned parents want small teams so there kids really don’t have to compete for play time. In Florida we keep 30 to 45 kids on a team. I went to rocky top with 40 kids and 2 nurses. I sat kids because they kids was unfit to play needed a break or whatever. I think the real issue is everyone wants a trophy but don’t want to compete. Compete for time come with there buddies love to compete. And no I didn’t go with a all star team I went with my team I had that whole season
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This maybe one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of, you are part of the problem my friend. This is coming from someone who played d1 ball and a nfl bubble guy, your killing my sport
 
if boys love to compete we will compete for a weekend. My team only did 1 tournament we are not doing this every weekend. Get where you are coming from there.
 
But here’s the thing college coaches push the narrative for high school is being a year round coach is just what it’s going to be.
 
lightspeed84 said:
This maybe one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of, you are part of the problem my friend. This is coming from someone who played d1 ball and a nfl bubble guy, your killing my sport
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Agreed. It's criminal to have kids play that many games in that short of a time period. Even if you sit kids, you are still playing kids back to back days which is flat out wrong. There's a reason high school, college and NFL don't do anything close to that.... It's dangerous.
 
cjb5656 said:
It’s disheartening to see so many open head coaching positions…many at very good places…this year and in years in the recent past.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, high school football has been blown way out of proportion. The time and financial demands of high school football on coaches and players is ridiculous. It’s become a year round commitment, a way of life, that’s akin to college or professional football.

It’s very rare to see a head coach stay at a program for more than a few years for many reasons, but a big one is the crazy time commitment. It’s simply not feasible for many of these coaches to maintain a proper work/life balance, especially those with families. I’m seeing too many of these coaches in failed marriages and I can only hope they don’t have strained relations with their own kids due to the extraordinary demands of high school football these days.

I don’t know that the genie can be put back into the bottle, but I would like to see high school sports, especially football, scaled back to when they used to be activities and not lifestyles.
Click to expand...

As a current assistant, there is a lot of accuracy to your original post. The best staffs I've worked for are the ones that are the most organized. Game 2 breakdowns being done the week of Game 1 so you can hit the ground running on Saturday morning, showing only 40 plays of a game on Saturday instead of 3 hours of drilling the kids with every play, virtual staff meetings on Sunday morning or late Sunday evening, a lifting plan or practice plan that executes drills and logistics perfectly, etc. So it can be done, but maximizing efficiency is key for me as an assistant (coordinator).

I've been on staffs where we meet Sundays and get 25 minutes worth of work done in 3 hours. It's nauseating. I've been on staffs that go 5x a week all summer, and I've been on staffs that go 4x a week and never on a Friday all summer due to execution of a plan.

The other factor people have to think about is strength training. You need someone on staff that is going to do that.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is: I love coaching ball, but I only love it when we are maximizing our time spent. I can't come off the practice field and talk 3x a week Johny's attendance, Jimmy's attitude, and Frank's amazing hands for 30 minutes. Head coach has a plan. Coordinators coordinate and script the plan, and boom we are moving. Also I've won 2-3 games and won regional titles as an assistant so I guess you could assume which is which!

As for head coaches, I think they love coaching ball, calling plays, and building a program. What's better than every summer when all teams are 0-0 hoping for a big year? I don't think they care for the side of parents and administrations. Seems like those two things always wear a head ball coach down quicker than anything.
 
cjb5656 said:
It’s disheartening to see so many open head coaching positions…many at very good places…this year and in years in the recent past.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, high school football has been blown way out of proportion. The time and financial demands of high school football on coaches and players is ridiculous. It’s become a year round commitment, a way of life, that’s akin to college or professional football.

It’s very rare to see a head coach stay at a program for more than a few years for many reasons, but a big one is the crazy time commitment. It’s simply not feasible for many of these coaches to maintain a proper work/life balance, especially those with families. I’m seeing too many of these coaches in failed marriages and I can only hope they don’t have strained relations with their own kids due to the extraordinary demands of high school football these days.

I don’t know that the genie can be put back into the bottle, but I would like to see high school sports, especially football, scaled back to when they used to be activities and not lifestyles.
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Had a principal tell me one time "when coaching begins to push family out of the way, you need to push coaching out of the way". I think the pandemic has allowed some of this recently with coaches being able to pause somewhat, evaluate what they're doing, where their life is headed, and make a smart decision to hang up the whistle in exchange for better quality of life. It did for me at least.

I hung up my wrestling whistle after 17 seasons after the 2020-21 season. Not having a tournament every weekend and being able to do things in December and January I hadn't normally been able to do for almost two decades really put my life in perspective. Do I miss the sport? yes. Do I LOVE waking up on a Saturday in December and January whenever I want to and not spend the entire Saturday inside a gym somewhere, ABSOLUTELY lol.

I had a teaching / coaching friend (XC coach) years ago tell me "I can make twice as much working part time at Lowes in two months than I can in an entire four month cross country season, PLUS not have to deal with parents, practice planning, meet hosting, off season training, etc....".
 
You will keep seeing this trend until either Football and other sports are not coaches by educators or there will need to be a major increase in coaching stipends. I’m talking districts need to pay assistants closer to $10K and HCs $15-20k at least for the amount of work put into coaching nowadays.

Many young coaches in their 30s are leaving or taking reduced roles As coaches don’t get paid a lot. How can you justify yo your wife/ partner/ etc. the time spent away from home, especially if you have kids, for less than $10K? It doesn’t bump up STRS THAT MUCH to make coaching worth it, unless you’re in a few rare spots in the state - I mean would you want to coach at Lincoln West for less than $10K with no home stadium and practicing in the parking lot because you don’t even have a practice field? Or be at Chalker or Fairport Harbor all off season only to get the season canceled due to low numbers and get a pro rated check?

compensation will need to be drastically increased or more and more coaches will quit or move south and west.
 
