Do american highschools have dedicated football coaches?
Posted by xerocist@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 461 comments
In TV shows the sports teams in american highschools seem to have coaches who are paid solely to coach the teams. In my country it's usually just a teacher doing it on a volunteer basis. Are these shows realistic?
RoutineCranberry3622@reddit
My school didn’t have football actually. Starting to realize that wasn’t common.
Shotgun_Rynoplasty@reddit
My dad was a high school coach. He was also a PE teacher.
Clean_Factor9673@reddit
Football coaches are usually teachers and teach as well as coach. Assistant coaches may be paid or community volunteers
gsp1991dog@reddit
Yes we have dedicated coaches for each sport that our schools take part in these coaches often have other teaching duties but at least in my part of Texas they are coaches first and foremost and teachers a distant second.
dendritedysfunctions@reddit
It depends on the coach at my HS. Most of the coaches at my HS were also teachers. My soccer coach was an algebra teacher, my football coach was the main gym teacher, and the swimming coach taught humanities. Etc. there were some schools in my division that hired coaches specifically to coach but they were the schools in extremely wealthy districts.
DaSupremeRuler@reddit
I had a dedicated wrestling coach and an assistant wrestling coach (not teachers) but our football coach was indeed a teacher
Adnan7631@reddit
To my knowledge, the high school coaches are usually teachers. They certainly were at my school.
kaimcdragonfist@reddit
Ours were a mix of teachers and people hired from the community. Or they may have been volunteers, I’m not sure
anony-mousey2020@reddit
It depends on your location - this is not universal in the US.
saggywitchtits@reddit
There was one that wasn't, but he was a volunteer coach. To be paid you had to be a teacher.
magheetah@reddit
However our coach was hired as a coach and taught as a part of it.
Ironically he was the best teacher at our achool
LukasJackson67@reddit
Why “ironically?”
magheetah@reddit
Football jocks aren’t usually seen as the sharpest tool in the shed…
Murky-Swordfish-1771@reddit
That is VERY rare that they are good.
magheetah@reddit
He was a good coach too. Pretty sure the school paid the guy well.
But he was the history teacher. His exams were hard as hell. Never knew I was never taught how to study until I had him because I always coasted through high school without studying.
Then in college my freshman year, I took history and I’m not kidding when I say that the exam was the exact same format he gave us in high school. I did so well, I tutored a girl who ended up becoming my wife.
LukasJackson67@reddit
I disagree.
I have taught (and coached) at three different high schools.
Oftentimes the coaches are great teachers.
However, like any profession, you will find bad ones.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of one head coach I met who was a bad teacher.
tyoma@reddit
We had this as well. The football coach my school hired (after a long search) ended up being a terrible coach — leading the team to their worst record ever. He was, however, a wonderful English teacher with a passion for British literature.
PassStunning416@reddit
To blitz or not to blitz. That is the question.
bobi2393@reddit
At least he probably gave good pre-game soliloquys.
DeaconFrostedFlakes@reddit
To punt, or not to punt, that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous refereeing, or to take up arms against a sea of linebackers, and by opposing, hold them.
RedRatedRat@reddit
Punt, Bama, Punt! Kick, Saban, Kick!
coxasaurus@reddit
LukasJackson67@reddit
lol. Well played!
Mr_Boneman@reddit
“Shakespeare on 3”
Cocacola_Desierto@reddit
All the coaches were the best teachers at school. It's no surprise either.
PresidentBaileyb@reddit
Our’s was hired as a coach, taught health, and was awful at both.
The man used the wrong version of for. Like he spelled it four sometimes when he wasn’t talking about the number. He also always hyphenated tri-angle. Always. One of the dumbest people I’ve ever met.
LukasJackson67@reddit
And probably a bad coach too.
H_E_Pennypacker@reddit
He tried to run the triangle offense in football so yeah
Havok1717@reddit
The football coach from my school was also a history teacher and also the wrestling coach.
rimshot101@reddit
The guy who coached our baseball team was the worst teacher and could barely read.
nasadowsk@reddit
Ours was coach, and dean of students. And also dumb as a brick, and a drunk.
hobozombie@reddit
Same. Freshman science class was the JV football coach. He was a bit dumb (before class began, he would ask me questions like "I forgot, a kilometer is longer than a mile, right?" but he was super nice and went out of his way to learn about us students and encouraged us to socialize with groups we ordinarily wouldn't.
However, if you were on the football team and misbehaved, he would assign you swats and laps for afternoon practice.
n00bca1e99@reddit
My high school’s offensive coach taught health. One of my favorite moments was him pulling out a condom and putting it up to his elbow while yelling “you think you guys are too big for one no you fucking aren’t!”
He died a few years ago from stomach cancer. I still miss him even though I’ve never played football.
Complete-Finding-712@reddit
My female gym/health teacher, a British expat, approaching retirement, put one over her head.
If ya don't fit it, we don't want it, boys...
Diflicated@reddit
My health teacher put on my sweatshirt and slowly slid the hood back, exposing his bald head and demonstrating how the clitoral hood worked. A very comprehensive lesson indeed.
notyogrannysgrandkid@reddit
Our 3x state championship winning football coach was also a state teacher of the year honoree in Biology. He was really good.
Own-Ad-7127@reddit
Yeah, at my school you had to teach in order to coach. There were some you could tell were there so they could coach and the teaching is just happenstance, but some were really good teachers too. The gym/health teachers were always the basketball coaches.
Sandi375@reddit
If it's public school, they probably also get a crappy stipend that doesn't cover nearly the amount of hours they work.
GuadDidUs@reddit
Eh, those stipends add up. I just checked my school district and the head coach of football stipend is $9900.
He is also the wrestling and baseball coach. Those stipends are a little less so he's making $26,500 a year in stipends for sports. On top of the at least $92k he makes a year as a teacher with at least 15 years of experience.
Now not all sports get that much, but I was looking at the scale and it's a minimum $3k per season for head coaches.
MinnesotaTornado@reddit
9,900 $ is literally like 2 dollars an hour after time. There so much time that goes into it that people don’t realize. It’s not just practice and games
GuadDidUs@reddit
I understand the point about being paid fair value, but on the other side how much should tax payers being willing to foot for something that only 30-60 kids get to participate in? There's value in extracurriculars, but ultimately the mission is providing a free and appropriate education to students. There's one main pot of money that these salaries and stipends come from (leaving aside the nuances of grants and other aid for the moment).
You could conceivably raise stipends if you transitioned to a pay to play model, but that has its own concerns with individuals who can't afford, etc.
seandelevan@reddit
Yup. My highschools basketball coach was also a health teacher, even though I had no idea where his classroom was or knew anyone who had him as a teacher, and easily had one of the nicest houses on my side of town.
Fatherfat321@reddit
Yeabbuts it's also 15 hours of work per week extra and he has to give up a lot of Saturdays and travel. Coaching hs sports isn't a money thing. It's done for the love of the game.
iliveonramen@reddit
Yea, our coaches were constantly working. Football coach is a full time job. Practice, film time, prepping for games, managing coaching staff, etc.
They do it because they are passionate.
JMS1991@reddit
15 hours a week might be conservative as well. Is that time he's with the team? Because I'm sure he's game planning and reviewing film outside of that.
Either way 15 hours x 5 months. Assuming 4 weeks in a month comes out to ~$33/hour. Which seems fair or even a little low depending on cost of living.
minicpst@reddit
Where are you that a teacher is getting $92k??
borealis365@reddit
I have a masters degree and 10+ years experience teaching in the Yukon, Canada. I get $110,000 CAD/year as a teacher. We are also due for a significant raise once they finish negotiating our contract.
LukasJackson67@reddit
Ohio.
I make $110k
GuadDidUs@reddit
NJ
minicpst@reddit
I’m not even sure Seattle starts that high.
Superiority_Complex_@reddit
I found an SPS salary table from a few years ago that has the lowest bracket, if I’m reading the chart correctly, as ~$57k base pay ~$68k total comp. It’s likely a touch higher now.
https://www.seattleschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Cert-2022-23-7.0.pdf
katrinakt8@reddit
Portland area schools start around 50-55,000, depending on the district. I’d be surprised if Seattle isn’t around there.
minicpst@reddit
The best I can tell it’s about $51k.
LukasJackson67@reddit
That is about right. Our head coach gets $10k and the assistants get $6k
Yossarian216@reddit
Sure, but at least at my school that job was three hours a day, five days a week for like three months, and that was just practices and games, not counting any other work. It ends up being like $15 an hour for that $9900 stipend, which is pretty lousy pay for an educated professional, and that’s the highest stipend, the ones for theater and speech and student council etc are all much lower, sometimes below minimum wage in the end.
Sandi375@reddit
They do, but they don't match the hours that have to be put in for them. Football starts in the summer. They have practice every day and games every Friday for the fall sports season. That doesn't include the travel time on the bus. In the end, you're talking a minimum of 15-20 hours a week for 4 months. Some states pay more, but the majority average around 5k or less.
tpwb@reddit
The only reason I did cross country in high school was because the coach paid me. The cross country coach got a $2500 stipend and he paid six of us $100 each to join. We never practiced and got out of school at noon once a week for meets. I think getting out of teaching was a big reason he coached.
I’ve since done about forty marathons.
mopedophile@reddit
When my sister was a high school teacher in Houston Texas she was offered $300 a year to coach the girls soccer team. She turned them down.
Sandi375@reddit
I believe it. One of my close friends coaches girls track. We figured it out one day. She makes 7 cents an hour.
krebstorm@reddit
"teacher"
Usually gym. Usually very low effort.
WarrenMulaney@reddit
Public school teacher here…
The majority of coaches that I know (that also teach) come from a variety of subject areas.
Oddly enough it seems special education is one of the most common ones.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
What about the big kahuna (head football coach)? What non-football things did they have him doing?
Turbulent_Garage_159@reddit
Ours taught gym.
AdFinancial8924@reddit
Our football coach was a history teacher. Our soccer coach was a math teacher.
Tamihera@reddit
Around here, the football coaches all seem to teach History, which explains a lot about everyone’s grasp of history.
The head basketball coach teaches Robotics while cheerily announcing that he doesn’t know how to code but there are videos on YouTube. We won States a few years back so apparently this is fine.
_RomeoEchoDelta_@reddit
One of our coaches taught AP Biology while another taught AP European History
Detonation@reddit
That's not even remotely close to the truth. lol
Maquina_en_Londres@reddit
Very much depends. The school I taught at had all the football coaches teach world history, but not a single one knew anything about world history.
They could coach a spread option pretty well though.
TrixieLurker@reddit
Our football coach was the Biology teacher, and he certainly knew his science.
DoinIt989@reddit
My high school's head football coach was also the teacher for AP Calculus.
ch00d@reddit
It was always a history teacher for me.
alphasierrraaa@reddit
my gym teacher lived the best life tho ngl, man was this short buff dude full of positive energy
plays dodgeball like half the day, then coaches a sport he's passionate about to develop these young athletes
DBHT14@reddit
I am so damn happy for that dude
alphasierrraaa@reddit
He found me crying in the lockers one day in middle school and we just chatted, man was so empathetic and non-judgmental
Some people just give you hope in humanity
WorthPrudent3028@reddit
I went to a Texas 5A high school. Moat of our coaches were technically teachers, but they mostly did completely unstructured PE classes. They didn't really teach anything at all outside of whatever sport they coached. But sports were also technically classes and received class credit. I had basketball as a class period in addition to after-school practices and games. The coach "taught" PE at the same time, and the PE class mostly just did whatever they wanted. Some would shoot hoops on the other court, and some just sat in the bleachers. I also played football but didn't do it for school credit since I had basketball for that. I dont think the football coach even taught PE. There were also boosters and fundraisers for football. I guess it's possible the football coaches weren't even faculty. Never really thought about it til now.
Murky-Swordfish-1771@reddit
Yup. That’s the south for you.
