91AggieLawyer said:
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then they should allow schools to hire coaches that are NOT teachers.
That's probably not going to happen nor should it happen. I've been around HS athletics for over 3 decades. During that time, I've spent considerable time around select leagues -- mostly basketball -- and I can tell you that the WORST HS/Jr. hi coaches in schools are better than the BEST select coaches. I'm speaking of overall coaching and teaching ability. Yes, there are some exceptions and yes, sports like soccer, tennis, gymnastics, etc. are going to have poorer sport specific coaches at schools that don't put a value on those sports. But there is no reason why there can't be good quality soccer, etc., coaches in high schools now when school districts want them.
IMO, it is the opposite in soccer (especially on the girls side). The HS coaches who post on this board are the exception, in my experience, not the rule.
The reason for this, IMO, is that sports like basketball, baseball, football, etc. are popular enough in America that every random dad thinks he is an expert. While you have some dads who do know what they are doing, you'll have a bunch who do not. When a HS hires a coach from these sports, they have a large pool to chose from, and the ADs who are doing the hiring know enough about the sport to evaluate coaching talent. So they can more easily pick somebody who knows what they are doing. So a random sampling will show that a typical HS coach is better than a random sampling of dad select coaches.
Soccer is not popular enough for that yet. For example, the AD at my local HS is famous name throughout Texas and has built one of the most successful athletic programs in the state, yet even he admits that he does not know squat about soccer. These ADs can make obvious choices (such as offering former professional players or college assistants), but absent those types of possibilities, it's just a crap shoot.
I have 1 kid playing soccer in college, and 2 in HS. They have had a total of 11 select coaches. And every one of those 11 select coaches are better than our HS coaches. And it's not like my local HS teams suck. We go to the playoffs every year, been to state, etc. In fact, my local HS coach tried coaching a select team for a while, and got DESTROYED. If he didn't go 0-fer, it was pretty close.
I'll put an ECNL coach, or top classic league from Texans, Sting, FC Dallas, etc. over 90% of HS coaches every day of the week. And these coaches would be willing to coach HS, if they didn't also have to stay at the school and teach all day.
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Instead of telling schools to hire select coaches, tell the select coaches to go get a teaching certificate and coach soccer at schools that want soccer coaches. The schools will say it isn't that they don't value soccer but that they don't have many coaches that excel in coaching that sport. The coaches must understand that except for 6A and some 5A head football and many head boys basketball coaches (maybe a dozen or two girls basketball coaches as well), the high school coach WILL coach at least 2 sports. Want to change that? No problem -- get 2K people at your soccer game and soccer will become king. There are more than twice the number of soccer games as football games so even 2K will compare favorably against whatever football (other than the Allens and Southlakes, etc.) can provide.
Good luck!
I'm not saying that we TELL schools to hire select coaches. Just ALLOW them to. There is no reason that they should be limited to only the candidates with a teaching certificates. These coaches could easily coach practice in the morning, go do their real estate job from 9-5, and then coach games on Tuesday/Fridays for a few months of the year.