Is the price right for Manatee County coaches?

While money isn't the primary reason to coach high school sports, some who give their time in the School District of Manatee County are hoping for more respect in terms of stipends.

Coaches such as Braden River High baseball coach Craig Page say it can be tough to fill out a staff. Page has had multiple coaches turn down his offers because they didn't feel the stipend was worth their time investment. The first assistant coach in baseball earns $2,918 while the second gets $2,041 for a season.

Part of the problem is compensating coaches for time spent working outside the actual season. Baseball, for instance, is played during the spring semester, but a coaching staff has to work year-round to keep up with other programs.

“We start our fall workout the week after Labor Day,” Page said. “That’s five days a week for 90 minutes each, running through Christmas break. I run fundraising campaigns for uniforms, practice apparel, equipment. We put together the Pirates Baseball Annual Golf Tournament and the Hit-a-thon (home run derby) in the spring. I create practice plans on the weekends.”

As a head coach, Page estimates he works more than 700 hours with the baseball team. Considering his supplement of $3,499, that comes out to approximately $5 an hour.

Pirates football coach Curt Bradley agrees it can be hard to fill out a staff. He gets two assistant salaries for the varsity (of $3,600 and $3,001) and can either give those salaries to two coaches or divide it among more.

Bradley has approximately 160 students who play either varsity, junior varsity or freshmen football so it can be quite the task to find volunteers who have free time between 2:30-5:30 p.m. to work with the teams. He tries to recruit teachers on staff or hopes teachers with coaching experience are hired by the school. Getting assistants from the public at large can be tricky because not many people have afternoons off all week.

If Bradley was coaching at a Sarasota County high school, he would be making slightly more than his $4,500 salary. Coaches in Sarasota County are paid using a "step" system, where their stipend is based on a percentage of their teaching salary, with years of experience being a factor. Football head coaches receive 12% of their teaching salary, plus a bonus depending on their experience. Bradley, who has coached six seasons, would be making $4,757 in Sarasota County, with room for that number to grow.

In Manatee County, a first-year head coach and a 30-year head coach would receive the same stipend.

"I think the numbers speak for themselves and say that coaches are not (compensated fairly)," Bradley said. "It's a year-round job, and I don't think the stipends quite reflect that."

In two Florida counties, Bay and Walton, football coaches are administrative positions, with salaries starting at $61,440 in Bay County and $81,455 in Walton. They don’t receive supplements, but other sports at those schools do, with systems comparable to Sarasota County’s pay.

Compared to football head coaching salaries in Texas, the Florida salaries are peanuts. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's database, Texas has 243 high school football coaches who make $100,000 or more. Houston’s Madison High pays the least at $53,000 a year. 

In Boone County, Mo., where Bradley is from, stipends are larger for coaches. Bradley returned home at the end of January and, through a family friend, discovered that assistant baseball coaches in that area were making more than he did. Columbia Public Schools, which operates within Boone County, uses a system that calculates stipends as a percentage of the teaching salary.

Bradley's athletic director at Braden River, Matt Nesser, said he would like to see a system like that implemented.

"Right now, it's not a whole lot for what they do," Nesser said. "Other counties use a percentage of your salary, which would be nice. Here, a first-year coach makes the same as someone who's been coaching 20 years in the district. It's not fair in that respect."

Mick Koczersut stepped down from his position as Lakewood Ranch High football coach in January because of the time he was spending with the program as opposed to his family. Koczersut said a higher supplement wouldn’t have necessarily changed his mind, but it would have made him think harder about staying, and it would certainly impact the search for the next Mustangs coach. Koczersut said the supplements have been the same for his 13-year tenure at the school.

“It just wasn’t worth it,” Koczersut said after his decision.

Jason Montgomery, the Manatee County school district's supervisor of athletics, said the coaching stipends are determined during the annual teacher's union negotiations, and that other issues have taken priority over the stipends. 

"I would love to see us go through different options on it down the road," Montgomery said. "If you look at how supplements are done across the state, it is all over the charts.  We are toward the middle of the pack on the amount of compensation we give. 

"If I had my perfect scenario, we would either do it as a percentage (of salary) or a tiered system, so there would be an incentive for our guys to stick around."

Mustangs basketball coach Jeremy Schiller said the stipends don’t reflect the work coaches do, but he believes the problem affects more than just coaches. English teachers spend their nights and weekends grading multi-page papers. They should get supplements, too, Schiller said.

Schiller said another difference between Manatee and Sarasota counties is postseason pay. In Sarasota County, coaches are paid 10% of their supplement for each week their programs advance past district competition. In other words, a basketball coach in Sarasota County who takes his or her team to the state Final Four would receive three weeks of extra pay. For doing the same thing last season, Schiller received nothing.

Schiller said he’s received coaching offers from outside the area, but hasn’t entertained them despite the potential financial gain.

“For me, the value of the community I serve and being near my family is more important than the financial part of it,” Schiller said. “I’m fortunate in that way. I know for a lot of other people, it’s different. I’m single. I don’t have kids and a wife that I have to support. Right now, I’m able to make the decisions I want based on what I enjoy. If that dynamic changes, those opportunities may be something you have to pursue.

"Obviously, if you're in coaching for the money, something's wrong, but they (the county) have to make it financially viable to stay in the profession and provide for a family. We're always going to put in hours, but it doesn't have to be so many hours donated (for nothing)."

Page isn’t optimistic about the future of high school sports in areas like Manatee County if the stipends aren’t increased.

“If we keep losing quality coaches, they (high school sports) are going to end up going away,” Page said.