Need to be a teacher to coach?????

It is high school football. If you don't want to teach coach a different level.

Many times it isn't a state rule that you have to be a teacher to coach, but it is part of the teacher's contract that teachers get the first shot at coaching positions or the district has rules against it. I know in Ohio, most districts I am familiar with want teachers first, but if there aren't qualified teachers, they will look to outside candidates. It is not a state rule though.

One way I have heard of people getting around the rule is to get a sub-certificate. In many states you just have to have a college degree, and in some states you just have to have two years of college. Once you get the certificate, you can get on the sub list. You don't have to ever accept a sub job, but maybe that could get you around the rule. I've seen people do it. Might be worth looking into.

You have to be an employee of the district to coach in Texas.
This means teacher about 99.9% of the time.

IN GA to be a HC in any sport, you just be a certified teacher.

I am the head of Buildings and Grounds and the Varsity DC. Yes it is like having cake and eating it too. I am in the building. We have no problem getting in on holidays and Sundays and football field is always ready to go. The certified teacher thing is a way for the teachers union to keep teachers employed and give teachers a way to get the stipend. Just like you have to have a teaching degree to be a facilities director or assist superintendent in charge of buildings or Finance in some districts, which in some cases isn't always the best. However coaching and teaching are in allot of ways similar.

Hey, there has to be a perk to being a teacher right?

This is kind of along the vein of a post I made several months ago...should football/sports be taken out of the schools.

Totally disagree. In my 12 years of coaching HS football neither of the two HC I worked for were teachers. One worked as the director of developement and some other jobs(private) till he was pushed out and now holds the same HC/Dir of dev. in a public school. Current HC is not a teacher, worked for 4 years at a local Boys and Girls club now works in the district I teach in as a behavior spec. in an AEP program. I teach elem phys ed in the local urban/inner city district and don't coach there. I have been around many great coaches who weren't teachers. Does that mean they couldn't teach? Not at all. They were great teachers, just not their profession. If you have a passion for the game, the players, and coaching above and beyond the X and O's then I don't think it should matter.

On the flip side I have seen several jobs goto teachers who were in the union and they weren't even close to being the most qualified. So is it worse to have someone who is a bad coach/teacher or someone who is a great coach/non-teacher? To say if you don't want to teach go coach at another level is absurd. If you want to make a difference in young men's lives it shouldn't matter if you are a certified teacher or not.

I can agree with both sides. I think it is beneficial to have the HC on campus, but not critical given the right atmosphere.
I see HC's in my area that are NOT qualified but are given the position because they are teachers. I think this gets progressively worse when you are talking about assistants, many of whom are looking to collect an extra check and do not look to improve their knowledge of the game or their coaching skills.
It all boils down to whether the guy can coach or can't. What are his credentials, what is his knowledge base. If he can teach the game and is a good role model, then hire the best candidate for the position. And no, I'm not a teacher, and no, I have no desire to be a HC or a teacher. This does not mean that I don't know what I'm doing or that I'm not qualified to coach High School football. I prefer to be a coordinator and let the HC deal with all the BS....
What irks me is that unqualified people are given these positions based soley on their being a teacher. Would you have any teacher step in and run the teacher's retirement & pension program simple based on the fact that he's a teacher and a member of the union? I think you'd want to know that he has solid financial credentials when he's dealing with your money and your future. I think parents feel the same about who's coaching their kids, is the individual qualified to coach my kid? Yes, I know most parents don't know anything about football, but I think its a legitimate analogy regardless.

No offense intended - but why WOULD YOU NOT want to hire the BEST candidate for the Head Coaching Position regardless of what they do as a day time job? To hell with what the Union things, to hell with what Administrators think to hell with what the "ADULTS" think - if the guy has a rock solid knowledge of the game, is a great leader who can communicate with the kids, is strong ethically and a fantastic role model and the kids respond positively and become better people for the experience.... what more do you want? what more do you need?

Being on site definitely has advantages for communication purposes and during the day teachers are needed not coaches. Football is an Extracurricular activity - blurring the line is causing some of the issues that High School Sports face today.

I'll throw in some thoughts here from the perspective of a teacher/ AD / HC:
The last two posts especially:

<sup>No offense intended - but why WOULD YOU NOT want to hire the BEST candidate for the Head Coaching Position regardless of what they do as a day time job?


1) I think that a coach being in the building automatically makes them significantly better than a coach outside the building all other things being equal</sup>

I guess this is a case where I really like how we approach this in Nebraska. A HC does not have to be a certified teacher- but a HC does have to be a certified coach (college grad., + about 9 hours: CPR/First Aid, a human relations course and ASEP)

I've been a HC for 17 years now... 16 in the building. One year (early) I was a HC but taught in an off campus middle school. Obviously, that didn't work well for me because I was only there for a year.

It is VERY helpful to be in the building. That doesn't affect knowledge, ability to teach, etc... but it does heavily impact relationships with players. I know my players very well and know them in situations outside of football which is a tremendous asset.

Currently, of the 6 major sports we offer (Football, VB, G/B BB, G/B Track) 4 HC are in the building. I have more parental issues, more eligibility infractions... more problems with the two who are not in the building. They are good coaches, and good people and are the most qualified here to coach. Still, situations arise that cause them to be "out of the loop" a bit (especially when I am gone at a clinic or admin. meeting... whatever... some issue always arises when I'm not around). Because of this, I would rather have all HC in the building, but the reality of it is that a person who is much more qualified and out of building is better than an apathetic or unqualified person in the building.

