|
Post by phantom on Sept 25, 2010 23:58:24 GMT -6
I live in Virginia but I'm from Pennsylvania. A friend asked me recently how I ended up here. That got me wondering about you guys. How did you get your present job?
When I graduated college in 1975 jobs were scarce in PA. They had a placement office at the school then and they told me that there were jobs in Virginia. I got out a road atlas and sent a letter and resume to the personnel office in pretty much every decent size town in Virginia. One hired me.
How about you?
|
|
|
Post by wingtol on Sept 26, 2010 10:30:32 GMT -6
Football wise I have coached at two schools, first HS job my mom was teaching with a guy who got the HC job at the local power house program and I got in touch with him to get a vol. frosh. job. Worked my way up to varsity assistant over 10 years in the the program with the HC who replaced the guy who gave me my first coaching job. My best friend since pre-school got the HC job at my current school and alma mater while I was coaching at the other school. Told him it would be our last year at old school and I was all his when I was done there that was 6 seasons ago and I must say it's nice working for a good friend since I pretty much have all the responsibility and power in decision making that I want. So I have had two coaching jobs in 16 seasons. As far as teaching job...it's good to know people
|
|
|
Post by phantom on Sept 26, 2010 10:35:34 GMT -6
Football wise I have coached at two schools, first HS job my mom was teaching with a guy who got the HC job at the local power house program and I got in touch with him to get a vol. frosh. job. Worked my way up to varsity assistant over 10 years in the the program with the HC who replaced the guy who gave me my first coaching job. My best friend since pre-school got the HC job at my current school and alma mater while I was coaching at the other school. Told him it would be our last year at old school and I was all his when I was done there that was 6 seasons ago and I must say it's nice working for a good friend since I pretty much have all the responsibility and power in decision making that I want. So I have had two coaching jobs in 16 seasons. As far as teaching job...it's good to know people In Pennsylvania it sure is.
|
|
|
Post by coachorr on Sept 26, 2010 11:50:37 GMT -6
I moved back home to Idaho in 1998 after graduating from Reno Nevada. The first job I got was at a car dealership, two weeks into it my old ball coach came in looking for a car and said there was a tutor job open for ESL. I began as an ESL tutor and began volunteering as an assistant Oline coach.
After that season I was then the offensive line coach. I didn't know jack, not much is different from now. But I stuck with it and worked outside the district, first for the state's department of labor, then as a human resource manager for a local Jerky factory.
In 2002, I began working on a masters and shortly there after I got married. In 2003, I changed jobs from a jerky factory to a potato farm. In 2004 I took a layoff and did my student teaching. The first job I got was in the middle of nowhere, it was the first job I could get, so after returning from a summer job in Argentina, we moved about an hour away to Aberdeen Idaho.
In 2005, we had to move back to Idaho Falls, because the renters in our house weren't paying the rent. Luckily I got a job in Rigby Idaho (15 miles to the North) as an ESL/Spanish teacher and a job coaching football and basketball.
In 2007, I applied for a job in the Idaho Falls School District (where my house is located) and got a job as a 9th grade Western Civilizations teacher. I was not real hip on teaching at a Junior High, moreover, it was billed as one of the rougher Junior Highs in the area. And, the room I would be teaching in had no windows. But I took it anyway and my paycheck increased by $800 a month and I didn't have to drive as far.
So, for the 2007 season I coached at the place where I started as a DB coach, but the Junior High where I teach serves the cross-town rival. I didn't like the fact that I didn't teach the kids I coached nor at the school I coached for that matter.
In 2008 the principal of the JHS needed a head basketball coach and a head ninth grade coach, so I took those jobs. The following year, all 9th grade sports were made part of the high school, so by default I became part of the cross-town rival's football staff.
Sometimes I wonder how I got here and I sometimes wonder if I should be coaching 9th grade, because I was a varsity coach for so long. I seem to feed that need by doing a lot of stuff with the varsity and working closely with them in the off season and during the season. Besides, our Freshman team does what the varsity does, and they have never had that.
