Football: Let the debate begin about salaries for football coaches

It's clear the top private high schools have been on a mission this off season finding and paying their new football coaches big salaries.

Take a look at this story showing just what a few of the private schools are paying their coaches.

Private schools like to keep things private, but IRS records helped provide some clues.

Is it right for coaches to be earning more than $100,000 for coaching football and teaching PE when chemistry teachers are making half that? And can public schools keep up with the private schools?

The debate is about to begin.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Comments

[herb nichols]

dear mr 101,i am glad to hear that these schools are going to make big revenues from football.the parents are probably especially happy because maybe they will have to pay less tuition next year,but i doubt it.as to revenue from other than gate money. alumni associations, booster clubs,golf tournaments,corporate donations and the such are at a maximum now. you claim to be so smart and the rest of us so ignorant, then please tell us all the source of this new wealth. maybe the schools could sell the t.v. rights to espn

[chris hollywood]

football 101- i have upgraded your name because you were
a good boy and returned all of the toys. now, he has some
very good books for you. they will help with your reading
skills.

[get real]

Stats-Keep making my point ...If the $$ (raised from Cal state taxes or student/school fees etc) provided to public schools don't make it down to the athletic programs, how does a public school have the same opportunity to build sports programs as a private school? I have yet to see a public school alumni base donate $$ so that facilities like those at Rancho Santa Margarita are built for public school athletes...Public vs Private school competition debate exists throughout US and many private schools will invest whatever it costs to succeed in athletics as it begets more private $$ to build their school...They are in the business to make money and public schools are not...

[Celt Alum]

Is there a difference between what is happening at the highschool and college level for athletics? Both seem to be making the big time sports more professional than meant for student-athletes!

Here is an article that takes FACTS and looks at whether or not a succesful football or basketball team mean more donations from alumni:
http://www.nber.org/papers/w13937

If we used facts instead of assumptions here, we would see that while a few schools (almost all major Universities) are able to use their football teams to make a profit (only 20 Division 1 schools operate an athletic budget in the black), a majority hamper the growth of the University as a whole due to the money spent on major sports.

In reality, I believe that using normally accepted accounting principles, it is almost unheard of that a big-time spectator sport (like football or basketball) is a net financial benefit to any institution of education. Most are huge financial drains.

The belief (myth?) is that one can ignore normally accepted accounting principles because extramural philanthropy (mostly alumni donations) are difficult to trace to their donation-roots. This belief may be true. The data are missing.

[chris hollywood]

mr.football 000-you're pretty sure eric's salary has gone
up since he started covering high school football? you
think? you are brilliant! oh, i almost forgot- my son wants
All of his toys returned immediately.

[chris hollywood]

HEY FOOTBALL OOO- WHY DON'T YOU READ THE NAMES CORRECTLY
AFTER THE COMMENTS MR.FOOTBALL 000.YOUR BOY HERB HAD THE
COMMENT YOU ARE REFERRING TO. YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY IGNORANT
ON BASIC READING COMPREHENSION. MY SIX YEAR OLD SON
KNOWS MORE ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL INCOME THEN YOU COULD
POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND. FOR ALL FUTURE POSTS, PLEASE GO TO
NIK JR.COM. AND NO, MY SIX YEAR OLD DOES NOT HAVE THE TIME
TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU. YOU ARE TRULY FOOTBALL JR 000.

[Football101]

Chris hollywood, if you think a football program only brings in gate money then I am not going to explain it to you because your ignorance to a football program does not deserve my energy to explain it to you. Don't comment on football anymore because it obvious by your comments you have no clue......

[Stats]

Nice try get real... but you miss the point.

"In general, Public schools don't have the same opportunities to secure funds to build sports programs unless they luck into having an interested successful alumni base/boosters club..."

Public schools have MORE opportunites than privates! Our tax dollars provide the publics MORE $$ per student than privates, but it's used so unwisely they can't compete. You surely know that, which makes your statement hypocritical.

Maybe if you spent less time sleeping and more time thinking?

[chris hollywood]

football 101- your comments are not even close. i have
taught and coached for many years, never at that place.
i have children ranging in age from 6-32. i make more
in my sleep that this fool mack. your are missing the point.
let me guess, your another rocket scientist turned out
by the crespi hypocrites, i mean carmelites.

[herb nichols]

dear mr football101,how does high school football pay for its self if in a five game home schedule in a stadium that holds three thousand people at even ten dollars per ticket ?as to teachers being fired if the football program is not sucessful,why not just fire all of them and enter a pop warner league

[get real]

Hey Stats-get some sleep or learn how to read-you made the same point as I did that Public Schools don't have the same opportunity to get funds to build sports programs-you just chose to rant about the bureaucracy that plagues public schools/unions-the end result is that the $$ don't trickle down to benefit the public school student/athlete through no fault of his/her own-that doesn't make me a hypocrite-it makes you redundant...

