How much money is too much for a high school football coach? North Carolinas largest school district has provided something of an answer.
Last month, Vance High School coach Aaron Brand cashed in on a successful five-year run in Charlotte and accepted a coaching job at Irmo High School in Columbia. Brand will be earning $100,000, nearly twice as much as he made at Vance, and his position at Irmo will include no teaching duties. It is, as Brand told the Observers Langston Wertz, a golden opportunity, and the talented coach should be congratulated. But its also money Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is unable or unwilling to pay. That, too, is good.
Brands move has renewed a lingering discussion about successful high school coaches leaving Charlotte for high-paying positions in South Carolina or at smaller, in-state schools. The same has happened at schools across North Carolina, perhaps no more famously than with former Independence High School coach Tom Knotts, who won six state titles at the school before heading across the border to coach at Dutch Fork (S.C.) High School.
Knotts is among the coaches who spoke with Wertz last week about how CMS can hold onto its best football talent. If they value football, Knotts said, they need to pay coaches whats comparable to surrounding areas of pay.
But should they? Football and other athletics play a valuable role in the high school experience, and as Wertz thoughtfully noted, sports is the ultimate drop-out prevention program. Coaches also point to colleges like University of Alabama, which pays football coach Nick Saban more than $8 million a year and has seen a surge in enrollment and other benefits from success on the football field.
But public high schools dont see a flood of new students because of football success, and its incongruous to pay the coach of an all-boys team twice as much as girls coaches, let alone other teachers and arts program leaders. We think all teachers should be paid more, including coaches. Certainly, individual districts should consider if and how to reward athletic success, and if a team makes a deep playoff run, schools should compensate coaches for at least part of the extra time they put in. Some suggest that CMS also could pay coaches more by allowing them to also be athletic directors, but its a bit of a minefield to give one coach control over other coaches budgets.
The reality is that theres little CMS can do to compete with a South Carolina school thats waving around serious cash. Another reality: The way it works now is working. Young coaches are taking advantage of opportunities and building strong programs that compete for state titles. If that means urban districts are a training ground for deep-pocketed South Carolina schools, so be it. High school coaches should benefit from the free market, too.
But CMS, at least, shouldnt to try to compete. Football, like other sports, is a memorable and worthy part of students high school years. But whatever misguided sensibilities exist across the state line, football should not be a outsized priority here.
