2021 Coaching Carousel

[jerseyjames]

Apparently Messiah offered their top candidate and got turned down, I think they are now moving on to some plan B options...

Gettysburg has in person interviews this week, apparently 4 finalists will be interviewed. All very good options and I would assume means they would have someone in place by early/midweek next week.

Ive heard this may have been a certain little green spartan, who also may be in play for Gburg...

[WhiteCarrera]

Some interesting dynamics going on with the committee at G-burg. It may not be as warm and fuzzy as some are making it sound.

[River Donkey]

I guess like others, everyone is bending over backwards for a minority hire.

[SouthernLaxGenius]

I guess like others, everyone is bending over backwards for a minority hire.

Based on the applicant pools for the majority of these jobs (from what I have been told), I dont believe that is a fair/true assessment/statement

Although Gettysburg and Bowdoin are the ones I have yet to hear a ton on

[VTLaxGuy]

Have heard from a few people in athletic departments at D3 schools hiring coaches this summer (in all sports not just lacrosse) and there seems to be a big gap for a lot of schools between the internally agreed upon salary for a given job, and the post COVID cost of living / housing market.

Salaries are not reflecting the new trend of extremely high housing costs in many parts of the country. Offers are being made but in a lot of cases the salary is nowhere close to enough to get an established coach to move; especially given the state of the housing markets in communities surrounding a lot of the openings.

Expect to see a lot of internal promotions this year, or young unattached (no family) guys being hired.

[Muleski]

Have heard from a few people in athletic departments at D3 schools hiring coaches this summer (in all sports not just lacrosse) and there seems to be a big gap for a lot of schools between the internally agreed upon salary for a given job, and the post COVID cost of living / housing market.

Salaries are not reflecting the new trend of extremely high housing costs in many parts of the country. Offers are being made but in a lot of cases the salary is nowhere close to enough to get an established coach to move; especially given the state of the housing markets in communities surrounding a lot of the openings.

Expect to see a lot of internal promotions this year, or young unattached (no family) guys being hired.

This is spot on. I have served on two NESCAC boards, and chaired both of their respective Committee on Athletics. In the past two years I have chaired two coach search committees. One just before COVID, and the housing explosion. One recently, in the thick of it. In addition we have two mid thirties kids who are both coaches and in the middle of it.

Here are some actual facts. In the pre-COVID search, we were looking for the best college coach in his respective sport {not Lacrosse} and were willing to make our top candidate the highest paid college coach in the sport. We accomplished that, but in the NESCAC world that was not easy. The HC's hold faculty rank, and therefore they actually work for the top academic officer, the Provost. The coach reports to the AD, who in many NESCAC schools do not even report to the president. But, the negotiation runs through the academic side. Screwy. The same at some Ivies. One of the hangups was a performance bonus. I heard "none of our faculty are eligible for performance bonuses." You can imagine my response. All worked out....but the KEY selling point was what this coach was going to be able to buy for a house, using the same relative money where he was selling. The "upgrade" in house, in a nice college town was pretty compelling. Great house, beautiful setting, nice pool, twice as much SF. Walk to his office on campus if he felt like it. So I checked in with him the other day and we were catching up. His neighbor's home, which is NOT as nice a his , or close, just went under contract in ONE day, for roughy 50% more than the coach paid for his.

The search that I'm involved in now {again not lacrosse} is really getting hung up on the cost of living, the lean inventory and need to made an immediate decision to buy. Also a tendency to accept cash offers....which no coach can do. Our top three candidates all want the job. We have broken every internal rule and every benchmark for pay. The new coach will earn about 35% more than the top of the band initially set for the job. We had to. We were simply getting no great candidates. But now, we're doing this real estate dance. It is very depressing. Even with these rock bottom near negative interest rates, the price of houses A, B and C is demoralizing. The only coach for whom it works is one who bought in a very hot area 10 years ago and has traded up twice. He is in a panic that if he ever wants to go back, he's screwed. If there was decent inventory to rent, he and family would probably rent for a year or two and keep their current home in that market, renting it out.