Not trying to get political, but I am not a union person here... never have been (not a fan of the NEA... refuse to join because some of my $ goes to them). I see "union requirements" and "union directives" as problematic because I've seen it far too many times- PE/HC job opens, guy takes job, gets tenured, quits coaching but keeps PE job. Now the school is in a bind- they can not hire a HFB/PE combo, so they are left with all sorts of weird combos (I actually saw some jobs advertised in a neighboring state as: Head Football, Family & Consumer Science Teacher" and "Head Football, K-12 Music"). Job openings like that really reduce your talent pool- probably to a point where an administrator has to be willing to sacrifice one aspect of the job (usually it is sports).

I entered the teaching profession PURELY to coach. I learned to like teaching enough to make it my career, and I think those of us who have sacrificed a bit financially expect others to do the same and are irritated when others infringe on "our turf". We all get a bit territorial when it comes to our vocation, which is not all bad.

The bottom line is that we as coaches, educators, or simply people who care about kids need to focus on what is best for kids... many times that is to have a person in the building, but that is not always the case.

I'm just guessing here, but I would bet that our case is somewhat representative... a school can probably fill 2/3 of their HC jobs with qualified people within the building. The other 1/3 must either come from those unwilling or disinterested... or must be expanded to include those outside of the school.

Given: pay (not really bad, but not as lucrative as many other professions), NCLB, more hoops to jump through to get in to or stay in the profession, the ever expanding role of a teacher (teacher, disciplinarian, counselor... parent in some cases) makes it less attractive than it may have been at one time. Less people are willing to teach even if that means potentially sacrificing their dream of coaching.

Recently we dealt with a bill here (NE Legislature) to allow club sports to overlap with HS sports. It looked like it will die (for now), but state and local associations or boards, teachers unions... even administrators probably need to revisit some archaic systems we have in place.

I remember coachd5085's thread... it is a definite possibility that sports will be phased out of schools giving way to the club team.

That would be a sad day to me anyway...

But to (finally) address zbessac's original post: I honestly believe that it benefits all involved (program, players, coaches, school, community) to have a coach who is so devoted to coaching that he was willing to teach (perhaps a sacrifice... but we ask this of our players daily) and be a member of the school community. However, in the absence of this type of person, it is better to have a knowledgeable coach who cares about young people from outside of the school.

Just my take from a few different sides of the issue.

High School coaching staff... We have both on our staff (6 coaches who are teachers and 3 who are not teachers). Out of the 6 teachers, 5 of us are in the building. One of our non teacher goes to work at 4:30 AM and get off at 10:30 AM... and then comes to school around 12 noon. The other 2 work true full time jobs (Business world). They get to practice right when it begins.

We are blessed to have a good staff here and all of us work hard in trying to improve in the coaching profession. However, it can be very difficult for the non-teachers to move up. Can they, yes, but where we are in our area (county) they will take a teacher over a non-teacher for a HC position.... or at least that has been the case for the most part in the past.

So I can see both sides of the story (probably because I am a Libra). You do not have to be a teacher and coach, but it does not hurt. Me being a teacher and coach in the same building is so much easier then being a non-teacher and coaching.

Just my 2 cents!

Football is more than Wins and Losses.

In GA, we don't have union's so it is a simple STATE RULE that you must be a teacher.

I LOVE being a TEACHER!!!

how can someone who works a regular 9-5 just show up to coach a football team as the HC?

How does he deal with the "other" isssues that the students have on a daily basis?

OK, I have followed this post with great interest. First of all I want to say that I totally respect all of you that are Teachers. Fact is we don't have enough good Teachers in our school systems. My son is a teacher in Clermont Florida area. I respect what he has gone threw to earn his degree, and the student loans that He still has to pay. He played both Football and Baseball at Division 3 Rockford college in Illinois. Without good Teachers, and good education, our society does not have a chance!

However with that said, and as I posted earlier, I am not a teacher. Knowing what I know now, and with hind sight, I wish I had gone that route. But, I do have an education, and have paid the dues to earn it. Does that mean that I'm uneducated enough to be a Head coach at the High school level? I think not. I still push the grade issue with the kids, and know how important it is to get a good Education.

I have also paid my dues by being an assistant coach for 12 years before I got the head gig. As many of you on this sight , I'm still trying to Improve myself as a coach, and ask questions, and learn by reading other post. When I think I can help, I will post an answer.

But just because I'm not a teacher at the school, or at another school, dose not mean that I can't forge a relationship with the students that I coach. In fact I go out of my way to do so. I also have a very good relationships with the teachers in the school. They know how to reach me if need be, and I can ask them about any of the students that I need to talk about.

I'm saying, that if a coach is willing to put in the work, and pays the dues to be a head coach, and leads his kids to better themselves, but is not a teacher, then how can he not be qualified to be a good head coach!

Well I think that everyone has made some great points on my original post. The way I am understanding it though is that everyone feels that a non-teacher would have no contact with teachers and other issues in school, but K said that he is in school and receives emails from teachers about his kids. Why couldn't a non teacher receive emails? I understand that a non teacher would have to work extra hard to get the whole community involved in the program and I would have to make sure that all teachers knew that I supported them 100%. The reason I made my original post was because at my alma mater (my dream coaching school, have wanted since the day I graduated) they have had 2 head coaches and one defensive coordinator, leave because they found administration jobs (can't an administrator and coach here), all in the last 5 years. I just felt like those coaches were teaching the kids that, well you were good enough to get me to where I wanted, but now I don't need ya now. I just think that maybe a guy like me or 100's others that have a non teaching job and are looking to not change jobs whats so ever, would be a little more accountable to the players. I dunno, maybe I am way off in that thought, but that is why I made the original post. Thank you everyone for your insight, it really has made me think a lot about the subject.