[Stats]

Wow, it's hard to wade through all the hypocrisy...

hey get real... public schools don't have the same opportunities to secure funds? Really? I mean, really? Listen up...they get their money FOR FREE! They just choose to blow it on 50 layers of administration, tenured teachers who can't teach, early retirements, etc. And the successful ones don't "luck into it", they work very hard at it. Bitter much?

hey nubrontown... are you saying more 'afro-americans' DESERVE to be head coaches? Maybe so, maybe not. 'Afro-Amricans' represent 11% of the total US population, and a smaller percentage in Ventura, OC, LA. How many private/Catholic schools are there in these areas? Do your own research, ES don't work for you. And keep your racist BS to yourself, bitter much? "...too lazy to spell..." sounds about right for you.

hey HowAboutMaterDei?... MD's football and basketball programs are successful because they WIN. 20 section champs in 28 years for "FatBoy"...how many have you won? These guy's salaries are commensurate with the value they bring to their school; plus being that it's a private school, I don't see it's any of your business. Bitter much?

Bottom line stats... Private schools raise their own money, graduate 98% of their students, and almost universally produce the best athletics programs in the country.

LA public schools (for example) get billions of our tax dollars, graduate 44% of their students, (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-06-20-dropout-rates_x.htm#grad), give extravagant benefits to their employees while the students languish in squalid conditions, and then act like crybabies because they can't compete in sports.

hey hypocrites... don't talk the talk, if you can't walk the walk!

[Football101]

Sounds like sour grapes chris hollywood, I bet money you are a teacher, I would bet even more money that you are a teacher at Crespi. For your sake I hope Crespi does well because if they don't you are probably laid off by the end of the year. So If I were you I would ask to work the games Friday nights to see if you need to start looking for a job. If you are teacher you better be a professional at your job because I know that most of these coaches take the professional approach to their job.

[chris hollywood]

the crespi administration led by fr. paul, fr. tom, and
WILBUR GREGORY CORNELL bring in MO MONEY MACK and call him
a full time employee because he teaches the all important
weight lifting class. the 150 grand that they pay this guy
eliminates masters degree holding teachers at crespi. this
is very sad for the parents who pay the inflated tuition
to the carmelites. another pathetic effort by a pathetic
so called school.

[edfundwonk]

If you think HS football coaches are overpaid, take a look at college football coaches. At UC Berkeley, for example, the head coach makes over $1 million.

[HowAboutMaterDei?]

How about Brucie and FatBoy (McNuts) at the Dei? How can you teach humility with that kind of payday?

Glad to see Amat can't afford that stuff. Doesn't the Archdiocese supervise these people? That kind of money in these times (or any Times at all) is out of control.

I wouldn't want to make that kind of money at a school. The admonistration would figure they owned my rear. Ouch.

[nubrontown]

Just too lazy to spell, African American. Chris am I wrong, why the retreads all the time.

[chris hollywood]

hey football 101- you need to be careful what YOU write.
of course Eric's salary keeps going up. he's a pro.

hey nebrontown- what is an afro american?

i attended jonny mack's hiring press conference. it cracked
me up when he said he prayed for several days to make his
$150,000.00 decision. if the salvation army offered $151,000
how many days of prayer? jonny, try the lecture circuit.
you'd get even more laughs. you go winless in league.
GUARANTEED!

[nubrontown]

ES the one thing that bothers me about this story is not the amount of money the coaches at these places make but who they hire. It was pretty discouraging that out of all of the schools that you mentioned, that not one afro-american person has landed one of these elite jobs. Can you look at all the private and catholic football head coaches and please let me know how many afro-american head coaches are at these elite places. One thing for sure each one of these programe have a afro-american on staff bringing the kids in or being the NEIGHBORHOOD liaison and he/she is not being paid six figures. I'm even shocked at Gardena Serra and I do't know how much money is shelled out there. Let's take a hard look at this!!!!
If I'm not mistaken there are only two afro-american head coaches at a private/catholic school in Ventura,OC and LA County. Can you please do some research.

[Football101]

Let's remember one thing Mr. Sondheimer where would you be if High School Football wasn't as popular as it is now? Private schools make it more popular than public schools in general. Also I am sure the Football program pays for itself and then some at the end of the day, so if you cut football then you cut the school's budget in the classroom as well, and I am pretty sure your salary as gone up since you started covering high school football, so be careful what you write.

[get real]

makes sense given private school business model...Successful sports programs (especially football/basketball) bring in good PR, alumni donations, increased number of applications/student body, sponsorships by athletic companies and local business-everyone wants to be associated with a winner...In general, Public schools don't have the same opportunities to secure funds to build sports programs unless they luck into having an interested successful alumni base/boosters club...