One of my kids was VERY lucky to buy a three family right out of college, then to refinance that and buy his house six years ago. His house needed a lot of work, and he can and did do most of it. It's worth easily three times what he paid for it. He is top national level winter sport coach, and the are having an impossible time hiring staff where he is. They are very choosy and pay exceptionally well. But, they are in location where the cost to buy is past most of them, if they are not in the game. $100K coaches and $1Mil houses are a tough equation. Plus NO inventory. None. Our son could more than double the rent on his three family, but he refuses to do it.

Our daughter is also in the water sports business, in a very expensive town in CO. She just won the lottery to buy a heavily subsidized county housing condo. She also found a new roommate for her current apartment and roomie. Her half of that apartment is $1400/mo. The condo next-door door just leased for $5k/mo. The one next door had over 100 inquiries and over 50 people paying to submit applications. She is in leadership in her job, and is very well paid. They have had to completely overhaul the pay scales for coaches and have embarked on enormous found raising to do so. They have coaches turning down offers at MORE than twice what people in the slots were paid three years ago. Housing.

ALL of these situations are driven by housing. It's a huge issue. That, coupled with so many colleges that have no resources or creativity to come up with a solution. The net result.....a lot fewer people going into coaching. Our kids know many who might have gone into coaching, and they can't face the prospects of the income. My son's college roommate is an investment banker in NYC. HATES it, but loves the money and is trying to save every dime he can. The escape plan.

My son is literally the only one of his group who can afford to coach, and have a life. It's an unusual situation for him.

BTW, in my recent 15 years of experience, I find parents to be CLUELESS on this. They're paying $78K, and they assume that every body else on campus is floating in money. What do you mean this is hard for coaches?

My son met a dad for breakfast last week. Son drives a 20 year old Tacoma truck with 300K miles. Dad shows up in a brand new $450K Ferrari. "I just always wanted one........"

Rich white kids sports. Not for the coaches. It's a real problem.

My pick of available jobs is D3 Bowdoin. Great location. Tremendous school. Huge endowment. BIG desire to once again be relevant in all NESCAC sports, and that job will pay very, very, well in a beautiful relatively low lost area. On the Maine coast. The equation can work there. Unusual.

[EasyRider]

This was a thoughtful, informative read, Muleski

[River Donkey]

Thank you for the insight. I agree on all of your points and have experienced the same myself. The cost of housing has eliminated many jobs from even being considered. It’s at a point where the only jobs where you can afford to live are at rural schools. You made a great point about the parents paying 78k tuition and have no idea that the person their child will be spending the majority of their time with on campus is living in borderline poverty. I find it amazing that coaching a college sport is probably the only career which calls for advanced degrees only to be paid minimum wage in some cases.

[Muleski]

It's very painful for me to hear young coaches tell me that "I LOVE what I do. I work as hard as possible. I know that I make a big difference in people's lives. I just DO NOT see how I can continue." I hear young coaches tell me that they really can't afford to get married, and have a very modest wedding. Can't begin to see the path to own a home. And the saddest for me is when they say that they doubt if they will ever be able to afford to have a family....."

It sucks. It's broken. Meanwhile one of my neighbors was recently fired as the new CEO at a big public company. He has been there 18 months, and evidently his board felt that he was not close to getting it done. So they let him go. He'll be OK. His severance package, based on the current stock price is something like $60 Million. For sucking and being greedy.

I'm proud of my kids in so many ways. The thought of my son being miserable in a job solely because of the paycheck and avoiding poverty is really troubling. I was a NESCAC student athlete, as was my wife, 45 years ago. I think back and I knew almost all of our coaches. Nobody seemed to be in poverty. They all owned homes, with some owning summer cottages. Most were married with kids. It seems lightyears ago, now.

[Switzerland]

I’m not sure where people fell under I this illusion about D3 coaches making so kind much… Yes, some are very well paid, considering their peers, but very few are in the upper 5-figures on base salary alone. Many people would be shocked at how many coaches are putting in 50, 60, 70 hour weeks, depending on the time of year, for 50k. Ad a sidebar, I think Bowdoin could be a very enticing job, but I don’t think the administration wants to be the in the top of D3 across the board in all sports.

[WhiteCarrera]

Muleski - good insight, but I’m curious about the relative real estate markets you’re comparing. I understand the effect the current market is having on home prices, but doesn’t a rising tide raise all ships? Why would a new hire be punished by purchasing prices any more than he benefits from the home he’s selling? How much of what you’re seeing is because of housing markets, and how much of it is simply because of differences in communities?

