Tag Archives: high school coaches

Are High School Coaches To Blame?

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There are many talented high school student athletes all over the country looking to be recruited by college programs, but what happens when talented high school athletes slip through the cracks of the college recruiting process?

Who is to blame if a talented ballplayer somehow becomes invisible to college coaches?  For as long as I can remember, it has been the role of high school coaches to assist their players with the recruiting process, but what happens if the high school coach screws up?  Who is to blame if one of that coach’s players ends up with no possibilities of being recruited for college or having quality choices of college programs?

This is a sensitive subject because you’re talking about high school coaches that, for the most part, do an excellent job with their players.  From where I sit, I’ve heard too many stories of talented high school athletes being misused and abuse in the college recruiting process so, are high school coaches to blame?

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Don’t Sleepwalk On The College Recruiting Process Now That School Has Started

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All across the country, school has finally started for many high school student athletes. This is the most important time of their life.

The recruiting process for all high school student athletes never ends and this is more important for student athletes who are entering their senior year.

There are millions of high school student athletes out there all believing that somehow they will be found by college coaches. Parents and student athletes are misled into believing that college coaches will be interested in them because they are seniors.  This, of course, is not true.  College programs are only interested in the players that they know about and have established relationships with over a number of years.

In all my years of experience as a college recruiter I’ve spoken to thousands of parents who believed the recruiting process takes place at the end of the student athlete’s season.  This is the worst mistake any parent or high school coach can make when it comes to recruiting.  The longer you wait, the more opportunities disappear.  The longer you hold off the recruiting process, the longer it will take to get college programs interested.  The longer it takes for you to get a DVD into the hands of college coaches, the longer it will take for them to view it.  The longer parents and high school coaches take in helping a student athlete with recruiting, is days and weeks of wasted time that could have been used to contact college coaches.

You are sleepwalking through the day to day details of the college recruiting process.

The only way the college recruiting process actually works is by actually doing something to make it work.  Someone, whether it’s the parents or the high school coaches, must contact college coaches on a consistent basis for a period of years.  The longer you delay this process the more opportunities that will be missed that you can never ever get back.

Think about how easy the recruiting process would be if parents, high school coaches and student athletes were consistent in contacting a large number of college coaches over a period of 2 to 4 years.  With that kind of consistent effort I believe there would be a larger number of college scholarship opportunities but because many parents, high school coaches and some student athletes are sleepwalking through the entire college recruiting process opportunities are going to be lost forever.

When parents realize that there is a major problem with recruiting it’s generally at the end of the student athlete’s senior season which, by then, there may not be any time left.  Parents are now scrambling around trying to find a quick solution to their college recruiting problem. 

I focused a lot this conversation on parents because they are the ones with check writing power and are responsible for the student athlete in their family.

Because of money, laziness or being totally misinformed, parents are totally responsible for the success of the recruiting process or its failure.

I just think the college recruiting process is the last thing parents, high school coaches and student athletes should be sleepwalking through.

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Should high school coaches be paid full time to coach their sport?

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The high school coaching profession is extremely challenging; the hours are long and the pay is low.  Many high school coaches do outstanding and unbelievable work every year for the student athletes that they coach.  Should high school coaches be paid full time to only coach their sport?

This question will spark a huge debate because many people do not believe that high school coaches bring any value to their sport or to their schools.  I believe high school coaches are a critical aspect to the success of high school athletes.

School coaches, in my opinion, bring a lot of value to the schools they coach for and for the players that they teach and coach.  If they did not matter what high school teams were doing then no one would show up for the games.

I know every school district would not be able to afford to pay a coach a full time salary to only coach.  Maybe high school coaches in revenue-producing sports such as football and basketball should be paid full time.

What are your thoughts?

I know that it may not be a great idea to hire someone to just coach their sport and do nothing else, but it’s done at the college level. I do understand that colleges and universities have the money and the resources to pay a coach full time to only coach. I’ve heard stories of how the head coaches would use their coaching salaries to pay assistant coaches and to put money back into their program.

There can be creative ways to possibly raise money to pay a high school coach’s salary to coach full time.  At the college level, I do know that they have basketball camps to help fund their athletic programs and pay for a coach or two.

Maybe this process can work at the high school level where there could be some sort of fundraising for basketball camps or host an event where money could be raised to pay a coach a full time salary or give them a larger piece of the pie.

I’m sure there are many parents and fans of high school sports who do not understand the amount of hours that it takes to coach high school players and to develop that program in which they coach. In my opinion, and maybe I’m wrong but it is my opinion and I believe high school sports is a critical part of a school’s curriculum.

I understand that education is extremely important but I also believe that playing sports is also important.

In many school districts throughout this country high school sports is everything to a high school kid that play sports. Many of these young men and women look to high school coaches as father-figures or role models and I believe there is a huge value to having a full time high school coach.

The world is changing; the things we use to do 15 or 20 years ago do not apply to young people today. Everything is different and I believe having strong mentors as head coaches can do a lot for the young people who play a sport and uplift a community or even a high school.

There is a crisis in this country when it comes to the many school districts that are having financial problems.  Enrollment is dropping at many school districts and that affects money but I believe more creative thinking can create a better future for the overall success of high school coaching, athletics, school districts and, of course, the students.