_edd@reddit
I think in Texas they're required to be teachers unless they are in an administrator role. So it was common that the head football coach was also the athletic director (basically in charge over all sports and coaches) and wasn't required to teach.
At a school with 7 periods in a day, most of the coaches taught 2 athletics periods (ex. A football coach might coach freshman football during 1 class period and JV and varsity football during a different class period). Then filled a more traditional teacher role for 3-4 periods., most often focusing on P.E., History or Health classes, however I've also seen ones that handled in school suspension students and others handling traditional math or sciences or foreign language. Very rarely did they ever teach advanced courses. Then they'd have 1 open period for curriculum planning.
We also had a particularly successful program and it wasn't uncommon for a jr high coach to then volunteer on game days helping with logistics.
AdSalt9219@reddit
Same here. Although I'm pretty sure he was paid extra for coaching.
PatrickRsGhost@reddit
In my experience, the football coach also taught P.E.
Lycaeides13@reddit
My pe teacher coached one sport, another coached a different sport, and they all of them also taught CPR, the muscles and bones of the body, and "family life education" . The lacrosse team was coached by my ap history teacher. Idk who coached football because our school didn't care about it
JoyousZephyr@reddit
Your last sentence told me you didn't go to school in Texas without telling me you didn't go to school in Texas.
JimBeam823@reddit
Some schools suck at football.
A school near me is proud to be a girls volleyball powerhouse.
hydraheads@reddit
My high school was strong in volleyball and bowling!
kmoonster@reddit
My school had the running sports announced on the "welcome to [x]!" signs at the town line
Not a peep about the football team, which was...we didn't rank. Good effort by the players but at least when I was there it was ... it was fun to cheer for them. Will leave it at that.
Lycaeides13@reddit
Also the tag that said Virginia 😂. I went to a very new school (think I was in the second class that went there all 4 years) and we were proud of our (award winning!!!) marching band, and to a lesser extent, our girls soccer team. The kids who were popular in my grade were mostly taking AP classes. Our football team was laughably bad.
Typist_Sakina@reddit
Your HS sounds like my HS. Our football coach got tired of our team’s poor performance so at the start of my senior year he announced he stop coaching if we didn’t win any games. We had a perfect losing streak. Our marching band and women’s volleyball and women’s basketball all went to States, though.
Lycaeides13@reddit
Did I just find a classmate?! Did your principal visit every incoming freshman's house
Typist_Sakina@reddit
Haha! Maybe! But no, to my knowledge the principal didn’t do that. We got a new principal after my first year though so I guess it’s still possible. Visiting 300+ houses seems a bit much, though. Did you go to a smaller school?
Texan2116@reddit
In the 80our town, had two high schools, and the football coach at each school had some position where they were essentially in charge of Physical education in each school. At my school, first and last periods were PE classes, only for sports participants, and the first twoyears student-athletes could only take one, but the final two years they could take both classes . This was the only classes I was ever aware either taught.
Mistermxylplyx@reddit
In some larger schools, they are dedicated coaches, particularly in football mad regions. My HS coach was a history teacher, but he only had one or two classes a day, sometimes he’d substitute in the off season.
TooManyDraculas@reddit
Or employees of another sort.
We had a guy at my highschool who was a security guard and coached 3 or 4 girls teams.
He also pulled substitute teaching duty for health classes and gym classes.
Guy was specifically hired to be a coach, and that's what his background was in. Had been a college basketball coach or something. But he still had to be an employee of another sort.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
Isn't the head football coach primarily that at high schools where football is a huge deal?
LukasJackson67@reddit
Usually.
In some schools they might have a pretty easy “main” job like assistant athletic director or “dean of disciple”.
This is often the exception though and probably varies by state.
nabrok@reddit
Is it not usually the PE teacher?
I went to school in the UK and my schools sport was rugby. I wasn't on the team but I know it was the PE teacher that coached it.
FlightlessRhino@reddit
In Texas, they are primarily coaches, and teach some easy ass class just so they can fulfill the teaching requirement.
kwiztas@reddit
They get paid for both. You don't have to be a teacher to be a sports coach. It was just common.
sixstringsikness@reddit
Our head coach taught like 1 class. LOL He was also our AD though. Another coach also coached basketball and our DC was also the head wrestling coach. The coaches all taught classes, though. A few were PE/Health/Personal Fitness deals but our OC taught history, other sports' coaches taught math, science, geography.
Yossarian216@reddit
I think that’s the usual situation, but in certain regions I think they do have dedicated coaches, like “Friday Night Lights” parts of Texas for instance.
Suppafly@reddit
They are often hired to be a coach first and just assigned to teach a few random classes though. Often they end up teaching gym and driver's ed.
The assistants and such sometimes are hired part time just to be assistants though.
Ryan1869@reddit
Same, I had the football coach for math one year. I do know a few of the big and rich schools in the area do.have dedicated football coaches.
Head_Razzmatazz7174@reddit
Yes. Smaller schools especially have the football coach teach at least one non-athletic class.
HavBoWilTrvl@reddit
Well, yeah but many times the Football coach is given the remedial classes or PE. I've known too many high schools that hired a Football coach and then figured out which classes to have him teach.
Bamboozle_@reddit
My HS head coach was a former NFL player who only was the football head coach. He left after my last year and the wrestling coach who was one of the gym teachers took over.
AardvarkIll6079@reddit
I went to a high school with 70 total students. None of the coaches of any sports were teachers. They were all hired coaches.
GeorgePosada@reddit
My HS had some coaches who weren’t faculty and just did it as a part-time job. JV or freshman teams would typically be coached by teachers and then they’d hire someone to coach the varsity teams
rcjhawkku@reddit
When I was in school (Kansas) the coaches were hired to coach, but required to teach. Usually history.
1414belle@reddit
They usually teachers, often the Physical Education (PE / Phys Ed/Gym) teacher. Sometimes a random teacher (history, math, German, etc.) can also be a sports coach (not just football-- gymnastics, hockey, cheer, swim, etc.)
Lady_Alisandre1066@reddit
Maybe some of the big schools in major metros. In small towns/ rural areas, everyone multitasks. Our football coach also taught History, Geography, Civics, Psychology, and Sociology. The man ALSO fronted a country/western band on the weekends. My senior year in high school, I coached the junior varsity Quizbowl team while playing on the varsity team.
anony-mousey2020@reddit
It depends on where you live, school funding is not the same town to town, county to county, or state to state.
I grew up in the northern US - there coaches were always teachers. I saw the same in MA, and PA.
As an adult I move to TX, met a new person who introduced herself as the coaches wife. A funny conversation ensued where I asked what he taught, she looked at me blankly and said ‘well, he is the football coach. He coaches.’
In that TX town, the annual coaching salary for football coaches was $1m - in high school.
No-Understanding-912@reddit
Depends on the state and the school. Most places it's a teacher that is volunteering and getting a stipend. If it's a school with a good football team, they often find a good coach and give them an easy teaching job or something on staff so they can coach. Public schools usually can't hire a person just to coach, I think it might even be against regulations based on the state. Private schools are totally different. There have been schools get in trouble for paying coaches and players under the table in high school.
coolkirk1701@reddit
My high schools football coach was mainly the football coach who just happened to also be the athletic director and dean of students. But if you wanted him to do either of his other jobs you needed to make sure he wasn’t watching football film first
messibessi22@reddit
It might be different depending on the school but our coaches were teachers or parent volunteers
JoeBethersonton50504@reddit
When I was in HS we were a bottom of the standings team in a non hot bed of football. The coach was not a teacher. Being the football coach was his only job, but that was because he was otherwise retired. I think he was paid around $5-10K for the season.
The assistant coaches were also not teachers. All had unrelated day jobs that I guess allowed them to be at practice at 4pm. All paid similar (probably lesser) stipends as well.
SuccessfulPlastic739@reddit
In the US they usually pick the teacher most likely to watch male students shower and pick him to be the football couch
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
Yes. That is not uncommon at all.
Do your youth football teams not have dedicated coaches?
Dave_A480@reddit
Depends on where in the US you are.
HS Football is a real serious thing in TX and the Southeast... Some of those schools do have full-time football coaches.
Most of the movies (Varsity Blues, etc) are set in such fanatically-HS-football-obsessed places.
Dear-Explanation-350@reddit
It's very common for the football head coach to be primarily a coach.
ButtersStochChaos@reddit
Friday Night Lights is pretty close.
ophaus@reddit
In some places, high school football is actually huge, and they MIGHT have a dedicated coach... Usually, it's a teacher that teaches a class or two and also coaches.
BanjosAndBoredom@reddit
No, they usually teach as well. But depending on the school, they're probably much more of a football coach than a teacher. They got hired for their coaching, and they usually teach less academic classes like health, shop class, P. E. , weightlifting, etc.
Crepes_for_days3000@reddit
Yes. We have coaches that are just there for football or they also teach physical education.
Dragonfly7242@reddit
Where I live they usually teach history.
ChiefKingSosa@reddit
Most Texas high schools have dedicated head coaches
Mayor__Defacto@reddit
They’re typically a teacher but they are paid additionally to coach sports.
CVogel26@reddit
They’re usually teachers with some volunteers who work jobs that have them available on weekday afternoons or are retired.
Some schools do have full time football coaches but those are usually elite private/prep schools and some of the big/top publics, especially in states like Texas.
Live_Barracuda1113@reddit
My school has a dedicated coach. I think he is technically pe maybe, but we are a Florida school and there is a school on our district with a long history of sending kids to D1 schools. They have a dedicated head coach, d line and o line coaches.
And the worst field.
We have one of the nicest fields in the state and a mediocre team.
I will say, as the stereotype senior English teacher, I'm at the games, rooting for them. But it's a pretty heavy imbalance at many schools.
Carrotcake1988@reddit
Depends on the school budget.
But, I’ve noticed that schools that hire teachers as coaches? male coaches tend to be social studies or PE teachers and female coaches tend to be Language arts or PE teachers.
snarkypant@reddit
In my TX HS (80s), football coaches also “taught” something uncomplicated like history or health. What, those things are complicated? Not the way the coaches “taught” it. Guaranteed 2-3 days a week would be all football during the season. The rest of the year it’d be 1-2 days a week.
Usagi_Shinobi@reddit
Our schools have a class called Physical Education, commonly called PE, which is run by coaches. There are usually a number of coaches, who will also teach one or two regular classes (most of my coaches taught basic science classes), and the coaches will also be responsible for extracurricular sports. At least in my schools, all coaches were credentialed teachers, but because sports are a large part of the culture here, they were addressed as coach even in the normal classroom.
Chicago1871@reddit
All the big sports at my chicago HS had paid professional coaches who have the equivalent to national team training badges/certification.
Wrestling, basketball, football, track and field, volleyball and swimming. All had their own non-teacher coaches who had been high level amateurs or low level pros in the sport and had degrees in sports science.
The less popular sports like lacrosse and baseball had volunteer teachers coaching.
D3moknight@reddit
High school football coaches when I was in school were usually some sort of P.E. (Physical Education) teachers. In my particular school, the head football coach taught weight training classes. The assistant coach taught Health, which was things like sex education, hygiene, diet, and some sports like tennis or soccer.
Ginger457@reddit
Yes and no. No there were not dedicated coaches, at least at my school, but instead guys get hired as teachers for the express purpose of being football coaches first and teachers second.
There is also a physical education department, which has a lot of overlap with sports and so a lot of p.e. teachers will also end up being sports coaches on the side.
No_Entertainment1931@reddit
Depends on the school, but yes, it’s fairly common.
My kid goes to a school with only 300 students and each sport has its own exclusive coach.
Lilpu55yberekt69@reddit
Depends on the school.
If they have a halfway decent football program then the coach primarily works at the school for the sake of coaching. They’ll also teach classes, usually either gym or an elective.
Chewiedozier567@reddit
Our high school football coach also coached varsity baseball. The offensive coordinator was the boys basketball coach, tennis coach and taught AP economics and government . Our defensive coordinator was the principal and he was our track and field coach. Our JV baseball coach taught AP English and was a Baptist minister. Most of our high school teachers either coached, handled our extracurricular activities or both. Eventually when I started teaching, I was in charge of student government and academic activities. Both were small private schools in the Deep South.