Coaching is not just a fun hobby nor is playing the sport. Sure stipends could use an adjustment however everyone that has coached (any sport) knew what they were going to be paid before accepting the job. To be successful you have to "put in what you want out of it" not just show up in July.
If you want to talk about recent decline in the sport then talk about all the outside distractions. Covid is one reason, it has made a lot lazy. Then you have other sports that are not as hard. Jobs, girlfriends, and parents. Expectations will never go away, commitments will not shrink, and winning will be priority. Extracurricular is that, extra. Since when does playing a sport become a right and easy, when did coaching become a reason to get paid? If you coach and it's for the right reasons, it's not to be paid or the recognition.
 
lightspeed84 said:
Wonder why participation in sports is declining, kids don't want to commit that much time to it, to many its just a fun hobby
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The amount of time that a high school kid has to commit to be a starter on a good team in any sport today takes 2x the time commitment it did 30 years ago. At some point there has to be a shift back in the other direction of less off-season work and more cooperation between school sports to keep kids coming out.
 
The OHSAA needs to accept some responsibility for this. The thought process of an unlimited summer in 2020 due to the COVID lockdown was understandable. However, that should have been a one time thing and not been continued in the summer of 2021. Unfortunately, coaches must "Keep up with the Jones'" so if school A in your conference does something, school B feels like it must to keep up and a vicious cycle emerges. Until they cut back to 10 days like it used to be, things will continue to get out of control.
 
305NoTomato said:
As a current assistant, there is a lot of accuracy to your original post. The best staffs I've worked for are the ones that are the most organized. Game 2 breakdowns being done the week of Game 1 so you can hit the ground running on Saturday morning, showing only 40 plays of a game on Saturday instead of 3 hours of drilling the kids with every play, virtual staff meetings on Sunday morning or late Sunday evening, a lifting plan or practice plan that executes drills and logistics perfectly, etc. So it can be done, but maximizing efficiency is key for me as an assistant (coordinator).

I've been on staffs where we meet Sundays and get 25 minutes worth of work done in 3 hours. It's nauseating. I've been on staffs that go 5x a week all summer, and I've been on staffs that go 4x a week and never on a Friday all summer due to execution of a plan.

The other factor people have to think about is strength training. You need someone on staff that is going to do that.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is: I love coaching ball, but I only love it when we are maximizing our time spent. I can't come off the practice field and talk 3x a week Johny's attendance, Jimmy's attitude, and Frank's amazing hands for 30 minutes. Head coach has a plan. Coordinators coordinate and script the plan, and boom we are moving. Also I've won 2-3 games and won regional titles as an assistant so I guess you could assume which is which!

As for head coaches, I think they love coaching ball, calling plays, and building a program. What's better than every summer when all teams are 0-0 hoping for a big year? I don't think they care for the side of parents and administrations. Seems like those two things always wear a head ball coach down quicker than anything.
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I have been on several different staff's as well with varying amounts of organization as you stated, one thing I had not mentioned that you hit on is this the growing trend of coaches being more committed than the players especially at small schools (never seen it before until recent). Your 1st example where staff's are organized this typically occurs at places that have long standing tradition or staffs that have been together for a long time. Some places (including nice high schools) now have mix match/revolving door of assitant coaches. It is hard to stay this organized year to year when different assistants are joining and quitting each year. The 40 play idea on Saturday morning requires a staff to break down the film either after the game Friday night which takes hours, or really really early morning on Saturday. We would usually get through a film with the kids on Sat. morning in about an hour.
 
cincifbfan said:
Football getting privatized like other sports is happening at the youth level. You now have ridiculous weekend tournaments where teams can play over 6 games in a weekend! You have travel football teams and select football teams. It's starting to look an awful like basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. All the select teams have completed ruined youth sports. It is impossible to find true "rec" leagues any more for my boys who just want to play (they aren't select level talented, but aren't terrible either). They just enjoy playing different sports which is great. But every year there's clearly a select team playing in the rec league and they run up the score on everyone. Or you are told it's a rec team but first day of baseball practice you have 10 year olds hitting dingers left and right and throwing curve balls and crazy heat for their age..... Not what we signed up for.

Seriously lookup "Battle in Rocky Top"..... "National Championship weekend tournament in Knoxville, TN. It's so irresponsible it should be considered abuse to have football players playing that many games in a weekend.
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there is a youth tournament for Ohio teams similar in Sandusky put on the OAC youth sports group. Just a money maker for them. But kids could play 2 games in a day with only an hour and a half break. These types of things are what is going to kill the sport because these are 6th grade and younger kids playing full contact football games, sometimes 2-3 a day
 
jonmoxon said:
Which is stupid that it's even being considered in Ohio. What an easy way to kill spring sports.
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Urban and Day both have pushed this. I have heard its now whittled down to like a 10 day window at the end of May if it were to happen
 
ChuckyouFarley said:
I hate to read this but you are probably correct
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I would agree and this is something I have heard discussed. Football isn't instant gratification, you work all year for a guaranteed 10 games. Kids prefer travel sports where they just play and typically don't practice much, and then go into their HS sport they played travel for and get to play a ton of games once the season gets rolling. Not a knock on other sports, its just kind of where society is moving.

Also, I have seen more and more kids who have to work to provide for themselves and even more now than ever, help provide at home. Then, many places they work cannot or will not work around their sports schedule and they must choose. There are so many variables to this its hard to wrap your head around sometimes.

However, I honestly feel that sports are just not as popular in our society as they used to be. There is so many more things vying for people's attention and I believe our younger generations are just not as interested in sports. Combine all this, and you see less participation in sports, along with the loss of local rec centers and local rec sports leagues hurts to.
 
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