Open Job: Dixie Heights

[Calico Jack]

1 hour ago, rjs4470 said:

Money is always nice. But the reality is the expectations and time commitment has really changed over the years. My first varsity job as a DB coach in southeastern Pa almost 30 years ago was way different in terms of time. No spring football, no June practice, practice starting in early August, we actually had lots of time off. It’s literally year round now. And there’s way more stress and scrutiny from parents and administration. It’s a really tough, thankless job.

This is going to sound selfish, but to be quite honest, it’s going to take some selfishness in the coaching ranks to see these changes take place or else there is going to be just enough people applying for jobs to make administration(s) keep doing what they’ve always done in terms of pay and support.

Run an offseason program? Compensated.  
Want June and July workouts? Extended days. 
 

If neither of those? Too bad, so sad.

Drastic change requires drastic measures.  It’s sad to think of it like that, but stipends, compensation aren’t ever going to go up if people aren’t willing to just say “ ✌️ out.  I’m done.” And in the masses.  

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

On 1/11/2022 at 6:38 PM, Calico Jack said:

This is going to sound selfish, but to be quite honest, it’s going to take some selfishness in the coaching ranks to see these changes take place or else there is going to be just enough people applying for jobs to make administration(s) keep doing what they’ve always done in terms of pay and support.

Run an offseason program? Compensated.  
Want June and July workouts? Extended days. 
 

If neither of those? Too bad, so sad.

Drastic change requires drastic measures.  It’s sad to think of it like that, but stipends, compensation aren’t ever going to go up if people aren’t willing to just say “ ✌️ out.  I’m done.” And in the masses.  

I don't think that sounds selfish at all @Calico Jack. I think anyone looking for a job ought to do what they can to make as much money as they can.

Just in general, though, I think that's where the school district points to the added salary for head coaching duties. I haven't looked into them much recently, but in the NKY area, I know last year Newport high school was listing $8K as their added salary for head football coach, and Highlands was listing just over $9K for added salary.

My best guess is that 95% of schools are going to say "take it or leave it" if they have anyone bring the salary into question, without having any further discussion. I think when a coach or coaching candidate says  “ ✌️ out, I’m done” over money, the majority of the school districts are going to be forced to answer with:




Having talked to a lot of administrators about things, I think the popular opinion among admins from schools that aren't in the Trinity, Highlands, Boyle County, Male, Belfry, Cov Cath, Beechwood or St. X subset is that, "Look, I'm here to run a school, and a school's primary objective is providing a classroom education. If we can compliment that with sports teams and clubs and other extra-curriculars, that's awesome. If it comes down to having to tighten our belt because of finances, then the first place I'm looking to cut out fat is art and sports programs."

Once upon a time it wasn't rare to see schools in Kentucky where it was uncommon that they had more than football, baseball, and basketball programs. Maybe track and field. That's 3, maybe 4 coaches' salaries that the school district had to pony up for. We've now added girls sports, as we should have. And so now there's golf, soccer, volleyball, tennis, cross country, softball, wrestling, archery, lacrosse, bass fishing, dance team, bowling, competitive cheer, swimming & diving, and esports. Think of how much added money that is for a school's budget.

Providing sports programs just isn't Job One for our school systems - and that rings true even moreso in public schools who have their funding cut by the state if they perform poorly academically. (Talk about counter-intuitive: 'Your school is struggling with things? Well, we're going to try to solve that problem by taking away funding so you have even fewer resources. That oughta make you do better.')

As much as I hate saying it, I don't see the "drastic measures" being an overwhelming bump in pay for coaches. I see "drastic measures" more likely to be sports programs disappearing.

[Calico Jack]

2 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

I don't think that sounds selfish at all @Calico Jack. I think anyone looking for a job ought to do what they can to make as much money as they can.

Just in general, though, I think that's where the school district points to the added salary for head coaching duties. I haven't looked into them much recently, but in the NKY area, I know last year Newport high school was listing $8K as their added salary for head football coach, and Highlands was listing just over $9K for added salary.