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
Our head football coach teaches PE, but he’s not great at it because he’s so focused on football most of the time. We have other coaches that are called walk on coaches that do smaller jobs within the coaching or deal with the younger kids.
Lilpu55yberekt69@reddit
Depends on the school.
If they have a halfway decent football program then the coach primarily works at the school for the sake of coaching. They’ll also teach classes, usually either gym or an elective.
-Houston@reddit
Our head coach was only there to coach. The regular assistant coaches and what not, were also assigned a class or would be substitute teachers. The medical staff I never saw anywhere on campus except the clinic so idk. Overall being a football coach was usually an all day job so not too much free time during the season.
I_am_photo@reddit
Plus in Texas head football coaches are also their school's athletic director. At least that's how it is for the schools I covered in North Texas.
AdjustedTitan1@reddit
Not always
I_am_photo@reddit
That's why I said in the area I covered.
fleetpqw24@reddit
Depends on your school size I guess. I graduated from a 1A six-man school, and our AD was not our head football coach.
I_am_photo@reddit
I didn't even think about the six man schools since I'm pretty sure the superintendent office of that district would take that role. We didn't really cover them much.
But even the 1A schools with 11-man had ADs in our coverage area.
Aggressive-Click-605@reddit
At a lot of small schools, the principal may be the AD!
JasperStrat@reddit
Are you an official by any chance? I don't want to say referee because I don't know if you were wearing a white hat.
I_am_photo@reddit
No lol. I took photos.
fleetpqw24@reddit
Actually, our AD was a History and Health teacher named Jim Marco. He has since passed away. Hell of a guy, he taught me a lot… specifically when to duck. He had a double hip replacement when I was a sophomore and walked with a cane afterward. He knew how to use that cane too, lol. But only on helmeted individuals.
Texlectric@reddit
Also mention these guys are paid over $100k at small high schools. Much more than any teacher there.
MyDaroga@reddit
Same here. I assume maybe Ohio or California would also have full time coaches, but Texas is gonna be the odd one out here.
Chinchillachimcheroo@reddit
Nah. Mississippi, too, which makes me assume it also applies to the rest of the South.
I mean some of our coaches (though not the head football coach) also taught a class or two, but they were primarily employed as coaches
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
State flair checks out.
everydayimchapulin@reddit
Texas here. Our head football coach is technically also the campus athletic director and he teaches no classes. We have several assistant football coaches who teach PE, Science, Social Studies, and some who are Special Ed Coteachers.
The football coaches generally excuse themselves from any campus PD, faculty meetings, and testing duties because of "coaching duties".
We went 0-12 for a couple of years in a row.
lyrasorial@reddit
This is so Texas. School is for learning in other states.
UnfairHoneydew6690@reddit
Are you under the impression that Texas schools only have a coach and no other teaching staff? That everyone just comes in and learns football plays or something?
lyrasorial@reddit
No. But budgets reveal priorities. We'd never hire a full time coach over instructional staff. That's insanity in the Northeast
UnfairHoneydew6690@reddit
And at a big school in Texas football is gonna bring in money for that budget.
Seems like a good idea to have a whole department dedicated to keeping that money flowing inward.
tgreatone316@reddit
Yes
curlyhairweirdo@reddit
The coaches are hired to coach. You have to be certified as a coach. But they are also expected to teach an academic class of some sort. Usually social studies or history but I've also had a coach who taught Health.
chuckles65@reddit
This can depend on the school. My high school was a big football school and our head coach is a full time job, he only coaches football. All the other assistant football coaches teach classes though.
sneeds_feednseed@reddit
The football coach at my school was the gym teacher
BoxweilersRule@reddit
Some do, some don’t. Large, well to do private schools very often do. Public schools, not as much.
big_sugi@reddit
In northern Virginia, the head coach “taught” a weightlifting class, which some athletes took as an elective and some seniors took as a blowoff. I don’t think he was even in the weight room most of the time.
The other coaches were mostly volunteers IIRC, with the exception of the two freshman football coaches who were both teachers and also coached other sports.
Actually, I think our OL coach was a teacher at a different school, but he coached us because he was an alum.
RSLV420@reddit
I've had a few coaches that were only there to coach, nothing else. I've also had coaches that were teachers -- but they were coaches first and teachers second (IE: they "taught" shit like typing and PE).
kingjaffejaffar@reddit
Private schools sometimes do, but public schools usually have their coach teach regular classes as well, even if it’s an afterthought. Civics is frequently taught by football coaches.
lexi2700@reddit
Depends on the school. Most sports coaches are also teachers. It usually is a paid position so many do it for the extra income. If no teacher wants to step up/or is qualified, then they will hire outside people. My high school basketball coach for the first year was just a coach for us and didn’t have any other school related job. After she left our high school history teacher became the coach for the next few years. He’s the principal now too. 😅
Lovebeingadad54321@reddit
They are usually teachers, but they get PAID extra for coaching. Depending on what part of the country, they may be paid mostly for coaching and also teach a class or 2… possibly physical Ed
DingoFlamingoThing@reddit
Not dedicated, no. They’re usually also teachers at the school. Our two head coaches were algebra and chemistry teachers.
nomuggle@reddit
This may be different in the pets if the country where high school football is the biggest thing (aka Texas), but in my area coaching is a supplemental position, meaning coaches already have some job within the school and coaching is an extra duty for extra pay. At my high school, the football coach was also a guidance counselor. In the district I used to teach in, the football coach was a math teacher.
GrandmaSlappy@reddit
Fun fact, after growing up in Texas I had no idea we were so weird about football, I just figured everywhere was like that.
Personally not a fan, I would skip pep rallies and go to the library.
machagogo@reddit
Usually it is a teacher who is also paid extra to coach in my neck of the woods. Maybe a gym teacher.
I'm sure down in Texas it is a dedicated position in .most places, but i can't be certain
GrandmaSlappy@reddit
Here in North Texas in my personal experience they are usually hired as a coach who also teaches (poorly), not the other way around.
Jahobes@reddit
Usually it's a teacher. But at these big schools especially in the States where football is life... the football coach won't be a teacher and likely makes more than the principle.
GrandmaSlappy@reddit
Our coach was primarily a coach but when they were short on teachers they'd make him teach classes like geography too. And that's why I'm shit at geography.
mltrout715@reddit
Depends where you live and the school. The HS my kids went to had several coaches that did not work at the school including at one time the football coach. But they seem to be trying to change that because of low numbers I several sports, and it is much easier for someone on campus to recruit
IHaveALittleNeck@reddit
They are usually social studies teachers.
pherring@reddit
Our football coach taught PE and strength and conditioning. Quite a few of the assistant coaches had jobs elsewhere in the building. My trainer supervisor taught math.
A few coaches had jobs outside the school but showed up after school for practice. It’s definitely a labor of love at the high school level. They work crazy hours and take a lot of flack for things outside their control (or mostly outside of their control)
mpaladin1@reddit
Sometimes. Usually they’ll teach something too, but not always. But even if they are a teacher, their schedule will accommodate for their coaching duties.
At my school, the football coach was also the assassin track coach (all the football player coincidentally were on the track team too). He was the chair or the PE department, and Athletic Director. So he taught three classes of strength training, one class for AD duties, 5th was his prep and 6th was football/track.
seandelevan@reddit
In bigger schools that take football seriously they are usually a teacher who teach maybe a half days worth of classes and are usually done by lunch time…rest of the day is prepping for football. Many of them are also the schools athletic director so when football season is over they are scheduling other sports.
Jake_Corona@reddit
I’m a high school teacher and former do t all player. The head coach and most of the assistant coaches in my experience are usually teachers. There are a few assistant coaches who may not work within schools. The only time I had a head coach who wasn’t a teacher is when our newly hired head coach quit a few weeks before the season and the senior class demanded the school hire our former middle school coach who was working as a realtor at the time. But those were unusual circumstances.
Cocacola_Desierto@reddit
I went to a decently middle class high school and all of mine were also teachers, and the 1-2 that weren't were usually very active in the community as a whole. Maybe national level HS teams.
Chad_Tachanka@reddit
At the bigger schools that produce college talent you could see coaches that aren't teachers. But usually it'll just be the PE teacher or something like that
teslaactual@reddit
Depends on how much funding the given school has and whether it's public or private school
John_Tacos@reddit
I have seen a dedicated coach, but they coached all the sports for all the grades (elementary through high school). So if you figure one sport at a time (what this school did) 3-4 age groups, boys and girls teams, that’s 8 classes a day, not including any games.
rylanschuster6969@reddit
The coaches are I think paid a little extra to coach but their main job is as a teacher of some kind. Our varsity football coach was the ISS Supervisor, so he just watched film all day while basically babysitting students.
Livvylove@reddit
I think it depends on the school and how high the value football over academics. There are some high schools with stadiums bigger than some colleges. It wouldn't be a surprise if a school like that has dedicated football coaches. But I'm guessing most schools don't. None of the ones in my area did
joeydbls@reddit
Depends on where I think 🤔 Texas has professional size stadiums that look like college stadiums, but most regular schools have a teacher or volunteer
JetScreamerBaby@reddit
I attended a school with 5000+ students. All the coaches were teachers also, but they taught Gym, Health Ed, and Driver's Ed.
And trust me, any idiot off the street could have taught those classes with no problem. The coaches were hired to coach. They made them teach so they weren't just sitting around off-season pulling their puds.
GuairdeanBeatha@reddit
The head coach at my High School back in the 70’s was hired strictly as Head Coach. He had no other duties. A rough estimate is that half the teaching staff was “Coach Something”. They have coaching duties as well as teaching a subject. It’s common in the South for the coach to be hired for football only, and to be the highest paid person at the school if they have a winning team.
forgotwhatisaid2you@reddit
Depends on the school. Sometimes it's just a teacher that does it for a little extra money and sometimes it is a football coach that may have to teach something to have the job. Big programs recruit coaches and players.
forgotwhatisaid2you@reddit
Depends on the school. Sometimes it's just a teacher that does it for a little extra money and sometimes it is a football coach that may have to teach something to have the job. Big programs recruit coaches and players.
VitruvianDude@reddit
They usually are teachers as well, but they don't exactly volunteer-- they are often paid extra for the extracurricular activities. There may be a few volunteers, though, as well.
Cheaperthantherapy13@reddit
I been told by several teachers that the extra pay for coaching or sponsoring an after school club is pretty much the only way to make a livable wage as a full-time teacher.
Almost all of my teachers that didn’t have 20+ years of tenure did extra work after school. My anatomy teacher was the girl’s lacrosse coach, my English teacher the JV football coach, the world history teacher coached baseball, and all of the Phys Ed teachers coached at least one sport. US Government teacher sponsored the Model UN club, the youngest teacher in each subject in the language department sponsored the language-specific clubs, etc, etc, etc. I think it also helped with promotions and stuff down the line.
davdev@reddit
The pay isn’t that great. I was an assistant football coach and I made $3k for the season. The season started in mid August and ended the first week of December. Every week I was putting in at least 25-30 hours between games, practices and film.
So for an entire season I was making like $7 an hour to coach. If that.
Though the pay is not why I coached. I still coach youth sports (baseball, football and basketball) and make exactly $0 doing it.
SBSnipes@reddit
I've done some looking around. Most high schools will do 5-10% for non-football or assistant football coaches, and 15-20% for head football coach. So if base is 50k, that's 2500-5000 for an assistant, and up to 10k for head coach.
davdev@reddit
I have never seen it based on a % of base pay. Its always a set amount. Though those numbers are about right, though I have seen some head coaches make a good deal more than that.
Unfair_Welder8108@reddit
Genuine question, I'm English, do they tend to have any experience in these sports before, or are they just winging it as a de-facto existing authority figure?
Cheaperthantherapy13@reddit
They tend to be hired specifically because of their experience in the sport; their ability to teach their subject field is a distant secondary requirement.
