Texas high schools are losing thousands of coaches. How some are tackling the crisis.

Coaches are leaving Texas high schools at a rate of about 6,000 per year.

With the state’s population of nearly 30 million and counting, that number may not look that bad, but ...

“We are at a crisis point,” said Joe Martin, the executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association. “That 6,000 (obtained from the Texas Education Agency) was from 2017. We know now those numbers are even bigger today.

“The pandemic is going to push this even bigger because of the struggles all coaches and teachers are facing. We think the attrition rate is closer to 20 percent.”

This is not just a Texas high school football problem. This is not just a Texas high school problem. This is not just a Texas education problem.

This is a Texas problem.

The last thing our schools need is one more reason to lose a teacher or coach who wants to teach and coach.

Texas remains one of the few states where coaches must have a teacher’s certificate, a detail that is not about to change even if it’s more of a deterrent now more than ever.

Martin and assistant executive director Glen West, both longtime Texas high school football coaches, are starting a mentoring program for young coaches across all sports. They have found co-sponsors of the program in the Dallas Cowboys and the College Football Playoff.

But these guys need parents as much as anything else to help, too. All of us need these people.

The aim is for veteran high school coaches to be there, and available, for young people who are entering a profession that is increasingly vulnerable to posting jobs that go unfulfilled.

“We saw this coming a few years ago and it’s worse than we expected,” West said. “We have to try to give them the tools to get through this.”

Why coaches are leaving Texas high schools

There is not just one reason why a 27-year-old leaves the teaching and coaching profession, but West has a good idea of the big one.

“The student loan debt these teachers have now when they graduate from college is just so much greater than it’s ever been,” West said. “They can’t make (the money) back fast enough, so they leave the profession.”

The Federal Reserve estimated that in 2020 Americans carried a total $1.77 trillion in student loan debt. The student loan debt has increased by 100 percent in the last decade.

According to the Texas Education Agency, the average teacher salary in ‘19-’20 was $57,091. Depending on various factors, a first year teacher/coach may make around $35K.

Martin estimates one of the growing problems is if a college student changes their degree choice late, there is a good chance they will not have earned their teacher’s certificate by the time they graduate from college.

There is a way “around” this, but it’s more of a long cut than a short cut.

An aspiring teacher/coach can earn their certificate through alternative certification programs (ACP’s); it allows the person to teach and coach while they complete the requirements for a full-fledged teacher’s certificate.

“It’s the easier way to get into the profession,” West said, “and it’s the harder way to stay in the profession.”

Such a route previously was an emergency path, but Martin says he thinks it’s now the norm.

“The workload gets to be too much,” Martin said. “You’re in the classroom teaching. You’re coaching. You have to get the certification so you can be a master teacher. You have 19 bosses pulling at you and it would get to be too much for anybody.

“And if they have a young family, it’s a lot. So they leave.”

What Martin hopes is that with a mentoring program a coach will someone to call and talk to about the job, and learn how to manage the hours.

Neither Martin nor West believe Texas should amend its requirements for coaches and that they no longer require a teacher’s certificate to coach.

West firmly believes what sets Texas coaches apart is that they are in the class room, and the hallways, with the kids.

Texas coaches need parents

The once unspoken unification between a parent and teacher has increasingly turned adversarial. The parent previously often aligned with the teacher when it came to the kid, whereas today it’s the kid/parent versus the teacher.

“The pressure in the classroom is greater than it’s ever been,” Martin said.

There are umpteen examples of parents suing a school over their kids’ grades. The internet is full of viral anecdotes of parents crossing the lines at sporting events, mistreating the coaches and the officials.

There is no way to quantify if the “Bad Mom” or “Bad Dad” is a reason why teachers are fleeing the profession. There is also no way to deny that when factored in with the other stressors, a “Bad Mom” or “Bad Dad” is not helping.

“Without a doubt that plays into it. We are fooling ourselves if we think it doesn’t,” West said. “In this program this is something we want to address; how do you deal with the upset parent?

“That’s a reason we want a younger coach to have an older mentor, someone who has done this before.”

Martin and West have designed a pilot program to help a problem that is hardly specific to Texas high school football.

This is a Texas problem, and all of these coaches and teachers need our help before they leave.