My best guess is that 95% of schools are going to say "take it or leave it" if they have anyone bring the salary into question, without having any further discussion. I think when a coach or coaching candidate says  “ ✌️ out.  I’m done.” over money, the majority of the school districts are going to be forced to answer with:




Having talked to a lot of administrators about things, and I think the popular opinion among admins in schools that aren't the the Trinity, Highlands, Boyle County, Male, Belfry, Cov Cath, Beechwood or St. X subset is that, "Look, I'm here to run a school, and a school's primary objective is providing a classroom education. If we can compliment that with sports teams and clubs and other extra-curriculars, that's awesome. If it comes down to having to tighten our belt because of finances, then the first place I'm looking to cut out fat is art and sports programs."

Once upon a time it wasn't rare to see schools in Kentucky where it was rare that they had much more than football, baseball, and basketball programs. Maybe track and field. That's 3, maybe 4 coaches salaries that the school district had to pony up for. We've now added girls sports, as we should have. And so now there's golf, soccer, volleyball, tennis, cross country, softball, wrestling, archery, lacrosse, bass fishing, dance team, bowling, competitive cheer, swimming & diving, and esports. Think of how much added money that is for a school's budget.

Providing sports programs just isn't Job One for our school systems - and that rings true even moreso in public schools who have their funding cut by the state if they perform poorly academically. (Talk about counter-intuitive: 'Your school is struggling with things? Well, we're going to try to solve that problem by taking away funding so you have even fewer resources. That oughta make you do better.')

As much as I hate saying it, I don't see the "drastic measures" being an overwhelming bump in pay for coaches. I see "drastic measures" more likely to being sports programs disappearing.

I don’t disagree with any of that.  Hit some nails on the head. I think they will eventually end up disappearing because enough coaches are going to to just eventually walk away and be done with it, so they won’t be able to find actual qualified people in the very least and away they go altogether.  

[Kenny Powers]

3 hours ago, FrankNicodemus said:

It be an interesting thread to tackle the unfortunate realism of your comment, regarding the supply of high qualified coaches that are out there.

What could we (we = in a very broad term, citizens, parents of schools, parents of players, Boards of Ed, KHSAA, etc) do to pump up and build a better (more of) supply of quality coaches?  You could probably replace coaches with officials as well and start a thread for them as well.....

 

Money of course is the easy answer and honestly would solve part of the problem. Removing "during the day" duties for coaches would also help alleviate the issue so that they are essentially not performing TWO full-time jobs at once. 

However, for things to truly change and for high schools to have an abundance of high quality applicants for open positions, the same people who say they support coaches and athletic programs need to understand that a lot of times their words and their actions are not aligned. 

This is obviously not a blanket assessment, but there is a large percentage of parents and boosters today who make the lives of coaches far more difficult than they should be. The sense of entitlement from a lot of parents/boosters today is mind blowing; just because you donated X amount of dollars or just because "back in your day" you were a great player, or just because Johnny was a "stud" in middle school, does not, and should not, dictate how things go on your team. 

Continued, unfortunately, social media, has made it easier for critics to voice their often unfounded displeasure very public and far worse than the situation actually is. It is very easy for angry parents/boosters to post something online that they would NEVER have the intestinal fortitude to say to a coaches face (and yes I realize the irony in us typing on a message board about this). 

Finally, many administrators today will hype up the athletic programs in their schools but when push comes to shove and they have to put money, resources, and time where their mouth is, they don't follow through. This is especially true when it comes to supporting coaches against parents/boosters.

Some will argue that the job of school administrators is to put the classroom first, and although that is a fair argument, I, and many others would argue that the lessons learned from athletics are every bit, if not more, important than some of the things learned in the classroom. I know I am not the only one on this site who would admit that they learned way training/winning/losing/networking/failing/etc. in sports than they ever did in the classroom. 