For female athletes, moving into high school coaching is pretty much the only was to get paid to play your sport after college. An relative of mine was a pretty high-level field hockey player in high school and college; she majored in something sports-related and minored in education specifically so she could get hired as a coach and stay involved in the sport after college.
im-on-my-ninth-life@reddit
Well there's a few sports like tennis where the pro opportunities for women are similar to that for men
im-on-my-ninth-life@reddit
If they don't have experience then they can just be the head coach on paper while an assistant (who doesn't have to be a teacher) does most of the coaching duties.
montrevux@reddit
depends on the sport and region of the country, to be honest. in areas where football is king, great head coaches are well compensated and in demand. here’s some salaries of some of the top head coaches at alabama and georgia public high schools.
https://www.si.com/high-school/national/comparing-the-top-10-alabama-georgia-high-school-football-coaching-salaries-01jcs14dbzw8
JoeyAaron@reddit
For football and basketball, I'd wager that the vast majority of head coaches played at least college level for their sport. These are the two sports where the head coach is specifically hired based on his coaching ablility, and teaching is secondary. They are subject to public scrutiny, as those sports attract attention from the general public, and can be fired for poor seasons. The assistant coaches are more likely to have only played in high school.
In other sports it's more common for the head coach to have not played past the high school level, but often they will still have played in college. In sports other than football and basketball it's more a situation where you're hired as a teacher first, and then get into coaching as a secondary matter. There's less public pressure, so you mostly deal with the actual athletes and their parents more than the expectations of the general public. I have a buddy who's a high school wrestling coach, and he didn't wrestle past high school. He started out as an assistant coach where he teaches, and moved up to head coach when there was a retirement.
cdb03b@reddit
Here in Texas they typically have personal experience in the sport, as well as having their teaching degree focus on Athletics.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
They probably have some experience playing the sport. The experience necessary would depend on how large and competitive the program is. I’ve coached basketball and volleyball, and before coaching, my experience with those sports was playing them up through the high school level.
My dad was a teacher right out of college, but the district he taught in shrunk enough to consolidate high schools. He lost his job because he didn’t coach anything, but the other HS social studies teacher(s) coached.
yellahammer@reddit
Depends, of course. Bigger schools will recruit coaches with 6 figure salaries and other compensations. The schools might even play a few games on national tv, by the way. Small rural schools will be happy to have anyone who shows up.
actuallyiamafish@reddit
I had an AP math teacher who I ran into running guided tours at the Art Institute of Chicago, and then like 4 years later again when she was teaching Art History at a community college about an hour away from where she was apparently still also teaching high school AP math.
MechanicalGodzilla@reddit
Yep. My HS head football coach was also the school district athletic director. Some of the assistant coaches were also teachers - a couple gym teachers plus my biology teacher. We also had two volunteer coaches who were just people in town with experience.
Adorable-Lack-3578@reddit
They get hired to coach and are given a teaching role. Mine "taught" history but he pretty much played movies every class and sat in his office, doing football stuff.
Swim6610@reddit
This was all my history teachers/coaches.
BioDriver@reddit
God yes. They’re required to teach one class but when I was in school it was usually some freshman level gen ed class and was super easy compared to the classes taught by real teachers
janbrunt@reddit
High school coaches are generally teachers. In my experience, they are paid for their time/labor to be a coach. In my school we had two coaches for the smaller teams (like cross country or field hockey) and one or two more for the more intensive sports like football.
ProfuseMongoose@reddit
The football coach was usually the dude that taught something like woodshop or drivers ed. I was friends with a lot of teachers kids and they would give me the lowdown on what really went on behind the scenes. The regular teachers understood that the coach/physical education teacher was a different type of teacher.
ProfessionalAir445@reddit
Yeah, at my school the football coaches who taught PE and health were addressed “coach” by all students. I always had the feeling they were hired to coach the teaching was secondary.
ZealousidealAd4860@reddit
Gym teachers / Football coaches yes
JustSomeGuy556@reddit
They are almost always teachers that get paid a little extra to be a coach.
Some of the big football schools in texas (and a few other states) likely have full time coaches, but those are going to be RARE exceptions.
ProfessionalAir445@reddit
The coaches at my school were all teachers. The football coaches taught health and PE, and I think were probably hired primarily to coach. I went to a Catholic School with about 1000 students.
AnastasiusDicorus@reddit
High school football coaches can be coaches only at big schools in Texas but usually they will teach a course or two, mainly phys ed for non-athetes, but also sometimes actual classes like math or history. Never seen a coach teach an English course.
Middle_Wheel_5959@reddit
No most are teachers or have another day job, only schools that I’ve heard had full time coaches were very expensive private schools or large wealthy public schools in Texas
Budget-Attorney@reddit
It depends. The coaching staff is a mix of teachers and volunteers.
A few of the primary coaches have teaching jobs and they are supplemented by a handful of younger guys who usually for the team when they were in highschool.
The head coach was technically a gym teacher who also coached football. But it was clear to everyone that he viewed football as his primary job and gym class was an opportunity for him to recruit for the team and get extra training for the players
Head_Vermicelli7137@reddit
Depends on how much money a school has Dave Logan has coached here in Colorado for 31 years but never taught
burbanbac@reddit
The big schools with high profile programs pay coaches that are normally not teachers or they teach at the school because they coach.
MillieBirdie@reddit
The stereotype is that the athletic coaches are also very half-hearted History teacher.
At middle schools I've worked at that wasn't always the case. The track coach was a science teacher, the basketball coach was an English teacher At another school, the football coach was a history teacher, the basketball coach was a math teacher. The volleyball coach was the school counsellor.
Also since American schools do a lot of different sports that change by seasons you will probably have teachers coaching multiple sports.
For reference, most schools will have a football (boys), basketball (boys and girls), volleyball (usually girls, sometimes boys also), soccer (boys and girls), baseball (boys), softball (girls), track (boys and girls), wrestling (boys), and depending on if they have the facilities for it they may have swim teams, hockey, tennis, rowing, lacrosse etc.
Jswazy@reddit
My high school had multiple coaches for each sport. That was there only job. The football head coach was the highest or 2nd highest paid employee of the school.
camelia_la_tejana@reddit
My high school had the shittiest football team. The two coaches they had were not teachers, not even PE teachers, they were hired specifically to coach the varsity and JV teams. It was a rich public school district.
camelia_la_tejana@reddit
My family was not rich btw. We just happen to live in the zip code for that district
Vikingkrautm@reddit
Washington State. Not here. It's always a regular teacher who does it in addition to teaching.
Smart_Engine_3331@reddit
Usually, they are also a teacher also. Usually in something not too hard to teach.
HajdukNYM_NYI@reddit
At my school all the sports coaches were full time teachers and got paid extra for their coaching duties. Though this was NJ, I’m sure high school football down south is more serious
iceph03nix@reddit
when I went to highschool, we had gym teachers that were basically hired to coach, and taught classes as well
mack_dd@reddit
Most coaches at my high and middle school were either history or civics teachers.
Parking_Low248@reddit
Many of them do, especially in states like Texas where high school football is a very big deal.
At my school, our football coach was also a physical education teacher. But it's definitely not like that everywhere.
My cousin played football in high school and then later became a high school football coach. It wasn't his full time job, but it was a paid position and he was not a teacher at the school. His wife did the same, was a volleyball coach at the same school and had another full time job that was not as a teacher.
He no longer coaches but she does, at a bigger school with more serious athletics programs and it is her full time job.
punkwalrus@reddit
In my school, 1980s, yes, but they pulled double duty: usually they were football coaches and staff (for example, we had a dedicated sports nurse, two assistant coaches, and so on), but their second was teaching kind of a justification for their salary. Usually gym teachers or assistants, acting as an in-house substitute, or "basic education classes" for the jocks (like history, generalized math, etc).
We pretty much lost most games. I worked as an assistant for the head of the school's science department, and the teachers would bemoan what the football budget was versus all the rest. Our science department budget was $400/year, and the football team had $10,000/year, plus "extensions as needed." After losing homecoming one year, the team trashed their training room, which included things like the slow-mo video camera system and playback, which for the 80s was really expensive. Budget extension for replacement approved. But don't worry, the players were punished with extra laps!
Meanwhile, the women's field hockey, which got no budget and held bake sales to pay for basics, constantly won state championships.
Football is an identity. Field hockey was "well, we let them play. Make the wimmin quit bitchin about equality and shit." I wish I knew what I knew now, I would have totally hung out with those women. A lot of them ended up doing well for themselves as adults.
Open_Philosophy_7221@reddit
The football coach:
Small schools: a teacher OR a parent volunteer
Medium schools: the athletic director or a PE teacher
Large: a dedicated coach
My sister is at a public high school with 4.5k students.
HailMadScience@reddit
There are schools where the coaches are effectively not teachers. For example, my school in Pennsylvania had a coach who didn't teach (technically all our coaches are listed as "emergency teachers" but they are so low on the list we never saw them in school). So it is a real thing, yes.
rawbface@reddit
Our football coach was one of the gym teachers.
kfriedmex666@reddit
My high school in inner-city Philadelphia shared a football team with another nearby school. The coach for the whole team was our school's "resource officer" aka the cop who guards the front door.
dumbandconcerned@reddit
This will depend on how big the school is, how wealthy, and how much money their football program brings in. Almost all schools have a teacher act as football coach (mine was a history teacher). In somewhat rare circumstances, a high school will be big enough and make enough profit off ticket sales that it makes financial sense for the school to hire a dedicated coach.
JustaRoosterJunkie@reddit
Depends on the school and the sport. In my home state, there are quite a few hockey coaches that are not teachers. I always look at former NHL defenseman Curt Giles, head hockey coach at Edina High School. His teams have won states title in 2010, 2013,2014, 2019 and 2024.
CharlesFXD@reddit
I went to a sports centric HS and we had dedicated coaches for boys and girls sports.
cwsjr2323@reddit
I was a history major, education and science minors. I couldn’t get tenure tracked (permanently hired) as a teacher because I was not a coach. Being in. The Army Reserves with drill (Reserve days of duty) was a weekend a month, so I was unavailable for games on Friday-Sunday.
blackberyl@reddit
I’m American and wonder this every time I see it in a movie, because no school I’ve even been around has dedicated full time coach only.
Now some of your private schools or really rich public ones with giant classes, sure. But definitely not smaller ones.
Self-Comprehensive@reddit
The coaches teach, generally math or history or PE (physical education - think gym class where they teach basic sports rules, exercise and weight lifting for non-atheletes). Football only takes up the first half of the school year. Dedicated coaches may coach other sports such as basketball and track.
Big_Bottle3763@reddit
Always the American history teacher who just shows war movies in class. Or was that just my high school?
Murky-Swordfish-1771@reddit
Lucky for those students. Glad it exists somewhere. I’ve just never seen it when I was a student or my kids were. And weren’t the same states. Prioritization of athletics has just gotten out of hand.
WCSakaCB@reddit
Depends on where you are. It can be any combination of they're a full fledged teacher, they only teach a couple classes a day or they don't teach at all and only coach
OutrageousMoney4339@reddit
We had a LOT of sports programs in high school. Boys football (open to girls but none wanted to), boys&girls soccer, boys&girls ice hockey, girls field hockey, boys&girls basketball, baseball, softball, swimming, gymnastics, track and field, golf, lacrosse, figure skating, competitive cheering and dance team/color guard. Some coaches were also teachers, some coaches were floating substitutes for the whole district, some coaches were just coaches but coached multiple sports.
If you were a teacher already, you got paid an extra stipend for coaching (or running ANY extra curricular program). Same if you were a coach who was also a sub. If you were hired as just a coach, you got paid a salary on a coach's pay scale but could get a stipend for any extra sports you coached over and above your primary sport.