Sometimes I feel like I am getting burned out as a Freshman coach, because 9th graders can really wear on your patience. We are 4 and 1 this season, so that helps.
|
|
|
Post by blb on Sept 26, 2010 12:21:47 GMT -6
1980...laid off from my first full-time HS job in Western Michigan after first year.
1984...after subbing, teaching adult ed, coaching two sports etc. finally land another full-time job in SW Michigan.
1986...take a new job in Western Michigan to be closer to home, family.
1995...decide to leave HS coaching job I had, get back into college coaching (which I had done in 1977-78).
1999...want to return to HS head coaching, take position in Mid-Michigan.
2004...after being fired in politically-motivated move by central administrators, spend a year volunteering for friend at school 50 minutes from home.
2005...Friend takes new post, I am promoted to head coach with teaching (we move again).
2010...I retire from teaching because administration messes with my teaching schedule in an unacceptable manner, AD tells me I can no longer be HFC there as a result. Take coaching-only gig at smaller school 20 minute drive from home.
"The long and winding road..."
|
|
coachood
Sophomore Member
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. -Vince Lombardi
Posts: 173
|
Post by coachood on Sept 26, 2010 12:41:49 GMT -6
2006- My best friend is working at hibbett sports and an 8-man football coach comes in to buy equipment, they talk football for 2 hours and he became their DC. He calls me that night and I become the Line coach. I haven't wanted to do anything but coach since.
2007- That school became so small we couldn't find 8 players for a team. My brother starts going to a private school and I suggest having a football team. I move to TN to find a job and volunteer at the local HS as a DL coach.
2008- Return to GA and take over as OC of the team I helped to start. Still working on a degree so I can do this full time.
|
|
|
Post by fballcoachg on Sept 26, 2010 17:32:00 GMT -6
Graduated from BGSU in NW Ohio in 2007, no teaching jobs in Ohio, especially in Social Studies so I knew I needed to find something. Talked to some people from South Carolina at a job fair and take a job in the low country. Talked to an HC in Ohio who said he could get me a teaching and coaching job so I move back to Ohio only to find that the district was cutting the spot I was going to take. Played in a rugby tournament in Nashville, was a days drive from Cleveland and Columbuse (were my family and my wifes family are from) so I applied for some jobs and got one at the city school I'm currently at.
|
|
|
Post by k on Sept 26, 2010 19:50:57 GMT -6
Got my credentials in five years ago in June. Sent out 40 applications, had 32 first interviews, 20 second interviews, 14 job offers. 13 of those were full time. Took a job at the one that was part time with the promise that it would be full time within the first year. By thanksgiving it was full time. The next year a new HC took over the football team that hadn't won a game in 3 years. He called me up and asked me to meet him. I did. Been coaching for him as the line coach since and we went from 1-9 to 6-4 to 10-1.
|
|
|
Post by coachwoodall on Sept 27, 2010 12:05:57 GMT -6
1991/1992 A college buddy is student teaching in the fall, takes a job in the spring at the same school and gets the softball job. I go and help him out a couple of days a week, b/c by then I had figured out that while it may be possible to drink beer 24/7, it probably isn't a good idea. The following year he is the head BB coach and I help him there some too.
1993/94 During the summer, while working in a bar during the summer (I had dropped out of school), that same buddy tells me on the phone that they have opened up camp and are 2 coaches short. I ask him if he thought they would take me, and he says they might. I go and talk to the HC and get a job subbing a couple of days a week and coaching DEs. HC gets canned and the new HC, keeps me on board. I end up coaching LBs, and calling the defense. I didn't have the title of DC, but was the DC by default. I re-enroll in school.