In summary, if supposed supporters would actually do what they claim to do, I believe, that there would be far more young people pursuing coaching positions. 

 

[nees1212]

6 hours ago, rjs4470 said:

I don’t think his reason and situation for stepping down at Scott has changed. His kids are still young. And SK is really close to home. Head coach at Dixie is a bigger time commitment and further from home. If he wasn’t interested in the SK job (and I don’t know if that was or wasn’t the case), I don’t think he’d be more interested in the Dixie job.

I’d love to see him as a head coach again somewhere.

 

The time to get to Dixie or SK for coach Woolley is the same. It’s the little ones that will likely keep him from applying to a head coaching job anytime soon.

[VolsUT]

The list of assistant coaches is missing a few names. I am not sure of his full name but he was the JV and Freshman head coach for the last 10 years or so under Brossart and may have been the defensive coordinator under Brossart. Watching a few of those JV games those kids play for him and very respected. Might be a good fit, if nothing else comes of it. 

[theguru]

18 minutes ago, VolsUT said:

The list of assistant coaches is missing a few names. I am not sure of his full name but he was the JV and Freshman head coach for the last 10 years or so under Brossart and may have been the defensive coordinator under Brossart. Watching a few of those JV games those kids play for him and very respected. Might be a good fit, if nothing else comes of it. 

Welcome to BGP @VolsUT!

[theguru]

I talked to someone last night (that had no idea who I was) that told me a coach from Mason County applied for the Dixie job.  

[bjaynes]

6 hours ago, theguru said:

I talked to someone last night (that had no idea who I was) that told me a coach from Mason County applied for the Dixie job.  

If it was a head coach he is only one year removed from a 3 year stint at Newport. 2A and 3A experience but 6A experience as an assistant previously. 

[Finkle Ray]

On 1/14/2022 at 7:52 PM, bjaynes said:

If it was a head coach he is only one year removed from a 3 year stint at Newport. 2A and 3A experience but 6A experience as an assistant previously. 

You wonder if a guy like that is just looking for the next big thing instead of establishing a foothold and building a program. Not faulting anyone for moving upward, just saying Dixie has enjoyed a lot of continuity with their head coaches, my opinion is they are looking for more of a long term guy, and with experience.

[bjaynes]

15 hours ago, Finkle Ray said:

You wonder if a guy like that is just looking for the next big thing instead of establishing a foothold and building a program. Not faulting anyone for moving upward, just saying Dixie has enjoyed a lot of continuity with their head coaches, my opinion is they are looking for more of a long term guy, and with experience.

My thoughts are if he resides in NKY the trek to Maysville might be taking its toll but I agree with your assessment. 

[Voice of Reason]

On 1/14/2022 at 1:26 PM, theguru said:

I talked to someone last night (that had no idea who I was) that told me a coach from Mason County applied for the Dixie job.  

 

On 1/14/2022 at 7:52 PM, bjaynes said:

If it was a head coach he is only one year removed from a 3 year stint at Newport. 2A and 3A experience but 6A experience as an assistant previously. 

 

15 hours ago, Finkle Ray said:

You wonder if a guy like that is just looking for the next big thing instead of establishing a foothold and building a program. Not faulting anyone for moving upward, just saying Dixie has enjoyed a lot of continuity with their head coaches, my opinion is they are looking for more of a long term guy, and with experience.

 

9 minutes ago, bjaynes said:

My thoughts are if he resides in NKY the trek to Maysville might be taking its toll but I agree with your assessment. 

Winner (no pun intended). He is winning in challenging programs. I would be very interested in him if I were looking for a head coach.

[bjaynes]

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

 

 

 

Winner (no pun intended). He is winning in challenging programs. I would be very interested in him if I were looking for a head coach.

I would as well. 

[The Oracle]

2 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Winner (no pun intended). He is winning in challenging programs. I would be very interested in him if I were looking for a head coach.

Joe Wynn is a good young coach.

[BrosefStalin]

Any movement here?