And before anyone comes at me saying "What about the arts? What about STEM?" We had two levels of chorus (competitive and non), we had regular band, marching band, regular music lessons on multiple instruments, a high school art guild, a high school news paper run by students, competitive Math team, competitive Science team, in-school science fair, the winners of which could compete in the state science fair, competitive Debate team, Robotics club, French club, Spanish club, Italian club, and service clubs like Key club and Leo club, D&D club, Magic the Gathering club, theater, AV, and a competitive bouncy ball tournament. All of this at public school.
b-sharp-minor@reddit
I imagine it depends on the school district and what the people who live in the district want to pay for. Where I live, school sports are of secondary importance, so a teacher who earns a stipend coaches. Other places might hire a teacher based more on coaching ability than teaching ability. Maybe some districts hire a dedicated coach where football is pretty much the local sport. On the extreme end, there are high schools that are basically football and basketball factories with minimal academics, so they are going to have dedicated coaching staffs.
Badger_Joe@reddit
Yes, most are teachers who get paid to coach.
Some of the larger schools pay for a dedicated coach.
El_Burrito_Grande@reddit
Yes. In Texas the head coach, and at the biggest schools the offensive and defensive coordinators coach only with no teaching. They (and the other assistants that also teach) work seven days a week during the season probably about 100 hours per week.
desba3347@reddit
Not just for football, but most are teachers and I believe in some states they are required to be (at least head coaches or maybe paid coaches). A lot of coaches at my school were also PE (physical education) coaches, though one coach taught history and one taught math
ReverendMak@reddit
At my small American high school in the 80’s all the main sports coaches—including football—were PE teachers as well. One of them also taught Biology. But I’d say the head football coach probably spent more time coaching than teaching. My head hockey coach was the school principal and also taught chemistry. Most of the others were PE teachers.
We did have an assistant coach on the football team who didn’t do anything else at the school and was just hired part time for that one job, but as far as I recall all the other assistant coaches for all the sports were also faculty of some sort.
iforgotmycoat@reddit
At my school it was split. There were 3 varsity coaches, 1 was a p.e. teacher, 1 was a personal trainer at a GYM, and the other was a KMart manager. For JV the head coach was a Geek Squad Manager, the other two were a math teacher and history teacher.
From what the JV coach said to get paid to coach you has to be staff. He'd take a pay cut to do it so he volunteered to coach to hopefully get paid to coach college level.
O12345678@reddit
Ours taught weightlifting class, which was a strength training/conditioning/practice class we had to take one period per semester.
helptheworried@reddit
In my experience it’s teachers or gym coaches. And it varies on whether they get paid extra to do the coaching.
lyrasorial@reddit
They are almost certainly a teacher that coaches as a side gig. There's a stereotype in the South that history teachers are primarily coaches, and teach history on the side. Coaches could also be the gym teacher (or a random teacher that knows what they are doing)
Generally, teachers get paid extra if they decide to coach, although the amount will depend on the school district and sport.
Someshortchick@reddit
You never fell asleep during my coach/history teachers class during the section on the Civil War. It was then he would teach students about the rebel yell. Other than that he did teach it pretty well without any kind of "Lost Cause" stuff.
littlemiss198548912@reddit
When I was in high school the football coach was the government teacher. I remember we had to read silently while he was interviewed over the phone for an upcoming game🤣.
Though I give him props for getting me registered to vote when I was 18.
GOTaSMALL1@reddit
I went to a pretty big football High School (usually nationally ranked) and when I was there he taught Drivers Ed three days a week.
Then my senior year he went 2-9 and got fired.
SeawolfEmeralds@reddit
It varies incredibly
One city will have a dedicated coach who declined college even indeed professional level coaching because they are dedicated and involved in their community
that community will have news broadcasters anchoring the local news 10 20 30 years who have also declined to move on to major markets
While the city adjacent we'll have underfunded and cut programs
Even the major metropolitan area adjacent we'll need to take students from 2 - 5 different high schools just to form one sports team.
Rogue_Cheeks98@reddit
Idk, I think it heavily depends on the school. My public school in NH had dedicated head coaches for most of its sports.
andygchicago@reddit
It can go the other way, too. A lot of schools in areas that are heavy football recruitment towns (think most of Texas), the football coach might just teach a couple of classes.
OfficePicasso@reddit
That was sure true in western PA too. While I love football, I never played and sure as shit can’t coach it. Guess what my degree is in 🫠
fleetpqw24@reddit
I went to High School in Texas, and generally speaking, yes, this is true, however it is not always the case. My head Football coach taught science. Our AD and assistant coach were history teachers; boys Head basketball coach taught history, but the girl’s coach taught math. The Volleyball staff taught English and math and 5th/6th grade. Tennis coach was the school nurse. Running sports coaches varied year to year, but it was usually also the school nurse. Softball coach was the head groundskeeper.
RunFarEatPizza@reddit
In Oklahoma at the big schools yes they have dedicated football coaches that do not teach. Granted it’s probably 10 schools in the state.
Novapunk8675309@reddit
Depends on the needs of the school, sometimes the coaches would sub for classes or teach history, computer science, or something like that. But we also had a few coaches that only coached. My school was small so PE was mandatory for all grades until high school. So for most of the day the full time coaches would do PE for each grade and then coach football or basketball for the high schools during the last hour and after school. Usually there was one full time coach for the boys and one for the girls.
CraftFamiliar5243@reddit
They're usually teachers, usually gym teachers. They get extra pay for being coach, it not volunteer.
porkbuttstuff@reddit
My head coach in high school was the fire chief for the town. Shout out coach Duff.
Gladyskravitz99@reddit
In my memory, football coaches usually taught a health class or driver's ed or something.
justonemom14@reddit
This is absolutely how it is in Texas. I think that there's a law requiring all coaches to teach a class. But they are definitely hired solely to coach. They get paid more, and they'll teach just one regular class. It will always be a "soft" subject like history (low priority in Texas) and their teaching style will be telling you to read the chapter, answer the questions in the book, and take multiple choice tests that have been prepared by another teacher. If you have questions...uh, just read the chapter more.
Latter_Substance1242@reddit
In my high school, it was a history teacher that the school didn’t have room for as a history teacher. They hired him as a Physical Education teacher and he was really good at football. So he taught PE during the school day, worked extra hours for after school detention, and coached the football team.
aDrunkenError@reddit
Texas has some football coaches who make a decent salary don’t just that. They’re around, not many of them though.
Headwallrepeat@reddit
You can't really say "America" on this one. You are going to get a variety of answers because each state is different. Even within the state there will be different policies in different schools.
ActuaLogic@reddit
Coaches (football and otherwise) are usually teachers, often physical education (phys ed) teachers. A phys ed teacher who is also a football coach is effectively a full time football coach.
Lucky-Royal-6156@reddit
My really small school had a dedicated HS basketball/ PE (K-12) coach (couldn't have a football team cause too few juds)
Esselon@reddit
Teachers make some additional money generally by being a coach. There are probably some schools wealthy enough to afford paying a full time coach, but most schools people do double duty.
Unlikely_Anything413@reddit
Our football coaches happened to be gym teachers on the side
Aware-Fig4281@reddit
Coaches get paid more but are regular teachers also. Normally teaching low level easy classes
Cruickshark@reddit
it really depends on how serious the school is about football. Some schools will use teachers with extra pay. Some hire ex pros, etc to coach and they are not staff. It just depends
pfta4@reddit
I've never seen that happen, usually the coaches also teach something.
KidCoheed@reddit
Depends on how large the Highschool is and How well funded the football team is. But mostly the Football Coaches are often Gym and Health Teachers rather than English or Math Teachers. Some times you do have an English or Math teacher in the Coaching Staff as a Cordinantor
Moist_Asparagus6420@reddit
I think the coaches are usually teachers, but I also believed they are payed more for doing both jobs, it's not volunteer. It is very possible that at the biggest and richest schools, they might have someone solely as the head coach, but I'm not sure. At my highschool the head coach was also the AP Calculus teacher, and several of his players were in the class
dnen@reddit
I’m a “dedicated” track and field coach at the high school level in the US. I don’t teach, I work and then go to practice. I’m paid a few grand for the indoor (winter) season and then again in the outdoor (spring) season. Like every high school I know has coaches for some sports that are not teachers.
brieflifetime@reddit
I went to 4 different high schools and at three of them we had a different coach for each sport. And we had a lot of different sports. They usually also taught one or two classes. My father is a teacher and became a coach at his school. He's coached a few different sports.
It pays more to do both than just one or the other. Coaches usually do the practices before and after school as well as during one or more class times each day. Depending on the school of course
im-on-my-ninth-life@reddit
It depends, in the district I went to school in, a head coach must be a teacher (or other faculty member) but assistants don't have to be
Of course there's ways around it though. For example one year the football coach only taught the most basic level math class. And I think being a teacher at middle or maybe elementary, technically complies with the rule even though these are high school sports teams.
WatermelonMachete43@reddit
Our coaches are usually social studies teachers, for whatever reason, lol. They are paid a small sum in addition to their regular salary. We do have a full time paid athletic trainer to work with the injuries of all of our sports teams.
RollinThundaga@reddit
Depends on the funding levels.
A very wealthy school will have dedicated coaches, a smaller suburban school will scout for teachers willing to moonlight.
Kineth@reddit
They also teach, but their first job is coach.
alltheblues@reddit
The schools with more money can. A lot of times the football coach also teaches an “easy” subject like history.
prometheus_winced@reddit
Depends on the size of the school. My fairly large but not gigantic school had a head coach who was always in the gyms and related offices because there was a gym class at every hour of the day, or a show in the gym that evening (stage was in the gym), or a team practice or just administration work to be done.
Usually there would be several other coaches, but they would also teach history, math, driver’s ed, or whatever academic classes as well. They were primarily in a classroom, but would do their particular sport coaching in the afternoon.
GeckosSayGecko@reddit
In my highschool it was one of the teachers. Other people I've known have said the same thing.
BakedBrie26@reddit
We had head coaches and head of the theater department that did those jobs full-time because we had really good football, basketball, volleyball and a huge theater with big endowment and budget. The assistant coaches and coaches for the less prestigious teams were also teachers and coached part time. Students who worked on theater set building, crew, and house management were paid after a certain number of hours banked.
alittlefiendy@reddit
Football coach at my school got shoved into teaching American History and he was the worst teacher ever and you can tell he didn’t give a fuck about the job.
Vast-Concept9812@reddit
All coaches in my high school were teachers but no surprise they played college sports and of course favored the jocks
DMTrious@reddit
Our football coach was a gym teacher, the assistant coach was the husband of the librarian, so he worked outside of school
Baseball coach was an English teacher
And I think basketball was a different gym teacher
Ihasknees936@reddit
From my understanding, for Texas at least, coaches have to do something other than just coach. If the coach is only doing something athletics related, it's specifically because they're the athletics director. At the school I graduated from, most of the coaches were some sort of social studies teacher, including the head football coach (funnily enough he came to the school only to teach, the school had to convince him to be the head coach). I've also seen coaches do the alternative placement class, special education (the coach actually had a degree in it), various stuff for the front office, and also janitorial and maintenance positions.
DontRunReds@reddit
The school in my area does not run a football program. It's too expensive and really needs a larger student body that is available.
However, high school coaches are paid. There's a pay rate of a few thousand per season usually. Enough to make it worth all of the time and travel they put in with the kids.
Electrical_Swing8166@reddit
Sometimes. I went to a private HS, which might impact this a bit, but quite a few of our sports teams had coaches that were not teachers and had other jobs outside the school.
Reverend_Ooga_Booga@reddit
They have dedicated coaches who are usually assigned to a teaching position (physical education or health) to male their payments.
Detonation@reddit
In my highschool, the math teacher was also the football coach.
Ok-Importance9988@reddit
They are usually teachers that get paid extra. Sometimes a high school will have an athletic director. Ours was also the football coach.
If not teacher wants to coach a particular thing someone else can get the job. But the pay will be bad and is difficult to combine with a different part time job.
Some schools will have a booster club where people who care donate money so the coach can afford to only coach the time and/or hire assistant coaches.
