Stipend hike for coaches before board

By JEFF CASPERSEN/The Daily Journal

Wrestling Xs and Os is just a small part of a high school coach’s job, which is why coaches at Ukiah High School are calling for bigger stipends.

Their long-awaited payday may come at Tuesday’s school board meeting when members will choose whether or not to adopt a salary schedule akin to that used by Santa Rosa City Schools. At the moment, SRCS coaches pull in roughly double the average stipend of $1,500 that Ukiah coaches fetch.

By all accounts, the proposal on the table would bring the Ukiah Unified School District up to par with Santa Rosa, which is all local coaches want.

“What this would do is basically double what a beginning coach gets paid now,” UHS Athletic Director Dennis Busse said. “It’d bring us more in alignment with what coaches in Santa Rosa are paid. All we’re asking for is parity.”

Busse, also the school’s head baseball coach, pointed out — as did several of his colleagues — that Ukiah is the geographic outcast of the North Bay League, which outside of UHS includes all Sonoma County schools. That means Ukiah coaches are consistently making longer treks to road games, adding to an already bloated schedule.

“We end up spending roughly three or four hours on a bus, with all the travel we have compared to the Santa Rosa schools,” said Busse. “We don’t get back until late and we have to make sure all the kids are picked up. It makes for long day.”

Any coach will be quick to note that his/her job extends far beyond the field or court. Whether they’re scouting, game planning, managing players or dealing with parents, there’s always plenty on a coach’s plate.

“In season, you’re probably putting in a minimum of 30 hours a week,” said UHS Physical Education teacher and Mendocino College volleyball coach Ed Schweitzer. “That’s on top of your regular job.”

Schweitzer coached at Ukiah High before accepting the college volleyball job year in the late 1990s. He was on staff when coaching stipends were cut back in 1991. Promises of future restoration were made at the time, but 15 years have passed and coaches have yet to see their stipends return to their previous levels.

Coaching salaries were based on a percentage of a starting teacher’s salary, but since the cuts, checks have been cut in fixed amounts. If the board approves anything close to percentages used pre-1991, the average coaches’ pay would roughly double.

UHS coaches have been vociferous on the need to up their compensation for some time now. A coaches group was formed more than a year ago, with its chief aim to secure better pay.

“We formed the coaches group and word got out we might do something drastic and now they (the board) reacted,” said UHS head football coach Chris Burris. “We’ve been told so much was going to happen and it never does.”

Burris and others noted they’ve received “lip service” and “runaround” responses when bringing up the issue of pay. That prompted research on what other schools — particularly those in Sonoma County — pay and the regular meetings. Matters took a somewhat dramatic turn last month when several coaches showed up at last month’s board meeting to plead their case. Rumors of a walkout even surfaced in the community.

“No one’s making any money,” said UHS volleyball coach Ori Polkinghorne. “No one expects to, but it shouldn’t cost you money.”

By the time you add up expenses for travel, scouting and attending coaching clinics, most coaches end up with nothing to take to the bank at the end of the season, despite the insane number of hours most coaches can claim.

“In my 10 years coaching, I don’t think I’ve banked a penny,” said Busse, who also noted that, since almost no assistant coaches get paid, a lot of head coaches will share their stipend with their volunteer staff at season’s end.

“This money would go to make the programs better,” Busse added. “This money would not go for coaches’ personal gain.”

Administration support has been strong, with UUSD Superintendent Ray Chadwick fully endorsing the pay hike. He’s proposing a phasing in the new pay structure over the next two or three years.

“A great deal of energy was spent in a year-long review of the athletic program (last year),” said Chadwick. “One of the recommendations from that was to look for ways to raise coaching stipends.”

Both Chadwick and Busse agree that better pay would help attract a better class of coaches and limit turnover. With several aging coaches currently on staff, UHS may soon have some head coaching vacancies to address.

“You can’t constantly have turnover,” noted Busse, who would also like to see more teachers who are willing to coach hired by the school district. “The most successful programs have long-term coaches entrenched in programs. If you look at other programs where there’s a lot of turnover, you don’t see the same success. It’s important to have that continuity. It’s important to have on-campus coaches. They’re a fixture that the kids can go to. On-campus coaches do so much that the public never sees.”

The ball is now in the board’s court. The consensus seems to be that something needs to be done for district coaches. Finding the funding and putting the words into action are all that remains.

“Nobody’s going to get rich coaching, no matter what the stipend,” said Chadwick.
Longtime UHS swim coach Lee Panttaja, addressing the board at a meeting last month, said it best.

“I coach pretty much for free, ‘cause I love doing it.”

Contact Jeff Caspersen at udjsports@pacific.net.

Current UUSD Coaching Rates
Class I $800
Class II $1,000
Class III $1,200
Class IV $1,400
Class V $1,600
Class VI $1,800
Class VII $2,000
Class VIII $2,200

UUSD Coaching Position Classifications
Class VIII
Athletic Director (2)
Athletic Trainer
Head Varsity Football

Class VII
Varsity Basketball — Boys
Varsity Basketball — Girls
Varsity Wrestling

Class VI
Varsity Softball
Varsity Cheerleading
Varsity Soccer — Boys
Varsity Soccer — Girls
Varsity Swimming
Varsity Track — Boys
Varsity Track — Girls
Varsity Volleyball

Class V
Assistant Varsity Football (2)
Head J.V. Football

Class IV
J.V. Baseball
J.V. Softball
J.V. Basketball — Boys
J.V. Basketball — Girls
Cross Country — Boys
Cross Country — Girls
Assistant J.V. Football
Head Frosh Football
Golf — Boys
Golf — Girls
J.V. Soccer — Boys
J.V. Soccer — Girls
Assistant Varsity Swimming
Tennis — Boys
Tennis — Girls
Assistant Varsity Track
J.V. Volleyball
J.V. Wrestling
J.V. Cheerleading

Class III
Frosh Baseball
Frosh Softball
Frosh Basketball — Boys
Frosh Basketball — Girls
Assistant Frosh Football
J.V. Swimming

Class I
All Middle School coaching positions