Also I think most D3 schools can be put into two groups: ones that treat coaches like faculty, and ones that treat them like staff. Salary and benefits structure can be drastically different between the two.

[KingPrat]

Many people would be shocked at how many coaches are putting in 50, 60, 70 hour weeks, depending on the time of year, for 50k.

I think there's three sides to this - There are people who don't understand college sports still asking if coaching is a full-time job. Then you have people who are familiar with college that glorify the positions thinking coaches are being paid VERY well (there was a comment above that said they doubted coaches still made $20k - they do, and it's a lot more than you think).

Then you have people who know.

I think this is an odd year where there are a lot of jobs open at schools that may be struggling a bit financially, or at the very least, trying to recover from the affects of the pandemic. Bowdoin, Gettysburg, etc are likely projecting they'll recover/are more than fine, but then you have jobs like Cazenovia where the school has been struggling financially for years (or at least what I've heard - endowment dropped from $30M to $4M in the course of 2015-2017). Luckily for the new hire there, the housing market isn't too wild in CNY and you can get a respectable house for under $200k.

The other thing that I think is a factor in what Muleski was discussing is that I believe, from personal experience, that the role of the college head coach has expanded well beyond what it used to be. There is obviously a lot of responsibility in being an HC, but the demands on coaching have increased much at a much faster rate than the pay. There is a serious consideration of whether or not it's worth the immense stress and 24/7 on-call lifestyle for what coaches are paid. I have a feeling that experienced coaches are beginning to recognize these factors, and when they don't receive an offer they think is fair, they go to the private sector to ensure they're being paid their worth. Unfortunately I think we're going to see a mass exodus from the coaching ranks in the next couple years, especially at schools that aren't in the upper echelon.

[LI_Lax14]

If the Amherst HC postion is indeed open per rumors....I would put it at the top with G'burg and Denison as top flight job. Despite all the distractions the past two years this is a team that last played in the National Championship.

[boredatwork]

Apparently Messiah offered their top candidate and got turned down, I think they are now moving on to some plan B options...

Gettysburg has in person interviews this week, apparently 4 finalists will be interviewed. All very good options and I would assume means they would have someone in place by early/midweek next week.

Ive heard this may have been a certain little green spartan, who also may be in play for Gburg...

If that's a Brandon Childs reference then we have heard different things...

[WhiteCarrera]

Yes, Amherst could be a big time job, but calling the last two years "distractions" is being overly kind. What you have is an administration that has completely bungled the situation, and that makes it a lot less attractive to established, quality coaches. We've all ended up working for clowns along the way, but it's not often we knew they were clowns before we took the job.

[EasyRider]

Monmouth (IL) head coaching position is open. Coach Klaiber leaving to coach at Aquinas NAIA.

[SouthernLaxGenius]

Monmouth (IL) head coaching position is open. Coach Klaiber leaving to coach at Aquinas NAIA.

Good luck to Coach Klaiber.

He definitely had the Fighting Scots going in the right direction.

Not saying this is the reason he left, but a number of these NAIA jobs are paying more than Division III gigs. That plus athletic scholarship money and housing/living can be enticing, especially for a younger coach.

[InsiderRoll]

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ason/58113

[Doxology]

Alvernia
Amherst
Bowdoin
Carroll (WI)
Cazenovia
Concordia Chicago
Denison
Drew
Gettysburg
Guilford
Heidelberg
Keystone
Manhattanville
McDaniel
Medaille
Messiah
Monmouth (IL)
Plattsburgh
W&J
William Peace
Wilmington (OH)

[LacrosseFan33]

Monmouth (IL) head coaching position is open. Coach Klaiber leaving to coach at Aquinas NAIA.

Good luck to Coach Klaiber.

He definitely had the Fighting Scots going in the right direction.

Not saying this is the reason he left, but a number of these NAIA jobs are paying more than Division III gigs. That plus athletic scholarship money and housing/living can be enticing, especially for a younger coach.

Could also be that Monmouth is in the middle of nowhere and Aquinas is a couple minutes outside of downtown Grand Rapids. I would think as a young guy that could be a big factor.