Bobcat2013@reddit
In Texas there are 6 classifications of school based on enrollment, 1A-6A. At pretty much all the schools the head coach only coaches and sometimes double duties as the Athletic Director at smaller schools. At a 1A school maybe the head coach teaches PE or health. At bigger schools (4A, 5A, and 6A) the offensive and defensive coordinators, strength and conditioning coach, and maybe another coach with some title like associate head coach or something will also be there only to coach.
Icy_Huckleberry_8049@reddit
Depends on the size of the high school. If it's a big enough or rich enough school, then yes, they have football coaches that just do football. Some even have a whole staff of coaches.
lord_hufflepuff@reddit
Large ones yeah, most of em have the football coach doing at least one other thing as their "day job" though.
OodalollyOodalolly@reddit
They usually teach health or physical education classes during the school day and coach after school. Though our biology teacher was out swimming coach
Thing_On_Your_Shelf@reddit
At my school, yes.
tmptwas@reddit
The short answer is no. High schools (at least public high schools) don't get full-time coaches for any sport. It's much like your country. However, the coaches get paid a little. Coaching is generally an extra job.
Neuvirths_Glove@reddit
In Texas the football head coach is the football head coach, not a teacher.
jakizely@reddit
Mine didn't, but we were a small school. But if anywhere did, it would probably be in Texas. They friggin LOOOOVE their high school football.
weirdoldhobo1978@reddit
It usually depends on the school. Larger and more well funded schools will often have dedicated coaching staff for their sports programs. Other schools cannot justify that expense and will combine the coaching role with a teaching role.
destinyofdoors@reddit
It depends (as always when it comes to the US). Some schools will have teachers (or other school employees) coaching the various sports teams. Others may have some non-faculty/staff coaches, generally people in the community who are paid a small amount of money for their time. I'd say it's pretty rare for there to be a full-time school employee whose sole responsibility is coaching. So, for example, in my high school in CT, the head football coach was a police officer, while most of the assistant coaches were teachers in various subjects. Most of the track and field coaching staff, including the head coach, were teachers. Hockey was coached by one of the guidance counselors, and ski racing was coached by someone with a day job somewhere else.
gfinz18@reddit
I went to a private college prep school (more expensive highschool basically) and it was a mix - some of the teachers were the coaches, but some of the coaches were NOT teaching staff - they were local coaches who had experience at other schools coaching other teams, they had been highschool/collegiate athletes themselves and therefore had experience, or they were school alumni who came back for a coaching position to help.
nauticalfiesta@reddit
they were always a teacher, often health, history, or civics. The district I was in sometimes would hire a specialty coach for the smaller and shorter seasoned sports. The golf coach was a local PGA teaching professional.
rogerfranklin23@reddit
high school football coaches are usually teachers as well and they do get compensated for the hours they put in with the football team
RichLyonsXXX@reddit
It depends on where in the country it is. There are definitely places that have coaches who only coach, and some of those places the coaches are the highest paid people on staff.
DCFud@reddit
Maybe in Texas.
seanx50@reddit
Yes. Dedicated coaches for all sports. Often teachers. But not always.
Football, basketball, baseball, cross country,track, tennis, golf, volleyball, cheerleading, gymnastics, dance, wrestling, bowling and all sports have their own coaching staffs.
COVFEFE-4U@reddit
It might depend on the state or school district. At my school, they were not allowed to hire a person solely dedicated to coaching, so our football coach taught a typing class.
jonsnowknowsnothing_@reddit
Yes they do..but it’s sparse. Depends on not just the state, but specific regions within states (california, Texas, Ohio, Florida) where football drives a lot of the schools prestige / revenue
Strong_Comedian_3578@reddit
Since you're asking about American high schools, are you talking about American football or soccer?
GeorgeWashingfun@reddit
Depends on how seriously the school takes sports. The average school just has a teacher do it, but I've sent my kids to some private schools that have dedicated football coaches, some of which have worked with college and professional teams.
000111000000111000@reddit
My high school coach started coaching as a gym teacher (go figure), and after he retired still was the high school football coach for many years until retiring in 2014. He was the head coach for 35 years, and previously had been a assistant coach for about 11 years. He actually coached three players who went onto prolific careers in the NFL, one of which retired as a pro bowl running back, , one who is still the offensive coach for a NFL football team, and whom previously had been the head coach for a NFL Team.
BeautifulSundae6988@reddit
In Texas, where American football is considered the most prominent in the culture,
All coaches make more money than teachers
The head coach is also the athletic director
The other coaches on a team will have a side job teaching, that they stereotypically do not give a shit about.
A Texas highschool football team will have between 4 and 10 coaches for a team of ~50 kids.
blipsman@reddit
They’re almost always teachers at the school
max_m0use@reddit
Depends on the size of the school. My high school had a football coach who also taught English. He ended up leaving for a neighboring school twice the size of ours, where he would be able to coach full time and not have to teach.
BM7-D7-GM7-Bb7-EbM7@reddit
In Texas, the high school coaches are often the highest paid "teachers" on the payroll, by a gigantic margin compared to the average teacher. This is absolutely a thing.
https://www.chron.com/sports/highschool/article/high-school-football-salaries-18462668.php
lyrasorial@reddit
This is so embarrassing
agenteDEcambio@reddit
what in the actual fuck. They make more than some principals and all assistant principals.
Jumpy-Figure-4082@reddit
If they didn't work for the school they were a parent who volunteered.
Nyxelestia@reddit
In high school, almost all sports coaches are also teachers. Sometimes, it might be gym teachers so their entire educational career is still centered around physical activities, but that's the closest we get to "full time"/dedicated coaches. And most coaches do not teach gym but a more academic subject.
Colleges do, however, have dedicated coaches.
DaisyDuckens@reddit
Mostly the coaches are teachers of other subjects. The football coach is probably a PE teacher too, but could teach another subject. The other sports like track or basketball are often teachers of other subjects too. I was the drama teacher even though I had no drama experience because I was an English teacher. The PE teacher/coach I worked with was a former Olympian. Lots of double duty for teachers. Some big schools may have a dedicated theater teacher or dedicated coach but it’s not the norm.
sweet_hedgehog_23@reddit
My school had a mix of coaches who were teachers and non-teachers. Some of the high school sports coaches were middle school or elementary school teachers. In 2003 a survey of some Indiana schools found that 70% of basketball, softball, baseball, wrestling, and volleyball coaches were teachers. I don't imagine things have changed much.
Most coaches are paid at least a stipend of some sort. Here are some salary examples I found in newspapers.
Southwest Dubois County Schools, Indiana (2020)- Football or Basketball: $7,906, Track: $3,817, Tennis: $2,169
Munster, Indiana (2021) - Basketball or Football: $10,450, Volleyball: $5,825, Wrestling: $6,200
Dallas-Fort Worth (2022) - Most head football coaches have salaries over $100,000, with an average of $116,287, but that includes any teaching or athletic director salary. Average base teacher salary in 2021-22 was $59,555 in the Decatur school district. Lowest paid coach was $90,000
Orlando Sentinel (2023) - This article states that coaches in Georgia are offered $25,000-$30,000 while Florida can be around $3,000-$5,000
Tech High School, Saint Cloud, Minnesota (2021) - Basketball: $5,301, Diving: $4,295, Swim: $5,301
MuppetManiac@reddit
My high school was large enough that the coaches were only doing athletics.
In my area, you have to take a specific number of physical education courses. There’s general PE, and then there are a lot of courses that are athletics. The football team was in a class that taught football. So were the cheerleaders, the dance team, the volleyball team, the basketball team, the baseball and softball teams, the swim team, the golf team etc. My school was large enough that the coaches generally handled a couple sports and a few general PE classes. Some were certified in other teaching areas. My drill team instructor taught three dance classes and the drill team. The cheerleading coach also taught health classes. The golf coach was a history teacher.
DoinIt989@reddit
All the football coaches at my high school were teachers. Most of them were math or science teachers funnily enough.
Rathemon@reddit
they do get paid to coach. they are also teachers
the_Bryan_dude@reddit
They are mostly but not all teachers at the school. Usually physical education or in my day, driver's education.
They are paid extra to be coaches. I've had coaches who's regular jobs were cops, mechanics, managers and other professionals.
earthy0755@reddit
Mine did, but there’s been a couple that worked as both teachers and coaches. Our more profitable sports (football, basketball, track, maybe others) had dedicated coaches.
MattieShoes@reddit
I think it would be weird... which doesn't mean it hasn't happen, but I think it'd be more likely to be a guy hired to be a football coach but expected to run PE classes or whatever as well.
Petitels@reddit
Yes
blueponies1@reddit
People are saying that they are mostly teachers with coaching on the side. The stereotype is that they are the opposite. Coaches who teach a random subject for fun. In my experience at my school, this was true. The coaches were goofey teachers who didn’t care in class and were focused on sports (for the lower level math and history classes mostly). I wasn’t in their classes but I had them for coaches and I just always heard they would give football players free points, they just joked around and had lots of movie days. Stuff like that. So I can confirm in some cases the coaches are definitely more coaches and less teacher.
ButterFace225@reddit
Yes, it's often a paid position. They're typically teachers with education degrees though. I remember my old high school having a pretty bad loosing streak and the coach resigned (allegedly). It was a pretty big deal when they hired the new guy.
Innerouterself2@reddit
Yes, they are teachers who are also paid to coach. They may get anywhere from like $2,000 per season all the way uo to like $45k in some weird Texas schools. Most get paid under $10k extra a year to coach.
Usually the coach is pretty busy for 4 months of the year. It is a lot of time commitment for very little money. But it means pretty good job security if you win.
SkiMonkey98@reddit
It's usually a teacher. Sometimes not, but it's a very part time job so they need some sort of other work
MiketheTzar@reddit
It depends on the school and situation. For the vast majority of schools the coaches are teachers; as others have pointed out.
In some "lower commitment" sports like say girls cross country, men's volleyball, or diving you'll mainly have volunteers. These are often parents, parents of graduated students, or occasionally currently enrolled college/graduate students who want to break into coaching.
Certain football programs even at the high school level will have a dedicated coach, Gary Gaines of Friday Night Lights Fame has exactly zero results or biographical note of him teaching beyond his first few years coaching. Though football is religion in Texas and even there unless you're a proverbial powerhouse they likely make you teach something. Likely weightlifting.
Then there are some coaches that have administrative jobs. Our high school baseball coach was the athletic director and one of the registrar's.
You'll also find it in some high end basketball programs and baseball programs, but that's about it.
semisubterranean@reddit
It's amazing how many Americans had a history teacher named "coach."
At most middle schools and high schools, coaches are teachers. Some are good teachers, but many are hired more for their coaching ability than their skill at teaching. I would argue the effect of that, multiplied across 30,000 high schools, has an overall negative impact on our society.
I do value athletics and think they are a valuable way to teach important soft skills like leadership, teamwork, losing and winning gracefully, strategic thinking, etc. It's just that tight budgets mean those lessons are prioritized over other subject areas, like history and geography. I wish we had more full-time coaches and more full-time teachers and fewer people trying to do everything.
Real-Psychology-4261@reddit
Teachers are typically coaches. They are paid a stipend to coach the season. For example, I think our HS football coach is paid around $6,000-$8,000 for the entire season.
Rogue_Cheeks98@reddit
Depends on the school. Sometimes theyre just teachers who volunteer, somtimes theyre teachers who get extra pay for doing it, but sometimes theyre teachers are dedicated coaches who get paid to do it.
Same with all other sports.
My school had dedicated coaches for most sports, other than the more obscure ones like the bass fishing team, the golf team, and the sailing team I think.
cdb03b@reddit
Yes.
My High School Had a Dedicated Head Coach, and a Dedicated Primary Assistant Coach that only coached Football. They then had several other Assistant Coaches that coached specific things like Defensive Line, etc. who taught other sports as well and who had at least one academic class (typically History, though one did AP Biology because he had the credentials).
But I am from Texas and high school football is a bit more of a deal here.
botulizard@reddit
It's often a teacher, but it might be someone from outside the school who has a full-time job outside of coaching.