1995 I had become engaged to a teacher at the school where I was working and had finished my degree. The district was having a budget crunch and there was no way I was going to get a full time gig. My fiancee and I decide that we would move to the place who ever got a job first. (Funny how it ended up being me since she is Sp Ed.) I had a couple leads, but it just never worked out over the summer since I didn't acutally graduate until August. At the state coaches clinic, (which the week before camp starts) a buddy sees that there is a SS opening in the upstate. I call and call, but I guess the whole office is on vacation. During the first day of camp, I walk out to the practice field with a resume in hand and talk to the HC. The HC coach gets me an interview, and I get the job with a contingency on my graduation (classes were done). So I have job #2 AFTER practice starts. I coach LBs and DBs during my 4 years.
1999 I had been getting the itch and had had a couple of offers to move on. I hadn't taken them b/c the HC had taken a chance on me. My Dad had been fighting cancer for almost 20 years, and had his 4th relapse. I get a call while I am cutting grass from a HC back near home. I go and interview and he offers me a job. I asked him why he called me b/c I hadn't even sent a resume to the district. He relayed to me that one of the ACs when they had an unexpected opening, had called a buddy of his at another school. When this guy went to his HC, the HC said, "If I had an opening I would hire this guy" and he reached into his file cabinet and pulled out my resume. I took it as a sign I needed to take this job. FINALLY, I get hired before the season starts, even if it is 2 1/2 weeks before. We have a REAL good run in my 5 years there with him. The HC ended up leaving and I was passed over to replace him (he and 2 other coaches). I had looked around, but had never found the right fit. I ended up staying another year, even though I wasn't happy about how the HC gig had played out. I became the AHC and we wen to the finals for the 1st time in 30 years.
2005/now The HC that I had worked for at the previous job, coached in the All Star game, obviously with some high profile/successful coaches. In the previous year, I knew that it would be my last there and I looked pretty hard, but couldn't find anything close by. I was thinking that I might just not coach b/c my wife had gotten her big chance to teach at the college level and we had 2 small kids. One of the other coaches at the All Star game advertised a MS HC/AD opening. My mentor HC had mentioned before that after he had the chance to coach the All Star game, he would love to just be a MS HC/AD, so I said what they heck he probably knows more about this than me. I go see this coach (he was VERY successful and was rising star) and get the offer. BUT, it is 72 miles away. I end up taking the job, do it for 1 year. Next year I move up to the Freshman team as the DC. The next year, I get moved up to varsity and have been here since. After about a year and half of driving, we move into the district and buy a house.
|
|
|
Post by coachorr on Sept 27, 2010 12:18:49 GMT -6
Great stories, it seems you gotta do your time and you have to start somewhere.
|
|
coachriley
Junior Member
"Tough times don't last; Tough people do."
Posts: 406
|
Post by coachriley on Sept 27, 2010 15:01:23 GMT -6
Well I am still looking for a teaching position, so i don't know if this applies to me but figured I'd reply anyway.
I lived here for the past year working at a trade school and then started applying for positions in the district. I got two interviews, was offered one job and the other they had really wanted me for. I was not able to get either one because my father is on the school board and after telling me he would leave if I got offered a job, turns out he never really planned on it at all.
So I moved about three hours away back to where I graduated from college, and of course this district (which is a great one from everything I've heard) finished their hirings and only recently had two spots come back open. So I am looking here and in two cities that require an hour drive everyday.
Judging from what everyone has posted, I think next year I am just going to have to send out a ton of applications. I want to get over to Texas and coach there. Ive seen some places have openings right now, but I am not certified there yet, so I guess I'll spend the next year getting that done and report back next summer lol.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Clement on Sept 29, 2010 16:30:09 GMT -6
May 2009 - get posted to Bagotville
Wife gets a job, makes a friend whose husband's friend roped him into helping him coach a youth team, I hear about this and ask to join in, gets me hooked on coaching. Youth season ends, wife says I need a new hobby, so I called the local high school, who was aware of my work in the youth league (the HS basically runs the youth league) and they accepted me as a community volunteer and put me on the payroll 2 weeks later.
