Florida high school coaches deserve a raise, but is the proposed plan financially possible?

Do high school coaches in Florida need and deserve a raise?

Of course.

Is the Florida Coaches Coalition’s plan of paying coaches $15 an hour for a minimum number of hours worked financially feasible for school districts?

Well ….

"I'm all for it," said Shelton Crews, executive director of the Florida Athletic Coaches Assocation. "We're losing coaches every day to the state of Georgia because they pay better. We’re losing them to South Carolina. One just left and went to Texas. We’re losing them to other states because of supplemented pay.

"On the other side of it, me being a director that has to meet budgets and things like that, I've always been told, 'The pie is only so big." and it's got to come from somewhere. Where’s it going to come from? I'm for it big time but that’s the part I don't know if it can happen."

Head coaches in the state's five biggest school districts — Broward, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach — would receive a pay increase of at least 310 percent. Some would receive more than a 1,000 percent pay raise, depending on what sport they coach.

“That’s a lot,” said Ed Geiger, the county athletic director in Martin County. “That’s a huge weight for a lot of school districts, even our school district. I would love to pay those coaches that much, but the funds aren’t available to do that.

“I’m not exactly sure where the money would come from.”

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The Florida Coaches Coalition is working with state Rep. Adam Anderson, R-Palm Harbor, on a bill that could see high school coaches paid $15 per hour for a minimum number of hours.

Football head coaches would be required to work a minimum of 1,500 hours a year, which would mean a $22,500 stipend. Baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, and volleyball head coaches must work 1,000 hours a year for a $15,000 stipend. Head coaches in other sports, as well as football assistant coaches, would be required to work a minimum of 750 hours, which would be an $11,250 stipend. Football assistant coaches would also be paid $15 for a minimum amount of hours.

Currently, each county determines its coaching stipends. So, a bowling head coach in Miami-Dade currently makes $1,955 per season while Orange County pays just $941 for the same position. Under the Florida Coaches Coalition proposal, a bowling head coach would be paid $11,250 regardless of where they work.

“Look, I hope it happens,” said Lee County athletic director Dave LaRosa. “Not only is it discussed, but coaches are leaving Florida. If we don’t start paying these guys, the good ones are going to get out and they’re going to go elsewhere. The group that suffers from this is the kids. I'm all about it. They're so underpaid, it's ridiculous."

Coaches are leaving Florida for more money

Several coaches, most notably in football, have left Florida for other states in the past few years where they’re receiving a much bigger payday and, often, fewer responsibilities beyond the sport.

In the past 12 months, state champion football coaches Eric Lodge (Sanford-Seminole) and Travis Roland (Mainland) have left for jobs in South Carolina and Georgia, respectively. Aaron Sheppard led Ocoee’s football team to its first Final Four appearance and took eventual state champion Columbus to the brink of a major upset in the 2022 state semifinals, then got "more than double" to become an assistant coach in Georgia.

According to a 2018 First Coast News report, 36 high school football coaches in Georgia were making more than $100,000. No public school coach in Florida is making six figures. A head football coach in Broward County barely tops $3,000 annually.

“I do believe coaches need to have a raise to be competitive with the other states around us,” said St. Lucie County lead athletic director Pete Crespo. “I hear it all the time. Good coaches are going to Georgia regularly, especially in football. The FHSAA just raised the salary for the officials for next year. They upped the minimum. Officials have gotten two raises in five years. When is that going to happen for the coaches? You’ve got inflation and cost of living. Georgia makes a nice salary in all sports as opposed to Florida. It would be nice, as a former coach, to get a raise.”

Jim Howell, athletic director at John I. Leonard, said coaching stipends in Palm Beach County are only about $1,500 to $2,000 more than they were 30 years ago. Vero Beach athletic director Lenny Jankowski said coaching stipends in Indian River County have not changed in the past 30 years.

Inflation in the past 30 years is 109.4 percent, which means stipends should be more than doubled over that time just to keep up.

“Personally, I feel like (it is) way overdue,” Howell said. “I’m really not sure if it is feasible or not but it would definitely help with the coaching shortage we are experiencing throughout the state.”

Who pays and where will the money come from?

Florida Coaches Coalition executive director Andrew Ramjit said each school district would be responsible funding the proposed pay increase.

That’s where things get murky.

Broward County, which is one of the lowest paying counties in terms of coaching stipends, would end up paying its head coaches in primary sports more than $6.95 million each year. Right now, that number is $1.1267 million.

That’s a 517% increase. Bowling coaches in Orange County are in line for a massive pay raise – more than 1,095 percent more than they’re currently making per season.

“If that was going to pass, you could lose some of the minor sports to be able to keep the major sports,” one athletic director said on the condition of anonymity. “That is concerning, to put all the weight on the (school) district. It will affect teacher salaries if they put the burden on the county. It hurts the other chances for raises for other teachers, secretaries, maintenance, everybody, because they have to fund athletics. It’s a give and take.”

Nothing will change this year. Ramjit is hoping to have a bill before the state legislature in 2025.

He said members of the state legislature he met with in January were shocked at how little coaches in Florida are paid. He also conceded that he expects opposition for teachers unions, who will want to see teachers receive a raise before coaches.

"I think anything’s possible,” LaRosa said. “It’s what’s important to you."

Ben Grieco, Dustin Levy and Emilee Smarr contributed to this report.