A short article by Kyle Brennan, Waterbury (CT) Republican-American. Being from CT, the focus is on high schools in CT, but the author mentions the same issue exists across the country: High school football coaches are too often in the hot seat, for numerous reasons.
He ends the article with the following sentiment, which I wholeheartedly agree with (italics added): Stop taking these coaches for granted. Do they make mistakes? Of course. Stop thinking this is the NFL. Start realizing that they sacrifice as much as anyone in any profession for the betterment of your kids and your community. God bless these guys.
I don’t know what keeps high school football coaches coming back for more, but God bless them.
There are plenty of coaches who would agree that there’s never been a worse time to be a high school football head coach than right now. It’s a never-ending, no-win profession made impossible by know-it-all parents, unrealistic expectations and suffocating rules. It’s all taking its toll on the men in charge of Connecticut’s 143 high school football programs. So far this off season, 21 head coaches have lost or given up their jobs. There were 17 casualties in 2016, 29 in 2015 and 18 in 2014. That’s a total of 85 coaching turnovers in 143 programs over the last four off seasons. In the Naugatuck Valley League, only eight of the 16 coaches have held their jobs for five seasons. Pending the resolution of Joe Stochmal’s fight to keep his job at Oxford, that number could drop to seven. The alarming turnover isn’t isolated to this state. According to a USA Today report before last season, there were 116 coaching changes among the 601 schools in Southern California last offseason (19 percent) and 129 coaching changes among the 560 jobs in Florida last year (23 percent). Some coaches continue to stick it out, valuing the traditions of their alma maters or their love for the sport above all the challenges. But it’s never been harder to keep a head coaching job in this sport, especially in this state. A parent complains to administration? You can guess whose side the brass usually takes. The coffee shop crew thinks its team should be better? Cue the movement to push out the coach. Another injury study comes out? Lighten up those practices even more. And yet there’s still a group of guys still dedicated enough to their sport and their passion for molding young men that they grin and bear it all. Stop taking these coaches for granted. Do they make mistakes? Of course. Stop thinking this is the NFL. Start realizing that they sacrifice as much as anyone in any profession for the betterment of your kids and your community.
God bless these guys.
He ends the article with the following sentiment, which I wholeheartedly agree with (italics added): Stop taking these coaches for granted. Do they make mistakes? Of course. Stop thinking this is the NFL. Start realizing that they sacrifice as much as anyone in any profession for the betterment of your kids and your community. God bless these guys.
I don’t know what keeps high school football coaches coming back for more, but God bless them.
There are plenty of coaches who would agree that there’s never been a worse time to be a high school football head coach than right now. It’s a never-ending, no-win profession made impossible by know-it-all parents, unrealistic expectations and suffocating rules. It’s all taking its toll on the men in charge of Connecticut’s 143 high school football programs. So far this off season, 21 head coaches have lost or given up their jobs. There were 17 casualties in 2016, 29 in 2015 and 18 in 2014. That’s a total of 85 coaching turnovers in 143 programs over the last four off seasons. In the Naugatuck Valley League, only eight of the 16 coaches have held their jobs for five seasons. Pending the resolution of Joe Stochmal’s fight to keep his job at Oxford, that number could drop to seven. The alarming turnover isn’t isolated to this state. According to a USA Today report before last season, there were 116 coaching changes among the 601 schools in Southern California last offseason (19 percent) and 129 coaching changes among the 560 jobs in Florida last year (23 percent). Some coaches continue to stick it out, valuing the traditions of their alma maters or their love for the sport above all the challenges. But it’s never been harder to keep a head coaching job in this sport, especially in this state. A parent complains to administration? You can guess whose side the brass usually takes. The coffee shop crew thinks its team should be better? Cue the movement to push out the coach. Another injury study comes out? Lighten up those practices even more. And yet there’s still a group of guys still dedicated enough to their sport and their passion for molding young men that they grin and bear it all. Stop taking these coaches for granted. Do they make mistakes? Of course. Stop thinking this is the NFL. Start realizing that they sacrifice as much as anyone in any profession for the betterment of your kids and your community.
God bless these guys.
