Several Georgia football teams are trying to fill their coaching staffs with assistants just weeks before their opening games, and the trend is concerning to the Georgia High School Association.
“I do not know the answer to this issue, but we have an obligation to provide coaches for all student-athletes that want to compete in a GHSA-sanctioned sport,” GHSA board member Steven Craft said Monday.
Ahmand Tinker, executive director of the Minority Coaches Association of Georgia, said more than 100 head football coaches have reached out to him this offseason seeking help finding assistants. He estimates that 50 teams still have open slots.
In the past two weeks, 18 schools seeking assistant coaches have submitted classified ads to Coach Georgia, a Twitter site that posts news of interest to high school coaches in all sports.
“I’ve never seen there be this many (openings) this late, and some of them are at really good programs and even (physical education) positions,” said the Coach Georgia founder, a high school coach who maintains his anonymity. “Times are changing, it seems. Hopefully we can get this headed back in the right direction and have enough quality men leading our youth.”
Craft, the athletic director for Fulton County Schools, expressed his concern at last week’s GHSA board of trustees meeting. One of his ideas was to change the GHSA rule requiring that head coaches be certified teachers. That would make candidates of school paraprofessionals.
The teaching certification requirement makes it harder to find the right assistant coach. The most popular certification among football coaches is physical education, but schools have limited teaching slots in P.E. and other departments.
Coach Georgia reports openings from schools big and small, public and private and throughout the state. They include positions at Cartersville, Dublin and Crisp County, programs that have played for football state titles in the past five years.
Tinker, a former coach and now a middle school principal, said it’s a nationwide issue as fewer people get into education and more young coaches become private football trainers.
“It’s not that sexy job anymore,” Tinker said of high school teaching and coaching. “So many in the new generation want to be entrepreneurs. These training services, if they can build a clientele of 50 kids, and you’re getting $100 a head per week or more, that’s $5,000 a week. Wouldn’t you do that? They can help kids and not be in the school building all day long.”
Craft said young teachers also have more opportunities outside of sports to earn extra money. He mentioned Uber and DoorDash as examples.
Craft also said that fewer coaches are willing to coach multiple sports. The overlap of fall, winter and spring seasons also makes it harder to be a head coach of multiple sports, he said.
“My intention at the board of trustees was to just start the conversation about exploring options to help with the overall shortage,” Craft said. “Districts and the state will need to consider different options to meet these needs as this becomes a bigger issue.”
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