|
|
|
Post by coachguy83 on Sept 29, 2010 19:44:22 GMT -6
I moved to the town I live in because of a job I had working in a call center. Three years ago I got the coaching bug and got in touch with the local youth team. I have been a head coach at the youth level the past three years (each at a different age level), and now serve as the assistant director of the youth organization for which I coach. I was able to meet the high school HC last season through the youth organization and have built a wonderful relationship with him as his staff, which allowed me to accept a position as a volunteer freshmen coach.
|
|
|
Post by larrymoe on Sept 29, 2010 21:47:14 GMT -6
Didn't get a teaching job right out of college, got discouraged and took a job working for the railroad as a conductor trainee. Worked there from July to October. Money was going to be good, but I knew it wasn't for me. Quit in mid October and started subbing and coaching wrestling and track and some JFL (we had spring games back then) at my alma mater.
Took a job the next summer at a rival HS about 45 mins away as a study hall supervisor/teacher's aide and asst wrestling coach. Also get my first year of freshmen volunteer asst football in working with the OL/DL. Liked the coaching, hated my job. Having 95 kids in a study hall sucked. Especially after the principal freaked on me after he walked in and a kid sneezed and it wasn't "totally silent". Decided I should move on again.
Went back to the alma mater and subbed and coached football (first partially paid job), wrestling and track. Got a full time teaching job the next fall, two days before the start of two a days at a school that only 45 kids in it. Decide to ask the HC at a neighboring school who was in the same conference as the alma mater if I could volunteer on the day before two a days. He says yes and I become the OL coach. Stayed at that school for two years before it got annexed and I lost my job.
Took a job at the school I was coaching at as an in school suspension supervisor and did that until Columbus Day when a social studies teacher left to take an admin job. I had given up my paid job coaching there because when my teaching job died at the small school I thought I'd move on. It didn't happen. I spent two years there teaching being a volunteer asst freshmen coach. HC retired after a semifinal run my fourth year there and I got the HC job. At one time I was the head football, wrestling and tennis (long story) coach. Had the HC job one year, went to the playoffs and was let go in a rather suspicious manner.
Took a job near home teaching/coaching football. Same place coachguy now coaches. Knew it wasn't a long term deal and only stayed a year.
Got a job as an alternative HS teacher at my alma mater and called D for two years. Our HC moved on, I was passed over for the job and hung around a year as the DC before budget cuts were looming. The day I decided to look my current job was posted 15 mins before I looked at the job posting site. Applied the next day.
Was offered the job as a Social Studies/Head Football coach of a 1A school about a half hour from home. I really enjoy my job and feel blessed to have it.
Weird how things work out sometimes.
|
|
|
Post by seagull73 on Oct 3, 2010 11:56:14 GMT -6
After college I moved to Long Island following my wife.
I coached soccer & girls lacrosse (wasn't a choice, I was told to by administration)
Got a JV head job with no assistant. 30 kids and me & I only knew o-line. We were very bad!
Got the head JV job at another school that was historically terrible. I was forced to coach the "skill" positions. Learned a lot but we were still very bad.
Moved to the Varsity staff and coached o-line. Worked under an awful head coach both personally & professionally. Learned a lot about how not to do things.
Moved back to Maryland and got a job at a small private school coaching o-line. The program was more like a youth team w/o a lot of structure. It drove me crazy & I decided I wanted to be a head coach and do things my way.
Got a HC gig and thought I was going to out coach everyone. After a 1-9 season "out coaching" everyone I realized that program development was the key to success not schemes. Went 7-3 my second year but resigned because my family was planning a move. I worked with some great guys who taught me a lot about coaching.
Got a HC job at a school that had made the playoffs 7 or 8 years in a row. It seems no one wanted to take the job and "mess things up". I learned the importance of assembling a great staff. We made the playoffs my 1st 3 years and won a state championship my 4th year.
