Is it a thing of the past?

I’ve seen that before for sure.  I think we mentioned it in the bad admin thread too, but admin are also more geared to listen to the parents now in those situations.  Every coach I talk to says find good admin.  Conversely,  I found a former superintendent of the coach i mentioned above.  He mentioned early on in the coach’s tenure, the AD was trying everything he could to can the coach.  Wouldn’t buy him anything, would blame him for everything and dug up dirt to try and smear the coach’s name.  The super said “So here I was brand new to the area…..so I fired the AD who was stirring crap up and gave the coach one who would help”. The coach was there another 16 years after that episode.  Gotta have admin that got your back otherwise stories change

I think people coaching for 20+ years is a thing of the past. Let alone in one place.

I think I counted 17 other assistant coaches I’ve coached with at a few different schools. None of them are coaching anymore for various reasons, but most just quit coaching.

People were asking this question 30 years ago. Yet, some people ended up coaching places 20-30 years at the same place since then.

It is rare. It has ALWAYS been rare. It will continue to happen, but be rare.

Thought the same thing about coaching, in general, for that long may not be a common thing anymore. Coaching is so much work that a lot of guys are opting out. I don't even chalk it up to the "these young guys nowadays" type of stuff. Just a TON of hoops for the sake of putting people through it.

The juice isn't worth the squeeze anymore.

I feel like this is definitely more common.  I know a couple guys who have been assistants in the same program but under several different head coaches for multiple decades.

Agreed

That was my exact point on my earlier post.

I had a conversation a few days ago with another (rival) coach who has been the HC at his (private) school for 43 years now. They have been up and down in his career... they've won several state titles... had a few 0-9 years too.

My question was simple “How did you stay at the same place for all those years?”

Basically he said he loves where he lives... and also mentioned that he has changed jobs at the school every so often (teacher, AD, transportation director, etc.), so that gave him some new challenges.

I asked because I am in my 33rd year... I’ve been in five schools (one school I was at for two separate stints) and four states. For my last 3 jobs I was there for: 6 years, 9 years and now 11 years in my current job.

I remember Bill Walsh saying in coaching there is s "shelf life" of about 10 years. I also remember Spike Dykes saying once that my popularity decreases 10% every year. I’m in year 13… do the math.”

I am always antsy to leave… and we’ve been good. I like where I am… we are understaffed in football, but I have good coaches. Kids are good. Facilities suck, but we kind of embrace that. But leaving now isn’t that easy, though I would like to take on a new challenge.

I live in a small, isolated town (fine with that… not thrilled about still having over 3 feet of snow on the ground and it is snowing again today… and we won’t even hit the low 30s for 10 days according to my weather app), so if I change jobs I move.

I interviewed for one that I would have liked to accept… but the real estate market there and here basically means if I wanted a similar house, I would end up paying about $100,000 more. Plus, it would be yet another state I would add to my list of places lived… and the retirement figures are better if I stay here or return to a state where I am even more vested.

As you get older, that becomes more important… I wish I had more sense when I was younger (though it was fun).

When I was in Colorado, I remember talking to a coach I had known since high school. He was in a big district outside of Denver. He said the disadvantage to working where he worked was that there were 12 high schools in the district; the advantage was there were 12 high schools in the district.

Changing jobs without having to change houses would certainly have an impact on being able to take on a new challenge at another school.

Back to the original question, I think it was more common before the 2000s to see a coach put in 15-20 years at maybe 1-3 places before becoming an administrator.

I agree that now there aren’t many of us old dinosaurs left. Even in my current situation, I’ve been here 11 years and am the longest tenured coach in our region (conference).

I’m not going to make predictions, but I don’t like the direction high school athletics (especially football) is taking right now. Between parents being more difficult, AAU “suggesting” kids focus on one sport (basketball), the concussion scare, etc… I wouldn’t bet a lot of money that high school football will even be around 50 years from now… at least not in its current format (7 on 7 leagues maybe…)

Bingo.

With few exceptions, you have to just love coaching for it to be worth your time. It needs to be your hobby.

"I would be interested in getting opinions on just how much "year round work" took place on average in the 60s/70s maybe the 80s. At least just for football. Also interested in how many coaches were NOT educators back then. I am betting it was few."

Not from a hotbed but I didn't see my HC until the first day of practice and not again once the season ended. He was not a teacher. We did have a PE teacher in the school that we kind of considered the "coach" but no offseason anything. This was in the mid late 80s. I did hear of the coach in the 70s ran a good program within the season but not to much off season stuff maybe a week of illegal practices before the first official practice. But once the season started it was pretty intense.

I graduated in 1971 which means that I played in 1967-70. All of our coaches were school employees. My first school was a small school which entered a consolidation with two others after my soph year.

At school 1 we had two coaches. We had no off-season program. The coaches coached other sports in the winter or spring. After football season it was "See ya later". We'd have a team meeting toward the end of winter where we'd get a "workout program" which consisted of a handout of exercises. Shortly before the end of school we had a "fitness test" consisting of a times mile. Then we were told when practice would start in August.

The second, bigger, school was more organized. We had five coaches, all teachers. We had an actual off-season program. After Christmas we'd lift and do agility drills for, I guess, 90 minutes, three times a week. In Spring we started "intramural track", which was some lifting and running. The lifting really consisted of letting us use the weight room with no organized program. In the summer they'd open the weight room for a couple of hours in the morning but it was pretty much come when you get here and lift on your own. We'd also run plays twice a week. Not all of the coaches would be there at every session. 

7-on-7 or team camps? Nothing of the sort. So, the off-season time commitment for coaches was a lot less than what's done today. I should mention that we won our district three out of the four years. 

Good question. No, they only coached football.