When I was in high school, the head football coach worked in the school year-round as the director of athletics, and the assistant coaches were a mix of teachers and guys from around town who all had other jobs. I'm not sure if it was all volunteer work or if they got paid, but three of the assistant coaches had sons on the team.
JimBeam823@reddit
Officially no, but really yes.
The football coach is a teacher, but they usually teach some sort of physical education.
IHateHangovers@reddit
Our head coach taught weightlifting. We lifted or played football in the indoor practice facility everyday. I took that class every semester.
andygchicago@reddit
Our school was known for it's football. Regularly made it to state championships, attracted a lot of college recruiters, etc.
We had a coach that taught a single gym period for an hour a day, had a 15 minute homeroom period, a lunch period and a study hall. Enough I assume to get him a teacher's pension. The rest of the time he focused on football. The rest of the coaches had similar schedules.
When he retired, I heard he was replaced with a full-time coach.
So it varies based on the school district's commitment to football
Cosmic-Ape-808@reddit
I wish I would have more attention in my high school and joined golf team. There was a coach for the 3-5 boy preppy white boy team but not sure if he was volunteer coach since was a niche sport in high school. Like I said, wish I woulda joined. My golf game would be da shit right now yo!!!
Aggravating-Grand840@reddit
Yes
DrGerbal@reddit
The school I went to after I graduated. Paid some coach at a “power house high school in like Arkansas or Missouri or something to move down for for an absurd amount of money. And he’s for the formality of it a drivers ed or something coach. But his only purpose is to coach and win. If you want an example. Watch 2 a days about the Hoover high school back in the 2000’s. My school always played Hoover, and our record is shit against them
baileyx96@reddit
Major High Schools in Texas: Usually the head football coach doesn’t teach, but they are usually the Athletic Director for the school as well. All other coaches were teachers. (Usually history, social studies, or geography)
warneagle@reddit
Our head coach and coordinators were basically just coaches but our position coaches were generally also teachers.
Blackdalf@reddit
It depends on the state and the size of the school. Sometimes the coach is an administrator like a principal. In Texas sometimes the head football coach doubles as the athletic director so not a teacher but still an admin.
tatofarms@reddit
Most U.S. K-12 schools have teachers as coaches. There are exceptions, though, especially in Texas. Check out a few minutes of this mini-documentary about Garrett Wilson, NFL offensive rookie of the year in 2022. His parents deliberately moved to an area so that he could enroll in Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas. I mean, look at their indoor practice facility, which is nicer than what you'd find at most colleges. And this head coach is talking about scouting players from three local middle schools as early as sixth grade. https://youtu.be/c4n8jjeUZCk?t=792 Baker Mayfield, the starting QB for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, also played high school football there.
sgtm7@reddit
Every high school coach I have known of, were also teachers. They were paid extra for coaching.
BigDaddyReptar@reddit
They are normally teachers but how do you say... Less involved teachers. Things like us history or gym teachers. Not to say they are bad teachers but just teachers who can focus more on coaching than having to read each students 1000 word essay after class.
Brilliant-Fun-1806@reddit
They’re full time coaches in my neck of the woods. They get fired for losing and move schools for better opportunities
SacredGay@reddit
In my school they hired coaches and then made them teach something else to justify their employment. It was pretty obvious when you got a really lousy teacher and find out they are the volleyball or football coach.
IHSV1855@reddit
It depends on the state and the individual school. I’m some states, coaches are required to be teachers. In many of those states, they’re primarily coaches and teach a class or two to comply with the law. No matter what, though, the coaches are paid.
In my state, coaches are not required to be teachers. That being said, most school can’t afford to pay an employee just to be a coach, so a teacher is chosen and gets paid a small stipend. On the other end of the spectrum, though, my high school hockey coach at a private school was paid nearly half a million dollars per year. So it really depends.
Mean-Math7184@reddit
In my area, a rural county in East Tennessee, the school board requires any sports coach to also teach a class. Most teach English or History, though we did have a basketball coach that taught chemistry a while back. But it's just one class, and their primary role is to coach a sport.
Weightmonster@reddit
Do they have to have a teaching license?
Mean-Math7184@reddit
For public schools, yes. Private schools sometime will allow someone with a bachelor degree teach a class, but that has become less common.
taniamorse85@reddit
At both high schools I went to, coaches for all sports were also teachers. In 10th grade, both my driver's ed and geometry teachers were football coaches. TBH, I don't think I learned anything in geometry because he was too busy with football-related stuff.
WizardWorld321@reddit
Depends, at my hs sports are taken seriously even though it's in ny and not Texas. The coaches are not teaches and are dedicated coaches. Some coaches do substitute though. The former football coach of my hs was actually a nfl player so some schools definitely go all out.
crochetawayhpff@reddit
We had teachers who coached some sports, but lots of sports had non teacher coaches. They aren't full time jobs tho. They are part time and from what I recall, didn't pay all that well.
My high school didn't have football lol it was too small
ShoppingCartCentral@reddit
TL;DR - It can vary from school to school and there is no clear answer, but the coach is most often also an employee of some kind.
Based on My Experiences, Most Coaches Fall into one of these 5:
1.) The coach is a teacher and coaches on the side.
2.) The coach is an employee of the school (such as a counselor, custodian, bus driver, or other school support staff). - For example, my schools basketball coach was a janitor.
3.) The coach is an employee of the school system but not the school they coach at. - For example, one of the football coaches at my high school was a special education teacher at an elementary school in the system.
4.) They are exclusively a coach but are only part time. - For example, the women’s soccer coach at my school was the assistant soccer coach at a nearby college and did the high school as a part-time gig.
5.) They are exclusively a coach and are paid full time. - I’ve never seen this happen in person. But I know of a few, usually large or private schools, where this is the case.
RickMoneyRS@reddit
I think it's just going to depend. In my school district the coaches were hired as coaches first and foremost, but some may also take another job if they want full-time work, or may coach multiple sports.
For instance, my first three years of high school our head football coach was the head of the athletic department for the entire district. Then he retired and was replaced by someone who was just the coach. Volleyball and Girl's basketball had the same coach. The girl's soccer coach and boy's basketball coach were given teaching positions for certain easy/blowoff classes. The tennis coach did both boys and girls, etc.
rogun64@reddit
They're usually known first as the coach, but they teach other subjects too. In my experience, they shouldn't have been teaching the other subjects, because all the coach-teachers I had were really bad teachers. Good coaches, but awful teachers. I had one who taught math that seemed to know less than the students, because we were constantly having to explain how he was wrong or just explain it to him in the first place.
butt_honcho@reddit
At my high school, they were hired primarily to be coaches, but the school had a policy that they had to be teachers as well. Most of them ended up getting stuck as math teachers, which the majority didn't want to do and weren't very good at.
PersonalitySmall593@reddit
Other way around here. They are coaches who teach
SnooRadishes7189@reddit
In the U.S. it is paid but usually handled by a teacher on staff often the Gym teacher.
Rhomya@reddit
It varies. Some are teachers, some are not.
My brother coaches three different sports at three different age levels, and he's the transportation supervisor for the district school buses.
Brilliant_Towel2727@reddit
It would be very rare for a public high school to hire someone solely as a coach. Coaches are almost always teachers, although there's something of a tradition of hiring a teacher more for their coaching ability than their teaching ability, and assigning them to teach either gym or social studies (which is considered less important than other subjects because it isn't on the state test).
spongeboy1985@reddit
The Varsity Football couch was a PE teacher. He even had a period just for the team I believe.
ButItSaysOnline@reddit
It’s going depend on the school, the district, and how competitive the team is.
JtotheC23@reddit
Sometimes. There's some places where it's considered a full-time position with full-time pay and benefits, but that's likely mostly in places like Texas where football is everything. Most of the time when coaches only come to the school to coach, it's a part-time job. They have some normal job during the day, often a teacher probably, but go to whatever high school to coach after school/work. The job is often still filled by teachers at the school tho. Whatever combination of this a school has, it's rarely volunteer outside of maybe the jobs on the bottom of the totem pole.
colin8651@reddit
In Texas you have a dedicated team of coaches and sports ts injury therapists.
Wicket2024@reddit
Texan here. They are teachers in name only in that they are given low level elective class. They really higher them for coaches and get paid very well for it. At least in the Land of Friday Night Lights.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Ours was also the health and gym teacher so not just a dedicated football coach.
TrillyMike@reddit
Faculty members got the first dibs on being a coach but if they couldn’t find a faculty member who wants to do it then it could open up to non faculty members
notanothrowaway@reddit
The head coach is just the head coach and nothing else unless they choose to be otherwise. The rest of the coaches usually take the easy jobs in the school (some kind of special education or 504 helper, DAEP or ISS supervisor, or something random), and the ones that are teachers are 99 percent of the time social studies teachers.
Wild-Attention2932@reddit
Depends on the size of the school. Bigger ones have dedicated coaches, and smaller ones usually have teachers and coaches in the same person .
MyUsername2459@reddit
They are usually teachers. They are generally seen as coaching being their main job, but they do hold a teaching position. Typically they teach physical education, or sometimes English or History.
However, they are known mostly as the coach, and that's seen (at least informally) as their main job. Legally they may be hired as a teacher and they volunteer as the football coach on top of it. . .but in reality that's a legal fiction for them being the coach first and foremost.
okamzikprosim@reddit
In my high school, the football coach taught 1 period of bio while the assistant coach was head of security. The athletic director taught 1 period of English and it was an absolutely dreadful class.
Wildcat_twister12@reddit
In my district all coaches had to be teachers. The football, cheer, and basketball coaches got to be gym teachers and the rest did either what they were actually qualified for or some b.s. teaching job like drivers ed.
Blutrumpeter@reddit
In my experience they hire a football coach to also teach something extra like PE but middle school is just a teacher
Aggressive_FIamingo@reddit
Maybe at some of the really good football schools, but at my high school (where the football team sucked) the football coach was an English teacher. He was a good English teacher too, I took his class. He really liked E.E. Cummings.
AgitatedMagazine4406@reddit
All depends some places yes and others no
V-Right_In_2-V@reddit
Yes and their son is always the starting quarterback, no matter how good he is
callmeKiKi1@reddit
In our school one of the teachers was the coach, but we were a very small school
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
At big schools they can make well over $100,000 just coaching but that's at big high schools down south. Where I grew up the coach would teach at least one other class.
Agile_Property9943@reddit
At my high-school we had a coach for boys basketball and football and he had a assistant coach. We also had a coach for cross country and boys track and field, a coach for girls Volleyball, a coach for Soccer and Tennis and the Athletic director overall.
the_vole@reddit
Some do, most don’t. HS football in Texas is WAY bigger than anywhere else in the country, so I’m assuming the largest percentage of dedicated football coaches are there.
Unless you mean association football and not gridiron football. In that case, I’d be shocked if there were any 😂
Freedum4Murika@reddit
You’re bound to notice in the responses - in the South, the coach is dedicated professional hired solely to coach the team and is the pride (or shame) of the local community. In the North/rest of the country he’s some poor teacher trying to earn enough extra $ to afford rent AND takeout on the weekends (non tipper).
We take it seriously down here
savvylikeapirate@reddit
My HS had an insane athletic program, and in my state, it is (or was) required that coaches also teach something. Most of them taught Health or PE, but a few taught history. One taught a film appreciation elective.
But by insane program, I mean really insane. My health teacher (and our cross-country coach) was a former Olympian.
nwbrown@reddit
TV is not real life.
No-Conversation1940@reddit
I learned this can happen through family in Texas, but back in Missouri I only ever knew football coaches to also be employed as teachers of some kind.
My high school was in a very small town with low enrollment so we didn't have football at all, but the coaches in other sports doubled as teachers.
lai4basis@reddit
At my kids school the head coach is a teacher and maybe an assistant but for the most part the coaches come from the outside. You will get pretty lucky if you can find an OC and DC in a high school along with specialty coaches.
guywithshades85@reddit
My football coach was also a history teacher. The JV head coach was a biology teacher.