The crazy thing is most of my memories of my coaching career are from practice, weight training session, and drinking beers with a great groups of coaches after a game. The actual games are a blur.
|
|
|
Post by coachorr on Oct 3, 2010 12:38:17 GMT -6
"The games are a blur". I agree, the thing I remember most are the players and the coaches. It's all about relationships.
|
|
|
Post by olcoach53 on Oct 6, 2010 13:20:45 GMT -6
The place I had been working at went out of business so I was struggling to find work as a 25 year old college graduate. I went to talk to the head coach (he had been my position coach in high school) about coaching, he said sure thing so I assisted with the offensive line and because a security officer at the highschool. During this time I also starting working towards my teaching certificate and moved up in rank to Varsity offensive line and JV head coach and OC. This is all at my alma mater too which makes it that much more sweeter.
|
|
|
Post by spartancoach on Oct 6, 2010 14:20:54 GMT -6
Not a teacher or in the school, but volunteered with local HS in NJ. Essentially ran scout O for a year. Year 2 became QBs coach (school never had a coach dedicated to just QBs) and team was more successful throwing the ball then in years past. Year 3 QB coach and helped the OC in box with play calling. Year 4-6 OC and QB coach. Still an unpaid volunteer (they pay me a stipend but I donate it back to buy the team dinners for the kids) and lovin it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2010 8:28:32 GMT -6
Meh, nothing too exciting about mine. I do need to point out the zero key on my computer doesn't work...
2oo2-2oo4--first teaching and coaching job out of college at the same school I student taught at. Still consider these three years the best of my career because of the guys I was with and how much I learned as a newbie coach.
2oo5--took a new job that a gave me more responsibility as a coach and more money as a teacher. LOVED the football aspect of the job, but was indifferent about my teaching assignment. I hated the administration as well and the feeling was, uh, mutual so it was time to move on again, lol!
2oo6-o7--sub taught and coached at a school I did most of my subbing at. Loved the kids and the guys I coached with, but several things--none of which involve me directly--came out after I left, so I no longer feel real good about this job...
2oo8-to current season--moved back home and coach and teach for my alma mater program. Well, not technically my alma mater program as its a new co-op now, but its where I would play if I was still in HS. I had no desire to move back home after the previous two jobs flamed out on me, but I really had no where else to go. I was literally in tears when I came to the realization I was heading home...Now, I'm not sure I'd rather be anywhere else!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2010 8:30:28 GMT -6
As I look back on it, I'm not sure why job #2 even hired me in the first place as it was obvious from the beginning the administration had little confidence in me...but that's a different story for a different thread, lol!
|
|
|
Post by mattharris75 on Oct 7, 2010 22:58:42 GMT -6
Still an unpaid volunteer (they pay me a stipend but I donate it back to buy the team dinners for the kids) and lovin it. Good for you, Coach!
|
|
|
Post by spartancoach on Oct 8, 2010 6:11:49 GMT -6
Still an unpaid volunteer (they pay me a stipend but I donate it back to buy the team dinners for the kids) and lovin it. Good for you, Coach! I'm not completely altruistic. I am in the corporate world and my contract prevents "outside employment." But it is nice to be able to provide something for the kids.
|
|
|
Post by gdoggwr on Oct 14, 2010 13:52:36 GMT -6
graduated in Dec. 2000 and took a job in a very small town because they had an opening in January. Was there 4 and 1/2 years and was look to move (I could do the small town, my wife could NOT) when I got riffed. Sent applications to every district within 2 hours of either of our extended families and ended up in this district at a JH. called every high school about coaching and my current school was the first to call me back. Coached LB's for 3 yrs, and the HC retired. I stayed on staff even though I had some offers from "better" situations, now after 3 more years I'm the varsity OC, and b/c the district moved 9th grade to the High Schools I now teach and coach in the same building. funny how things work out.
|
|