Why high school coaches burn out

So you think coaching in college is hard? Or the WNBA, with all the travel and egos?

Well, here's a news flash: High school coaching, which is the least financially rewarding and brings with it not only pressure to win, but pressure to keep parents and players happy, might just be tougher. Recently, I switched from a small private school to a larger public school, and here is my list of tasks -- which, by the way, I had to make up myself because no one has the time, or institutional memory, to do it for me (or any other new coach).

Take a deep breath ...

• Fundraising: Bird gotta fly, fish gotta swim, programs gotta have money -- and the school districts aren't handing it out. In fact, in California (as in several other states), families have to pay to participate in sports at public schools. The extra fees might amount to as much $150 per team per child, which can add up in a hurry if there are multiple athletes in multiple sports.

  New uniforms? The school district booster club might pay half. Tournament entry fees? You're on your own -- and this is not a trivial amount. The Nike TOC charges $450 for three games; local tournaments may be cheaper, but even sending the freshmen to a tournament will cost $300 or so. If the varsity plays in two tournaments, the junior varsity in one and the frosh in another, that's a quick $1,500.

  Sometimes, the supply of basketballs is ample, but sometimes not -- and they don't come cheap. If you want every girl to have a ball for ballhandling drills, you might have to buy $700 or $800 worth of new basketballs, and of course old ones need to be replaced.

  There are also families that might not be able to afford the travel costs, or summer program fees, and it's nice to have something tucked away to help them out. In short, you need to generate several thousand dollars a year, and you have to figure out how to do that.

  The problem with bake sales and such is that they might net a couple hundred bucks, and you'd have to 20 or 30 to generate the right amount of money. Hosting a tournament can produce a thousand dollars, or maybe two, but that requires a full complement of volunteers for three long days -- and that demands a lot from busy families.

  Car washes? Sure, and done right, they can put $1,000 in the bank account. Golf tournaments? Great stuff. But someone has to come up with ideas, organize the event from start to finish and make sure all the money is accounted for. Who's responsible? The coach.

  Of course, there are some states awash in money, and fundraising isn't nearly the priority it is in California and other states. But no school district is going to do it all.

• Uniforms: Kids like to look good, and some coaches do too. (I'm not one of them; we could play in blue and white reversibles, and I could wear jeans and a t-shirt, and I'd be happy.) At my new school, uniforms are a big deal: They have three tops, two shorts and two pairs of shoes, which they mix and match as desired. Of course, they have shooting shirts, and warmups, and bags.

  My eyes glaze over after 15 minutes' discussion of uniforms, and I always try to lay the task off on someone else -- but the ulimate responsibility lies with the coach, and that responsibility includes ordering uniforms, getting purchase orders, tracking the uniforms and getting them returned at season's end. The paperwork, in short, is substantial.

• Transportation: You get a bus, you go to the game -- what could be simpler?

  Wrong. In California, most school districts supply buses on a limited basis, if at all. And if a team travels to a tournament, vans must be rented. Even if the district supplies the buses, forms must be filled out and filed, and there are always last-minute hassles.

  And what if the seniors want to drive? It makes sense, because if all three teams take the same bus, then the kids are stuck for seven or eight hours in a gym or on a bus, which is not ideal for studying. If parents want to take their kids home, some districts require forms to be filled out -- and if they want to take their next-door neighbor home as well, not only do those parents have to have forms on file, the parents of the kid getting the right have to file a form saying it's OK.

  This isn't rocket science, but it's a ton of paperwork, and someone has to do it. If it doesn't get done, who's to blame? The coach.

• Home game management: Somebody has to run the clock. Somebody has to keep score. Somebody has to sell tickets. Somebody has to sell Cokes. Somebody has to announce.

  All these somebodies just don't drop from heaven like manna -- they must be found, organized and scheduled. Some school districts will take care of all of this; some districts will handle it for league games; some leave it all up to, you guessed it, the coach.

  And you know, if you don't have someone to run the clock, you don't have a game.

• Officials: It's no accident that officials show up when there's a game, but scheduling those officials is yet another task that must be taken care of. And schedules change, refs are held up in traffic, and if a season goes by without a mistake at one of the games involving one of the three teams, it's a very lucky one.
• Statistics: Stats are a tremendously valuable tool for a coach, and the players, but there's no dedicated crew of paid professionals to handle the chore, which is the case in the WNBA and college. Most often, parents are handed clipboards and told to try and keep track of what goes on -- after the game, the coach assembles the data into some kind of manageable format.

  If a coach is really lucky, a couple of parents love stats, and use a software program to deliver high-quality statistics that can be loaded onto MaxPreps (a national web site that keeps track of many high school sports, including win-loss records and statistics).

• Media: Those box scores aren't communicated to the local paper telepathically. Someone has to call them in, and that's usually the coach. It can take 15 to 20 minutes per call, and in our area, there are three papers to call.

  There's also the preseason preview and, depending on the area, phone calls during the season. If you're the coach of a national level team, you'll get harassed by people like me to find out how things went in your games last week.

• College coaches: Probably about half the teams have a girl who will play at some level in college, and she will need help in figuring out what she needs to do to play past high school. This will involve communication with college coaches, and in the case of elite players, a lot of communication.
• Postseason paperwork: In California, qualifying for postseason usually involves going to a meeting, handing in a pile of paperwork and convincing a committee you deserve to keep playing. Screw up the paperwork and your team is disqualified -- and if the paperwork is screwed up, you know who's fault it is.
• Dealing with the school administration: Sometimes this is a breeze; sometimes it's a major hassle. Some administrators like sports, and like winning teams; others would just as soon not be bothered. A nice .500 record, no postseason and no extra duties for administrators suits this group just fine.

  But you also have to keep track of eligibility and transfer paperwork or else all of a sudden a lot of wins turn into losses. And if there's a problem, the coach will take the fall, not the administrators.

• Scouting: We're getting close to actual basketball now, as it's vital to assemble schedules from other teams on your schedule (MaxPreps makes this much easier), arrange to see a game or two in person, or send a volunteer out there with a camera.

  After that, though, the scouting report must be written, copied and disseminated to all who need to see it. This is a major task, and very time-consuming, but no successful high school program can afford not to scout. What if the team favors a junk defense? What if its star guard is righthanded but wants to go left? By the time you figure it out after the game starts, you could be down 10 and never get back into it.

• Offseason programs: The basketball season may appear to start in November and end in March, but everyone knows it really goes year-round. In some states, high school coaches aren't allowed contact with their players in the offseason, but that's slowly fading -- and even if it isn't, the coach still must make sure the players are preparing themselves in the offseason.

  There are high school teams that play in spring leagues, summer leagues and fall leagues, and play tournaments on a regular basis. They may play as many as 100 games (though that's rare) and usually the coach is involved in most of them.

• Scheduling: Depending on how many games are locked into a league schedule, this can be easy or hard. This year, for example, I have to schedule 12 games -- the league supplies the other 14. Of course, I also have to schedule for the frosh and junior varsity, and if the varsity's in a tournament, then the frosh and JVs need to be too.

  Scheduling is also a complex operation. You don't want to overschedule and turn the preseason into a long march of ugly losses, but you also don't want to win by 35 every time out and be totally unprepared for the competition in league. Filling in the dates with the right opponents is a calendric puzzle that can make or break a season.

I think that's it -- except of course for dealing with parents, keeping players happy and cutting young athletes who want nothing more than to play the game. Oh, and then there's that practice thing, and putting in a system, and coaching during games.

If you're lucky, you'll have a little time left for those too.