SRC2088@reddit
At my high school, every coach except for the head football coach was a teacher. Mostly physical education, drivers ed., and history/government/civics.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
I played tennis in high school and our coach was NOT a teacher.
She was the tennis pro at a local club who was also the mom of one of my teammates. I'm pretty sure she was just volunteering.
Our football coach was a history teacher.
Left-Acanthisitta267@reddit
At 2 of my high schools, the head football coach was dedicated just to football team. At the third high school he was technically a vice-principle who had very few other responsibilities. All the other sports coaches and assistant football coaches were teachers that were paid extra to coach.
PikaPonderosa@reddit
My public school didn't have a football team and the school I graduated from was too small.
TipsyBaker_@reddit
All of our teams were teachers. Football, baseball, basketball, and soccer were mostly the social studies teachers. The volleyball coach was the PE teacher.
We had a shooting team, led by the biology teacher which was an interesting choice.
Roadshell@reddit
There are a small handful of often private schools that are really heavily into sports and become pipelines for like-minded colleges and eventually the professional leagues and those schools are more likely to have a dedicated coach than your average run-of-the-mill high schools.
iremainunvanquished1@reddit
Coaches are usually teachers as well. They usually taught PE, health, or history when I was in school.
CatOfGrey@reddit
At least in my experience (California, student mid 1980's, teacher early 1990's) a football coach usually had a regular teaching load, and got extra money (more common), but sometimes 'taught football as a class', and so they
Private high schools, especially those few that have dedicated football programs that are often a 'marquee' school which attracts a lot of college programs, the football coach might actually be a non-teacher coach that is dedicated to football full time.
Some areas of Texas might run differently, too. There are places that have surprisingly developed football programs compared to other areas of the country.
legendary_mushroom@reddit
Seems like they usually have the football coach teaching PE and/or health class
prettyjupiter@reddit
Sometimes they are teachers, sometimes they are parents, sometimes they are people that just want to coach for life
WhichSpirit@reddit
At my high school the football coaches were all teachers. A lot of other schools were surprised when they found out the one that looked like a drill sergeant was an art teacher.
urmyheartBeatStopR@reddit
PE teacher.
There are volunteers.
The bouncer at the night club I go to volunteer coaches a highschool football team that his kid was in.
gogonzogo1005@reddit
Our football coach and his staff are all former local/regional players, who won a national championship and many played pro football. They have other jobs but most coaches on our region especially at the big schools are there to get the teams to states. THE Midwest is as sports Crazy as Texas.
Pleasant_Studio9690@reddit
Our football coach also taught health classes like the CPR class. And I use "taught" very loosely. He spent most of the class reading romance novels at his desk. It was pretty clear he was hired to be a football coach first and being a "teacher" was a distant second priority.
cappotto-marrone@reddit
Ugh, coaches as “social studies“ teachers. My oldest son would often have to correct them on civics or historical facts. Always nicely, after class.
Low-Session-8525@reddit
As many have stated they are usually teachers who are better at coaching than teaching...gym or health. Weirdly enough my high school’s basketball coach was a much better math teacher than basketball coach. One of the best math teachers I had. The basketball team was awful
Turdulator@reddit
It’s teachers…. I don’t know if they get paid extra or not.
But sometimes if the school puts to much importance on a specific sport they will hire someone to be the coach, and then give them some bullshit class to teach… that’s rare, but not unheard of
_ML_78@reddit
They are teachers but I will add I’ve attended schools where they hire a “teacher” solely for their coaching abilities (then make them teach one health class to 7th graders only). It definitely depends on the school and their interest in winning a state championship (this interest may come the parent pressure). It really depends on the school.
Positive-Avocado-881@reddit
One of them was a gym teacher and he also did stuff for the district.
GreenStrong@reddit
Many American schools have a dedicated football coach.
Other sports are generally coached by a teacher. But for popular sports like basketball, the teacher is generally allowed to spend most of their time and energy on the sport. They teach a full load of classes, but they don’t put any effort into teaching.
ketamineburner@reddit
Cheer often has dedicated coaches, too.
MrLongWalk@reddit
This is pretty much always the case here as well, although many are paid a bit extra.
maxwasatch@reddit
Often they are teachers, usually gym teachers.
Football temds to have the most coaches, so many times all the gym teachers coach football as well as other sports.
Sometimes there will be coaches who do that part time but otherwise have a different job.
BankManager69420@reddit
I’d say it’s a mix of both. My area generally has dedicated coaches for football and basketball. Most other sports it’s either a teacher who ‘volunteers’ (they get paid for their time) or a parent or community volunteer who will typically get some nominal stipend.
mtcwby@reddit
Not ours. They're generally teachers although some assistants often have some other relationship to the school.
ketamineburner@reddit
At my kids school, there are dedicated coaches, not teachers.
This is common with competitive teams.
SquidsArePeople2@reddit
Most of them are teachers who are paid an additional stipend for coaching.
Psychological-Star39@reddit
Former Texas district admin here. It depends on the size of the school district and the level of the coach. The head football coach is the district athletic director as well and at the most will teach one or two classes. As you go down in level, they will usually have more class periods. They are paid a stipend for each sport they coach depending on the level.
xxxjessicann00xxx@reddit
My brother in law is a high school wrestling coach, but he isn't a teacher. His co-coach is though.
MortimerDongle@reddit
They can, but in Pennsylvania there are no full-time coaches at the high school level. They don't need to be teachers but the pay is nowhere close to a full-time job (typically it is no more than a few thousand dollars for the year).
BusinessWarthog6@reddit
It depends, most of the time they are teachers. However, there are highschools where they hire a separate coach. Some prep schools may do this because they are only there to get the best prospects college ready (think places like IMG Academy and Oakhill academy who produce league talent but those guys don’t have the grades or scores to be accepted to their college right after they graduate)
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
At my schools, almost all of the coaches were gym and drivers Ed teachers.
2spicy_4you@reddit
Smaller ones are also teachers, probably a PE coach. Massive ones have actual coaches
Luka_Dunks_on_Bums@reddit
My high school football coach was an English teacher.Rich private schools have dedicated sport coaches and some well off public schools
TheBimpo@reddit
Our football coach also served as the high school athletic Director. But in my experience, it is most common for the football coach to be a teacher in the district. Coaches typically get paid for coaching.
BrooklynNotNY@reddit
Some schools probably do. At my school, the head coach was the sociology teacher and the assistant coach was the economics teacher.
AgKnight14@reddit
My high school it gym teachers mostly, some academic teachers as assistants. There are probably some private high schools with dedicated coaches
TheRealDudeMitch@reddit
I believe Illinois requires the coaches to be teachers. The high school I went to is a football powerhouse, and the football coach was absolutely hired by the school to BE the football coach.
He taught Physical Education and Drivers Education as his teaching subjects, but there was no secret what his real job was.
I graduated in 2008, and he’s still the football coach and they are still one of the best high school football programs in Illinois.
Otherwisefantastic@reddit
Where I live the coaches are definitely hired as coaches. They aren't teachers who volunteer as coaches in their free time. Many of them will also teach other somewhat related classes though, like Health. Like the football coach is hired full-time as a football coach, same for the basketball coach, et cetera.
zestzebra@reddit
A great question for Gov. Tim Walz
bogibso@reddit
10 years of experience here with teaching/coaching at a small school (400ish total students) in Indiana. Around here, most coaches are teachers who are paid a stipend for their coaching duties. And most of the time it amounts to pennies per hour when you work out the amount of time you put in to it. Don't know much about the Indianapolis-area schools with enrollments 10 times what I'm used to. I do know they get paid MUCH better than what we do, but I'm unsure of their academic duties.
MTB_Mike_@reddit
These answers are wild to me. My high school had dedicated coaches for football and wrestling at a minimum. It was a decently large school (around 2500 students) so that might have played a role. This is in southern California.
deebville86ed@reddit
It depends on the school. I've been to schools where coaches of all sports were either solely coaches, ams some where they were coaches as well as teachers or a combination of the two: like all the coaches were solely coaches, or some were solely coaches and some doubled as teachers, or all doubled as teachers. It all depends things like the institute, the budget, and the typical talent level of the teams
Apocalyptic0n3@reddit
They are generally teachers of some sort. When I was in school, the varsity coach was a science teacher, the JV team was a math teacher, and the freshman team's coach was a phys ed teacher.
Interestingly, we had several coaches (namely the coaches for each of the 3 boy's soccer teams) who taught at other schools.
They get paid for their work, but it's definitely not enough to live off.
Note: this was for suburban Detroit. There are likely coaches who are solely coaches, especially in the south and Texas.
BronxBelle@reddit
They’re almost always also teachers. Usually teaching history in my experience. But they are paid to coach as well as teach.
PinchMaNips@reddit
Bigger schools? Yes, usually have a dedicated coach. Smaller schools its generally a teacher that coaches on the side.
Infinite-Surprise-53@reddit
As I've seen it, some schools will hire someone as a coach but still require them to work as a teacher
CommandAlternative10@reddit
My school coaches weren’t volunteers, but they also got like $3000 for the entire season, so it wasn’t a full time gig for anyone.
atlasisgold@reddit
The schools in our area have mostly dedicated coaches. For some schools it’s a really really big deal
RedLegGI@reddit
Depends on the school. I’d say most teach, or have a supporting role and coach as well.
sammysbud@reddit
At my school, the football coach was recruited to the school for coaching, but they also had to teach a class (usually “conditioning” which was reserved for the football players). The assistant coaches taught social studies or some non-essential elective.
They were all paid teacher salaries, plus additional for coaching. Any teacher who coached a sport got extra, but the difference between a football coach’s add-on salary and, say, swimming or track was pretty substantial.
This was in a small town in the south, where football is pretty big.
NArcadia11@reddit
High school sports teams often have dedicated coaches that are not teachers. I know at my high school most of the sports coaches were not teachers or volunteer positions. I think most of them had other jobs because coaching high school sports doesn’t pay much, but they weren’t volunteering.
EffectiveNew4449@reddit
Some schools do, some don't. At least at my high school, our coach was some overweight gym coach (think 350lbs+) who also functioned as the remedial and health teacher (Yes, I know).
Unless a school was known for churning out star college players, I don't think they'd have a coach that is solely dedicated to sports. We have divisions in high school sports as well after all.
Zaidswith@reddit
They usually teach some sort of gym class. If you come from a very wealthy area with a successful football program that class might be something like a weight training class made up only of football players. It's how they could have a football coach who does nothing else, but that's not the norm in any way. Most would teach normal PE classes.
I'd say [almost] every high school has a physical education department so they will mostly be normal teachers (we'd call them coaches) for gym and health classes, but teachers of any other subjects can also coach teams. It's a common trope that social studies teachers are also coaches (because it's seen as a soft subject for them to get certification). The smaller and poorer the school, the more likely you'll see sports coached by academic teachers, but big schools sometimes offer so many sports that assistant coaches will be pulled from the teaching staff too.
kgxv@reddit
It’s going to be a case-by-case basis for sure. Some states have more rigorous requirements for coaching than others, some schools don’t want to pay a full-time coach (a coach who is also a teacher at the school is a part-time coach in some places), and any number of other variables.
When I played in high school, my head coach wasn’t a teacher, but some of the position coaches were. The head coach there now is also a teacher, though, so it doesn’t seem to be an explicit rule one way or the other there.
linds3ybinds3y@reddit
IME, they're usually also teachers. My dad was a history teacher/football coach, for example. He played football through college and was offered a smallish stipend in addition to his teaching salary to coach the team.
houndsoflu@reddit
No, ours was the Health teacher
netopiax@reddit
At my high school, all sports teams including football were coached by either a) a staff member who was the coach for several different teams, and also taught one or two gym classes; or b) a teacher of some academic class like english. I think but am not sure that the academic teachers got paid a little extra if they coached a team.
pudding7@reddit
Yes, in the vast majority of schools that have a football team, the coach will be a paid position.